WOMEN'S ROYAL AIR FORCE - LIFE ON A BRITISH AERODROME [Main]

-
Year: 1918
-
Runtime: 10 mins
-
Description: The women help bring a patrol airship, SSZ13, out of its hangar, then back in again after its flight. In their own mess the women sit drinking tea. Some of them check the rigging of SSZ airships, others clean and polish the cowlings of Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter aircraft. Back in their mess after dinner they plait and arrange each other's hair or read picture newspapers. Working again, some cover an airframe with fabric in the assembly sheds. Outside, a group holds a Bristol Scout D in position while the engine is started, then take the chocks away to let the aircraft take off. They manoeuvre the same plane on the ground by its balance points. One woman holds up a poster displaying the standing orders of the WRAF. Back indoors, they work cutting and sewing aircraft fabric; a male NCO watches them, and is handed a message by a Boy Scout. Other women perform clerical duties. The Bristol Scout D in flight. Another view of the women working on cleaning disassembled aircraft engines.
Everyday life for WRAF members at a coastal RAF station, probably Hastings area, summer 1918.
-
Keywords: EFG1914 / World War I / Royal Air Force, Women's Royal Air Force, / Boy Scouts / operations, British air - routine / aircraft, British naval - airship: SSZ13 / society, British air - sustenance / society, British air - domestic / aircraft, British - combat: Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter / journalism and record, British - press: newspaper / operations, British air - maintenance / aircraft, British - combat: Bristol Scout D / operations, British air - sortie / 31/3(41) / GB, England & Hastings area, Sussex (?) / sex
-
Collection:
-
Provider: Imperial War Museums
-
Rights: In Copyright / Imperial War Museums
-
Colour: Black & White
-
Sound: Without sound
-
Date:
-
Document type: