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  WELTRAUMSCHIFF I STARTET
(Spaceship-1 Launches)
Bavaria Films (1937)

(A 1937 German film by Anton Kutter)
 

                William Cayton and Fred Ladd started work on THE SPACE EXPLORERS animated "feature" film cartoon in 1957.  Bill Cayton had the idea for “building” what became THE SPACE EXPLORERS by combining material from the 1937 German film Weltraumschiff I Startet (Spaceship 1 Launches) and an animated 1953 Russian film Polet na Lunu (Flight to the Moon).  The original 1937 Bavaria Film AG supposedly "Nazi propaganda" --- now even considered a "CULT" B&W film, by Anton Kutter depicted the rollout of a huge "luftschiff" (airship) from the Zeppelin hangars located in Friedrichshafen Germany.  Kutter's film can occasionally be seen at the  Zeppelin Museum  located on the north shore of Bodensee, also known as Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen Germany on the border with Switzerland and Austria.

The opening scenes show German footage depicting the horizontal rail launch of the German spacecraft. A very unique aspect of the launch, is the fact that the spaceship takes off horizontally (as opposed to vertically) from parallel rails. 

 
A very short time-coded clip for film research.

More information and images are available about Weltraumschiff I Startet on the website by Claude Mettavant.
If required, use Altavista's Babel Fish translation program

Do you know where the design for all of these old spaceships
and rockets came from?  Click to find out!

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The Space Explorers and The New Adventures of the Space Explorers
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