Look Who it Was Random video

BD-0104 Yuri Gagarin at Ringway Airport Still

441 views · Published 23 March 2011 · 0:04 · Indexed 1 October 2026

Channel: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives · 2011 · Education

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This still shows Yuri Gagarin arriving at Ringway Airport (now Manchester Airport) in Manchester, England on 12th July, 1961, and being greeted there by Fred Hollingsworth, President of the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers who had invited him. It was Gagarin's first visit outside of the Soviet bloc, and at the time he was still the only human to have orbited the earth.

The footage was shown to the Museum's Director of Education, Francis French, as part of a longer roll of 16mm footage, in 1987 during a visit to the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers' headquarters in Salford, England. Francis was at the time researching Gagarin's visit to Manchester, research which was eventually used in a magazine article about Gagarin's visit:
http://yurigagarin50.org/history/gagarin-in-britain/gagarin-in-manchester

The fragile film broke when it was being screened for Francis, and the union representative personally gifted him the broken parts of the footage. A still from the footage was subsequently used in the above-referenced magazine article. 

The San Diego Air & Space Museum, using its new Hi-Def film digitizer that is capable of processing 16mm film, is providing this link as a free educational opportunity to learn more about a historic moment when East met West. While the film was personally gifted to Francis by the Union, no copyright for this film is asserted by Francis French and the museum. The Museum is enquiring after the current whereabouts of the archives of the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers, so that they can also be aware and receive a copy of this digitized footage.

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