https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/a7cb7ae0-39ed-422f-8f1a-c3792bedba93 This 16mm silent home movie shows, at the 7:40 mark, President Harry S. Truman's airplane, a Douglas VC-118 (s/n 46-505) called "The Independence" at LaGuardia Airport, New York in 1947. There are other interesting images in the film, including plane crash wreckage at LaGuardia visible at the 5:50 mark. It shows LaGuardia airport with aircraft operations and, partway through the film, the scene of a terrible plane crash. This was United Airlines Flight 521, a Douglas DC-4, which was a scheduled flight departing from LaGuardia Airport to Cleveland, Ohio on May 29, 1947. While attempting to take off from runway 18, the aircraft failed to get airborne, overran the end of the runway, ripped through an airport fence onto traffic on the Grand Central Parkway, and slammed into an embankment, ultimately plunging into a pond and exploding. Ten people escaped the flaming wreckage; only six of those survived. It was the worst commercial aviation disaster in United States history at the time. This record stood for less than 24 hours when an Eastern Airlines DC-4 crashed near Baltimore, Maryland killing all 54 aboard. The flight number is still used today flying from Washington Dulles to San Diego via Chicago O'Hare. The Civil Aeronautics Board concluded the report on the accident by citing pilot error of the source. The report read: "The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was either the failure of the pilot to release the gust lock before take-off, or his decision to discontinue the take-off because of apprehension resulting from rapid use of a short runway under a possible calm wind condition." Back to Truman's airplane, in 1947 USAAF officials ordered the 29th production DC-6 to be modified as a replacement for the aging Douglas VC-54C Skymaster "Sacred Cow" presidential aircraft. It differed from the standard DC-6 configuration in that the aft fuselage was converted into a stateroom. Also, the main cabin seated 24 passengers or could be made up into 12 "sleeper" berths. The VC-118 was formally commissioned by the USAAF on 4 July 1947, and was nicknamed "Independence" for Truman's hometown in Missouri. The aircraft is today in display at the National Museum of the USAF. Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. We collect, scan and preserve 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have films you'd like to have scanned or donate to Periscope Film, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the link below. This 16mm silent home movie shows President Harry S. Truman's airplane, a Douglas VC-118 (s/n 46-505) called "The Independence" at LaGuardia Airport, New York in 1947. In this same year USAAF officials ordered the 29th production DC-6 to be modified as a replacement for the aging Douglas VC-54C Skymaster "Sacred Cow" presidential aircraft. It differed from the standard DC-6 configuration in that the aft fuselage was converted into a stateroom. Also, the main cabin seated 24 passengers or could be made up into 12 "sleeper" berths. The VC-118 was formally commissioned by the USAAF on 4 July 1947, and was nicknamed "Independence" for Truman's hometown in Missouri. The aircraft is today in display at the National Museum of the USAF. Air Force One is the official air traffic control call sign of a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. In common parlance the term refers to those Air Force aircraft specifically designed, built, and used for the purpose of transporting the president. The Presidential aircraft is a prominent symbol of the American presidency and its power. The idea of designating specific military aircraft to transport the President arose in 1943, when officials of the United States Army Air Forces -- the predecessor to the U.S. Air Force -- became concerned with relying on commercial airlines to transport the President. A C-87 Liberator Express was reconfigured for use as a presidential transport; however, it was rejected by the Secret Service amid concerns over the aircraft's safety record. A C-54 Skymaster was then converted for presidential use; this aircraft, dubbed the Sacred Cow, transported President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in February 1945, and was subsequently used for another two years by President Harry S. Truman. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs8hrhjjWmg Mirrored from Periscope Film (https://www.youtube.com/@PeriscopeFilm) Fri, 12 Jun 2026 03:27:22 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://peertube.dngr.us https://peertube.dngr.us/lazy-static/avatars/41a6fee9-7f57-42d0-a5fc-5db4f1af2e31.png https://peertube.dngr.us/videos/watch/a7cb7ae0-39ed-422f-8f1a-c3792bedba93 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://peertube.dngr.us/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.