IWM Aero Engines

[Skipman]

IWM Aero Engines (21.10)

Object description

Four subjects: all on production of aircraft or aero engines, principally by women workers on the British Home Front, 1918.
Full description

I. "Aero Engines" - women assembly workers operating various kinds of precision lathes and equipment in the manufacture of engines, ending with men testing a rotary engine, possibly a Le Rhöne made under licence, on a testbed. II. "Aeroplanes - Flying Scouts" - women making the basic frame fuselage for Sopwith Camels at a Huntingdon workshop in early 1918, using large frame formers, then covering the frames with fabric, doping and painting. III. "Engines" - a badly undercranked film of women performing precision work on specialist machines, including the use of high-quality optical equipment, and "lady draughtsmen" under training. IV "Bombing Planes" - filmed at the Handley Page works in Cricklewood, this shows women workers assembling the parts and fabric for a Handley Page 0/400 long range bomber, ending with a stockshot of the finished aircraft outside a hangar.
Physical description

35mm


Mike

[centurion]

Those are not rotary engines - you can see the in line cylinder blocks in the background.

[tootrock]

The one being tested is definitely a rotary engine.

Martin

[centurion]

I'd only looked at the opening - having watched the whole thing it's a composite clearly shot in different factories - the opening parts show women working on in line engines, then rotary engines, back to in line and then a rotary being tested. I don't know of a British factory that made both types.