JohnB wrote:
Although it hadn't left the ground and may not be generating FAA definition wingtip vortices...given its size and speed it would still be generating a great deal of wake and propwash.
Mantz would of have to have been thoroughly prepared for it.
Also, it would be interesting to have sat in on the preflight brief between Mantz and the B-36 crew (possibly a Convair test crew?) and hear them discuss what each would do (where they would go) in the event of an emergency.
Legally, I wonder if the B-36 had a Paramount film financed insurance policy for that scene...given the AF may not have been thrilled with risking a front line bomber in those circumstances.
The most outboard prop was 125' or more from the B-25's wingtip. Propwash wouldn't have been a factor. As far offset as the B-25 was, the tip vorticies wouldn't have been an issue until the -36 rotated, and the -25 was at speed and extending the distance by then.
I'd bet you a beer it was a USAF crew. Maybe a select crew, but a "normal" SAC crew. I've seen it written elsewhere that Mantz's directions to the B-36 crew were: "You keep it straight and make a normal takeoff and I'll handle the rest."
Films like these were used as recruiting tools by the USAF. Certainly, not everyone was granted that kind of access, but the risks were known and accepted as part of making the film, all the better to draw in recruits. Just like in Top Gun, The Final Countdown, Wings of the Navy, Dive Bomber, Bombers B-52, Jet Pilot, and a hundred others. Only recently has society become so risk averse that things like this are seen as unusual.