The Way to the Stars

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 790, 10 September 1954, Page 31

The Way to the Stars

HE fellow: with stars in his eyes ‘" these days isn’t likely to be a poet. More probably he’s wearing an Air Force blue uniform and discussing (highly technically) the performances of the latest supersonic jets. Romance and high adventure have taken to the air, and it’s difficult to realise that al] this has happened within the last fifty years. The BBC programme The Conquest of the Air commemorates half a century of flying, for it was originally broadcast to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. Many names from the airman’s logbook of fame take part in the progtamme, including Viscount Trenchard, Sir Alan Cobham, Sir Frederick Hand-ley-Page and Sir Miles Thomas. Sir Ralph Richardson narrates. September 15 is Battle of Britain Day. The NZBS documentary New Zealanders in the Battle of Britain, produced by Allan Sleeman, tells the story of those critical days in September, 1940, when the Luftwaffe was driven off by a superhuman effort and the sactifice of many New Zealand lives, Another documentary, this time about the R.N.Z.A.F. Boy Entrants’ School at Woodbourne, was made recently by a NZBS Talks Officer, Trevor Williams. It will be heard from all National stations at 9.15 p.m. on Monday, September 20. New Zealanders in the Battle of Britain will be broadcast by the Commercial Network on Sunday, September 12, at 7.0 pm., and the BBC progtamme The Conquest of the Air will have its first broadcast in 4YZ’s Weekend Magazine, at 1.45 p.m. on Sunday, September 12.