Summary: An RAF training camp for officer cadets at Wantage, probably summer 1918.
Description: The camp is made up of bell tents and occasional prefabricated buildings. The cadets, some still in Army uniform but all with RAF caps, wander about talking and smoking. A physical training session of the 'Swedish Drill' type. (The cadets look surprisingly old.) This includes a form of tug-of-war, skipping and medicine-ball throwing. A game of cricket. Some of the cadets take a rowing eight out onto the Thames. A portrait shot of the commanding officer with his black labrador. The cadets build an aircraft hangar from wooden frames and canvas. The completed hangar has two aircraft outside it. One is a Martinsyde Elephant which has its propeller turned over. The other is a very smartly painted Avro 504. An officer walks around the Avro with a group of cadets, explaining how the various control surfaces work, starting with the tail rudder and moving forward to the wing surfaces and bracing wires. By this time the engine of the Elephant is running quite smoothly and it taxies away.
Production Details: Royal Air Force (Production sponsor)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Royal Air Force, cadets (regiment/service)
Keywords: training, British air (object name)
training, British air - specialist: pilot (object name)
recreation, British air - sport: athletics (object name)
recreation, British air - sport: cricket (object name)
recreation, British air - sport: rowing (object name)
aircraft, British - combat: Martinsyde Elephant (object name)
aircraft, British - combat: Avro 504 (object name)
animals, mammals: dog (object name)
31/3(41) (event)
Wantage, Oxfordshire, England, UK (geography)
Thames (River), England, UK (geography)
