Origins of Aviation Cliches

Stoney · **Posted:** Wed Mar 08, 2023 10:25 am

I didn't read the whole list so if this was already mentioned, my bad. "balls to the walls"

ZRX61 · **Joined:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 10:16 am **Posts:** 2295

Stoney wrote:

I didn't read the whole list so if this was already mentioned, my bad. "balls to the walls"

Refers to governors on steam engines.

Stoney · **Posted:** Sun Mar 12, 2023 10:03 am

or the nobs on the throttles, multi engine A/C.

Noha307 · **Posted:** Wed Jun 28, 2023 11:13 pm

The other day I noticed a post on the Internet Archive's blog about a man named Craig Smith who was attempting to preserve a collection of stock sound effects. Figuring that he might know where the Stuka dive siren audio originated, I reached out. The response I received in return was, to paraphrase, "no, but I know someone who does". That someone was Ben Burtt. Ben provided me with a thorough and detailed explanation and history of not only the famous Stuka audio, but also two other famous sound effects. It was so good, in fact, that I have elected to copy-pasted it below:

Ben Burtt wrote:

One of my recording passions over the decades of recording is the collection of vintage aircraft sounds. I used sounds of many warbirds for spaceships in Star Wars and have employed many aircraft for use in my sound design for Indiana Jones, Red Tails, etc.

You are right about numerous cliches in Hollywood’s aviation movies. However, the sound used in “Airplane” is not the Stuka. More about the Stuka in a minute. The sound in “Airplane” is a composite mix of an airplane passby backwards (for the beginning of the dive), an artificially accelerated steady wire whine from a biplane (likely from 1933’s King Kong at RKO), and a pullout that is once again a passby of (an unknown type) aircraft. It was made for the 1944 20th Century Fox film “Wing and a Prayer.” Since the composite sound had a beginning, middle, and end that could be conveniently cut to fit the length of any airplane diving (or in distress), the “Wing and a Prayer” dive became very popular and got copied or traded to all the other studio sound departments. Hence it showed up frequently for decades in movies and on tv and became one of the cliches familiar to the public.

On the other hand, the iconic Stuka siren dive also had much use as well and could be confused with the “Wing and a Prayer” dive because there is similarity. The Stuka sound is authentic. It was recorded by the Germans in 1941 for a feature film they made called “Stukas.” (You can see it on YouTube and it is quite a film). The sound effects (including some specific explosions) also showed up in a German short/newsreel called “Nordmark.” The British got ahold of this newsreel (as a war prize I suppose) and copied off the Stuka siren dive and the explosions and put them in a stock library. Sound editors in the UK started adding the sounds to “Guns of Navarone” and the early James Bond films. The Stuka siren was used in the Bond films for any aircraft in distress. They even used in for a helicopter going down in “From Russia With Love” and “You Only Live Twice.” I think later is was a jet in trouble in “The Spy Who Loved Me.”

I confess I used a bit of the Stuka to sweeten Tie Fighter fly-bys in the trench run just as an homage because I loved the sound. Even in the recent “Dunkirk,” despite the claim that they created new Stuka sirens…you can still hear underneath the sound of their new Stuka audio that original 1941 recording. You just can’t beat the original.

Just to complete the topic, there is yet another diving airplane sound that has a bigger history than either the “Wing and a Prayer” and the realistic Stuka. That sound is the Travelair bi-plane recorded for the 1930 version of “Dawn Patrol” at Warner Brothers. It has “screaming guy wires” when making high speed turns. That particular set of recordings was used in every Warner Brothers aviation epic from Dawn Patrol to Air Force, to God Is My Co-Pilot…you name it. It was featured prominently in the Road Runner cartoons and was used for every Mig going down in flames in “The McConnell Story.” It just became sound language that communicated what the public expected.

That is the esoterica from me. I’ve tried to get a good bi-plane strut wire whine but it has been a fleeting objective. I have heard it in brief spurts at airshows but never when I was recording. I have asked pilots if they can reproduce it but they say it means loosening the wires a bit so they will vibrate and nobody wants to take the risk. Consequently that sound is still on my bucket list. If you hear a plane that “sings”, let me know!

When I asked him how he learned all of this, he replied:

Ben Burtt wrote:

I was always interested in the history of movie sound effects and I especially collected data and interviewed vintage era sound people to figure out the creative provenance of iconic sounds. Aviation was always a priority. Along with a friend named Craig Barron, we did an aviation film festival at the Academy of Arts and Sciences 10 years ago in which we amassed quite a bit of audio and footage pertaining to Hollywood aviation history.

So there you have it! I haven't had a chance to search through the movie for the relevant clip, but as stated, the film Stukas is indeed available on YouTube.

I want to thank both Ben for the excellent response and Chris for putting me in contact with him. For anyone who, like me at the start of our conversation, is unfamiliar with Mr. Burtt, he is the man responsible for much of the sound design on many iconic movies franchises such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones as well as, ironically enough, popularizing the Wilhelm scream. However, despite all of this, the fact I most appreciated when reading his Wikipedia article is that one of his first amateur movies was filmed at Old Rhinebeck while working with none other than Cole Palen.

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Thu Jun 29, 2023 11:28 pm

Ben Burtt wrote:

The sound in “Airplane” is a composite mix of an airplane passby backwards (for the beginning of the dive), an artificially accelerated steady wire whine from a biplane (likely from 1933’s King Kong at RKO), and a pullout that is once again a passby of (an unknown type) aircraft. It was made for the 1944 20th Century Fox film “Wing and a Prayer.”

Right here, at 36:43.
https://youtu.be/kvatDO6P22s?t=2203

Noha307 · **Posted:** Mon Dec 25, 2023 11:51 pm

Wings and Wheels

"Wings and Wheels" is a pretty common name for airshows these days, with no less than 10 different events using the theme, or some variation on it, in 2023.[1] (In addition, at least two aviation museums - Poplar Grove Vintage Wings and Wheels Museum in Illinois and Warbirds and Wheels in New Zealand - incorporated the phrasing as well.) However, the term has a much older pedigree.

One prominent postwar use of the term was "Wings and Wheels Express", an air freight forwarding company located in Chicago. Started by Edward L. Richter in 1949, it ran for 20 years until purchased by the Novo Corporation.[2][3] Coincidentally, that same year a museum called Wings & Wheels owned by Dolph Overton opened in Santee, South Carolina.[4] Furthermore, only two years earlier an event of the same name - the "nation's first speed and sport double header" of "ground and air action" - debuted at the Vina Raceway, formerly Chico Auxiliary Army Airfield #3.[5]

However, we have to go back even further to find the first usage of the term. The Hupp Motor Car Company held an event called the "Sky Road Parade" in April 1929 as a publicity stunt. The event would see 150 new Hupmobile owners flown to pick up their cars before parading them back to Chicago. At least one newspaper of the time referred to it as "wings and wheels".[6] However, it seems the term truly first entered the public consciousness with the release of the silent comedy film "Wings and Wheels" by Keystone Studios company in late 1916.[7][8]

Thunder Over [Location]

The other somewhat frequently seen airshow name is "Thunder Over [Location]", with the last word obviously changing based on where the event takes place. Like "Wings and Wheels", it was also used 10 times in 2023.[1]

The phrase has been used more times than can be counted - particularly in movies - so instead the focus here will be on specifically aviation events. The earliest version that turned up after a quick search was Thunder Over Louisville. However, it is important to note that the event, which began in 1989, was originally only a fireworks display - an aerial display was not incorporated until 1992. Other well known "Thunder Over" shows apparently only came later. Thunder Over Michigan first appears under that name in 2003.[9] Thunder over the Boardwalk also began in 2003, although it is unclear if the term was used before 2004.[10]

Noha307 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 10, 2024 5:48 pm

Joke Aircraft Identification Chart

The need for aircraft recognition and the corresponding charts produced for that purpose go back to at least World War II. Indeed, the "oddentification" series even established the concept of a humorous take on aircraft silhouettes during that time. However, it was still for a serious purpose and only featured exaggerations of aircraft characteristics. The first wholly incorrect versions are much more recent. Specifically, a version labeled "U.S. AIR FORCE AIRCRAFT IDENTIFICATION CHART". It depicts an array of twelve incorrectly identified fictional and non-fiction aircraft. Eleven are labeled as "weather balloon", poking fun at the official explanation of the 1947 Roswell incident, while the twelfth, an actual weather balloon, is stated to be "swamp gas".

A Tineye reverse image search, produced a number of results, some of which showed that it was originally a hand drawn comic. Luckily, the original hand drawn version included the signature of the author: cartoonist Ed Stein. (The original version also included the word "Official" in the title.) Interestingly, many of these results also share the same setting: a gray paper background. A further reverse image search using Google Lens led to a TripAdvisor post that revealed the setting: the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico. Given that many of the oldest pictures, which date to early 2008 at the latest, in the TinEye result depict this, this is likely the way it likely first entered the domain of the Internet. (The TripAdvisor post, which is more recent, even shows wear on the paper as a result of its popularity over so many years.) Indeed, the tongue-in-cheek atmosphere of the "museum", which is really more of a tourist trap, would be just the right environment for use of the chart to spread. However, the computer created version was even being translated into Russian as early as May 2007. So it is also possible the example at the museum may have been a consequence of online popularity, rather than the original. On the other hand, the early 2008 dates from TinEye search only note the date it was first indexed by the service, not when it first appeared.

The popularity of the chart has led to further takes on the subject, including a Journalist’s Guide to Firearms Identification, a Journalists Guide to Aircraft Identification and even an xkcd comic.

The chart shares a connection with two other cliches - both of which are mentioned in a previous post. Like the invisible "stealth fighter" joke, it deals with "black projects" and seems to have originated at a museum and similar to the "33 Greatest Aviation Lies" quotes it is often seen in poster format.

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Origins of Aviation Cliches

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