Jetobatics

This National Film Unit short captures the action with the RNZAF’s 75 Squadron aerobatic team. The pilots, all in their early to late 20s, fly their de Havilland Vampire jets through low and high altitude manoeuvres. NFU cameraman John Hutchinson squeezed himself and his camera into the cockpit for 14 flights over five days, to capture spectacular images from a fifth Vampire piloted by Flight Lieutenant Barry Gordon. The team was formed in 1958 for the RNZAF's 21st Anniversary Air show at Ohakea. It then toured New Zealand, giving displays at all the major airports. 

Chalk streaked on the sky the rolling smoke forms and hangs, and lives its own short life above the land.

– Narrator Paul Ricketts

Key Cast & Crew

John Hutchinson

Camera, Director

David H Fowler

Writer, Editor

Paul Ricketts

Narrator

Cyril Morton

Producer

Geoffrey Scott

Producer

Claude Wickstead

Sound