Air Power

The work of the United States Air Force Combat Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and of radar stations, fighter-interceptor aircraft, and strategic bombers of the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command is depicted as they respond to a simulated enemy attack on North America. Commander-in-chief of the Continental Air Defense Command General Earle E. Partridge, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force General Nathan Twining, and Twining′s colleagues on the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff simulate the activities they would engage in during an actual attack. The only one-hour episode of Air Power.

Co-narrated by Eddie Rickenbacker, World War I flying ace and owner of Eastern Air Lines. The history of the airplane from its invention in 1903, through its early role as a plaything of rich Europeans, to its history during World War I (1914–1918), when it rapidly grew in capability from a flying observation post to a multimission weapon of war. The episode includes pre-World War I footage of aviation pioneers such as the Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and Anthony Fokker and wartime footage of World War I flying aces Manfred von Richthofen, Hermann Göring, Georges Guynemer, Charles Nungesser, and Rickenbacker.

The rise of the German Luftwaffe, told with the use of German film captured during World War II.