ROYAL NAVY RETRO-ROCKET EXPERIMENTS [Allocated Title]
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- Title: ROYAL NAVY RETRO-ROCKET EXPERIMENTS [Allocated Title]
- Film Number: ADM 1093-5
- Other titles:
- Summary: A record of the testing of a retro-rocket code-named 'Hajile' by the Admiralty's Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD) in 1944.
- Description: 00:00:00 START Unsteady shots filmed in slow-motion and taken with a long lense showing a Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster bomber, with its bomb bay doors open, flying overhead and releasing a 'Hajile' retro-rocket (similar in appearance to a small cylinder) on the end of a parachute and a concrete block. The camera misses most of the descent but momentarily catches the concrete block, which has accidentally detached itself from the parachute and retro-rocket, hitting the Bristol Channel off Weston-super-Mare (?). 00:00:44 Steady shots taken with a standard wide-angle lense showing an RAF Lancaster bomber flying alongside a Fleet Air Arm Fairey Barracuda torpedo-bomber and releasing from its bomb bay two canister-like objects - in descending order a 'Hajile' retro-rocket and a plumbob - by parachute. A drogue parachute detaches itself early in the descent stage, leaving the two objects to float earthwards at the end of three main parachutes. Just before the entire assembly touches down, the 'Hajile' retro-rocket emits a jet of flame, slowing down the descent and producing clouds of smoke. There is static on the film. The location appears to be Boscombe Down in Wiltshire. 00:01:33 Unsteady and poorly framed shots showing an RAF Lancaster flying overhead and dropping a load by parachute similar to the one seen at 00:00:44 - 00:01:33. There is static on the film. 00:02:11 Steady shots showing an RAF Lancaster bomber dropping the retro-rocket apparatus at the end of three parachutes. It descends earthwards onto heathland somewhere in southern England but the 'Hajile' retor-rocket fails to ignite. The camera tilts up to a De Havilland Mosquito aircraft flying overhead. 00:02:43 A locked-off camera view filmed in slow-motion showing a concrete ramp, the jib of a railway crane on railway lines at Shoeburyness range (?). A rectangular crate-like object descends into the frame. As it is lowered towards the ground by the crane, the 'Hajile' retro-rocket ignites, blasting the crate onto its side and producing smoke and flying clods of earth. END 00:03:23
- Alternative Title:
- Colour: B&W
- Digitised:
- Object_Number: ADM 1093-5
- Sound: Silent
- Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
- Featured Period: 1939-1945
- Production Date: 1944
- Production Country: GB
- Production Details: Admiralty (Production sponsor) Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (Production company)
- Personalities, Units and Organisations:
- Keywords: Military Aviation (theme) Royal Air Force 1939-1945, Bomber Command (theme) Royal Navy 1939-1945 (theme)
- Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent Soundtrack language: None Title language: None Subtitle language: None
- Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 319 ft; Running time: 3 mins 23 secs
- HD Media:
- Link to IWM Collections page:
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Related IWM Collections Objects:
ADM 1093-1 (ROYAL NAVY RETRO-ROCKET EXPERIMENTS [Allocated Title]) ADM 1093-2 (ROYAL NAVY RETRO-ROCKET EXPERIMENTS [Allocated Title]) ADM 1093-3 (ROYAL NAVY RETRO-ROCKET EXPERIMENTS [Allocated Title]) ADM 1093-4 (ROYAL NAVY RETRO-ROCKET EXPERIMENTS [Allocated Title])