A Yesterday's Witness special
In my aeroplane for two, I will sail away with you.
Don't waste any more time below Let's get married and up we'll go. In my aeroplane for two, for miles and miles we'll fly.
Oh what a sensation, a honeymoon in the sky.
This was being sung in 1904 within months of the news that the first flying machine had actually managed to fly.
Tonight's programme starts when the British pioneers were, literally, getting off the ground - ' The only way to learn to fly was to go and teach yourself. You did straight runs, getting faster all the time. And then you looked over the side and found the ground was gone! ... ' Then through to the time in the early 20s when young ex-Royal Flying Corps pilots flew for the world's first international airlines in ramshackle converted bombers.
Wiith old film - and music - from the archives, with new film of present-day enthusiasts who fly some of these veteran flying machines for fun, and stories by some of the intrepid pioneers themselves, we get a taste of the ' honeymoon in the sky.'
Narrator JOHN STOCKBRIDGE
Film editor WILLIAM SYMON Producer STEPHEN PEET