''Wings over Everest'' is a 1934 British short

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by

Geoffrey Barkas Geoffrey Barkas (born Geoffrey de Gruchy Barkas, 27 August 1896 – 3 September 1979) was an English filmmaker active between the World War I and World War II. Barkas led the British Middle East Command Camouflage Directorate in the Second Worl ...

and

Ivor Montagu Ivor Goldsmid Samuel Montagu (23 April 1904, in Kensington, London – 5 November 1984, in Watford) was an English filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, film critic, writer, table tennis player, and Communist activist and spy in the 1930s. He help ...

. It won an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

for Best Short Subject (Novelty). It described the 1933 Houston-Mount Everest flight expedition, in which

Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton Air Commodore Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton and 11th Duke of Brandon, (3 February 1903 – 30 March 1973) was a Scottish aristocrat, politician, and aviator. He was the first man to fly over Mount Everest. When Rudolf Hess, t ...

, otherwise known as Lord Clydesdale, piloted a single-engined biplane on 3 April 1933, just clearing

Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at its ...

's southern peak by a few feet, having been caught in a powerful downdraught. The film used mixture of real footage of Everest from the record-breaking flight and theatrically produced scenes using the actual people rather than actors. The flight used two aircraft that took off from Purnea, India on 3 April 1933. One aircraft was

Westland PV-3 The Westland PV-3 was a British two-seat torpedo bomber of the 1930s built by Westland Aircraft Works. The aircraft was a private venture development and based on the Westland Wapiti. It never entered production. The aircraft is best known as o ...

which had undergone some additional changes, and the other aircraft was a Westland PV-6. Lord Clydesdale flew the PV-3 and Lieutenant David McIntyre in the PV-6. The aircraft were not pressurized but they did use

bottled oxygen High altitude breathing apparatus is a breathing apparatus which allows a person to breathe more effectively at an altitude where the partial pressure of oxygen in the ambient atmospheric air is insufficient for the task or to sustain consciou ...

. As mentioned, the film about this flight won an Oscar in the United States in 1936, in addition, aerial photos would go onto be used by mountaineers including Tenzing and Hillary's expedition which reached the summit on foot. The aerial photos were made on a second flight on 19 April 1933 as during the first flight there was a dusty haze that obscured the photographs from the 3 April flight. ''Wings over Everest'' was preserved by the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of mot ...

in 2014, in partnership with the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a nonpro ...

References

External links

''New York Times: Wings Over Everest''
* {{Mount Everest 1934 films 1934 short documentary films British short documentary films British black-and-white films Black-and-white documentary films Documentary films about aviation Films about Mount Everest Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners Films directed by Geoffrey Barkas 1930s English-language films 1930s British films Films scored by Hubert Bath English-language short documentary films

See also

References

External links