Warbird Information Exchange

Wow, it always amazes me the topics that get brought up on the WIX. Okay, when I was a kid my dad had a couple of stearmans, one of which had formerly been owned by Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz. My dad bought this one in 1970 from a broker and it had a 220hp R-670, althought it had been operated with a 450P&W from 1946 into the early 50's on the west coast by Tallmantz aviation. As a kid I remember many times people either asking my dad how Paul Mantz got killed or something to do with Flight of the Phoenix or Tallmantz aviation.
The story I heard brought up many times is that the airplane in the movie actually flew "too good" so that a decision was made by Mantz or whomever to add a few hundred pounds of sand bags in the aircraft to weigh it down and make it look like it was struggling to fly. The airplane had been flown successfully, before but with the sandbags added it broke apart upon impact with the ground. That's what killed Paul Mantz not the alcohol, heck he had been drinking and flying all of his career.

After looking at the media reports run in July 1965 in the Yuma and Los Angeles newspapers from both before and after the accident, and also a number of other sources who should know, the "Phoenix" barely flew and basically staggered from takeoff to landing. The airplane was originally scheduled to fly from the desert floor for the takeoff scenes but Mantz nixed that idea due to the marginal performance of the airplane. It was based at Yuma and flew up to the filming location. I think it crashed early in the film schedule and only the takeoff scene was included in the film. Everything else had to be done with the O-47 and it shows. It would be interesting to know what the director had planned for the airplane in the movie if it had lasted longer.