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Released by Keystone, this short film “U.S. Navy Air Fleet in Action“ was one of a series of 3-4 minute shorts produced by the company for use in their line of toy movie projectors. The film shows a 1930s naval exercise with U.S. Navy battleships firing their guns in succession (:40). At (:56), a group of biplanes takes off from the deck of an early aircraft carrier. The configuration visible at (1:25) with forward large caliber gun turrets and a split island might be USS Saratoga (CV-3). In 1936, the Saratoga's air group consisted of 18 Grumman F2F-1 and 18 Boeing F4B-4 fighters, plus an additional nine F2Fs in reserve. The plane shown at (1:32) is possibly a Martin BM torpedo bomber, and the aircraft at (1:44) appears to be a Great Lakes BG dive bomber. The film shows the retrieval of aircraft starting at (2:45). Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. For almost two decades, we've worked to collect, scan and preserve the world as it was captured on 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have endangered films you'd like to have scanned, or wish to donate celluloid to Periscope Film so that we can share them with the world, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the weblink below. 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, 2k and 4k. For more information visit
