Prior to the invention of flight, photography was limited in scope and applications. The camera obscura made it possible to capture outdoor scenes and buildings on light-sensitive material, but inside views were harder to come by—much less moving pictures of any kind. Once Wilbur and Orville Wright perfected motorized flight in December 1903. However, a whole new world opened up before the eyes of cameramen. For perhaps the first time in history, aerial cameras allowed filmmakers to document life from unique (and previously unattainable) vantage points: no longer did they have to peer down from hilltops or up from valleys; now they could film birds’ eye-views of enormous landscapes that included cities, mountains, forests, and rivers. Aerial cinematography soon became a vital instrument for governments and private businesses alike, as well as filmmakers eager to capture the world from above.
The possibilities were endless: aerial cameras could show audiences panoramic views that previously had been available only through paintings or photographs; they enabled producers to visualize shots that would have been dangerous or even impossible using ground-based equipment, and they facilitated filmmaking in areas where conventional equipment was impractical (or downright impossible) such as rugged terrain and remote (and often hostile) locations. By the 1920s, America’s first celebrity aviator — Charles A. Lindbergh — was busy making movies of his historic flights across Europe and Asia…all of which were shot from an open cockpit with an amateur camera mounted to one wing. The pioneering filmmaker D.W. Griffith also began making dramatic films with real air battles shot above Long Island’s Hempstead Plains—the very site where the Wright Brothers had made their historic flight less than two decades earlier. Indeed, early filmmakers wasted no time in capitalizing on all that was new and astounding in this brave new world of ever-increasing mobility as well as the literal bird’s eye view it provided them when they climbed into an airplane’s open cockpit or hung out one of its wings with a movie camera mounted to it.
As is so often the case, however, the most successful innovator was not even involved in filmmaking at all when he conceived his idea for aerial cinematography. Frank Akeley was a self-taught inventor who created the first successful multi-lens camera for scientific and industrial use. In 1920, he combined this device with a gyroscopic stabilizing mechanism from an auto headlight to produce a staggering new invention: a handheld 8mm the film camera that could shoot clear aerial footage at one frame per second—an astonishing rate in those days. The Akeley camera was successfully tested at altitudes of up to 9,000 feet above ground level. But since it weighed almost 16 pounds (including film), was not equipped with a viewfinder, and needed two people to operate it, filmmakers were reluctant to go anywhere near it or even consider its commercial possibilities.
Today, aerial cinematography is a standard feature in film and TV production. But modern equipment is remarkably different from the bulky Akeley camera of 1920: today’s state-of-the-art UAVs weigh less than 2 pounds, have digital HD cameras that shoot at ten frames per second, use incredibly sophisticated GPS systems to fly themselves, and are capable of carrying payloads of up to 13lbs. In other words, they’re almost ready to leave the ground on their own—and with features like these, it’s not difficult to see why aerial cinematography is currently experiencing a golden age of sorts.