Only Great Escape survivor to fly an ME-109 in the BOB movie

DarenC1 · **Joined:** Sun May 07, 2006 8:10 am **Posts:** 235

With apologies to the original photographer, here's a pic of the Buchon, along with a Mustang (Planes of Fame?) and the Bob Pond Spitfire XIV (which, as I recall, was also painted up for Pearl Harbor!!)

Plus a screengrab from the film (which was my desktop for months!)

DarenC1 · **Joined:** Sun May 07, 2006 8:10 am **Posts:** 235

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, I e-mailed Steve Hinton a few years ago asking what the plan was for the Buchon, and he told me they were waiting for some parts...

...fast-forward a few years, and while I'm browsing Flickr, I come across a picture of the Buchon, stripped of paint, and clearly undergoing restoration/rebuild/repair by volunteers...

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11330

Yup, they're working on it steadily. I am thrilled that they removed that awful paint job it had.

Speedy · **Posted:** Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:21 pm

bdk wrote:

Yup, they're working on it steadily. I am thrilled that they removed that awful paint job it had.

Are you talking about the eastern front paint scheme with the yellow 5 on it? I think that that was an actual paint scheme...as I've seen an artists rendition of it on a BF-109G.

warbird1 · **Joined:** Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:25 pm **Posts:** 2760

DarenC1 wrote:

warbird1 wrote:

Speedy wrote:

Bubba took it to Reno in '81, not really to race, but more to have a dogfight routine with Jerry Billings in a Spitfire...and on the Saturday of race week he groundlooped it on landing...donated it to Planes of Fame on the spot.

And it was "restored", or I guess more appropriately, "put back together" specifically by Steve Hinton for the filming of "Pearl Harbor". IIRC, the airplane was shipped to England to be used for filming. On landing, one of the brakes had problems, and Steve ended up ground-looping the aircraft. That was the end of it's filming days. I don't believe the aircraft made it into any of the final shots of "Pearl Harbor". To this day, the plane sits disassembled in the hangar at Chino, waiting to be fixed again. That plane just doesn't have great luck.

Not exactly - it was flying prior to Pearl Harbor, as I've seen photos of this aircraft in flight (in a spotty camouflage and white rudder). I'll see if I can find one.

The aircraft is most definitely in the film, chasing The Fighter Collection's Spitfire V around Dover....

I thought I had read that the POF's Buchon was specifically readied for flight ONLY because of Pearl Harbor. I know it was flying before they filmed the movie, as they had to get all of the squawks out before shipping it to England. I'm almost positive that that airplane hadn't flown between Reno, when it crashed, and the preparation for the movie. Am I wrong?

Also, I know that David Price's old E model 109 was filmed for the movie as well. Does anyone know if any of that footage made it? I don't recall seeing any in the movie, as most of it seemed like CGI, but then it's been almost 10 years since I've seen that awful travesty of a movie!

DarenC1 · **Joined:** Sun May 07, 2006 8:10 am **Posts:** 235

warbird1 wrote:

DarenC1 wrote:

warbird1 wrote:

Speedy wrote:

Bubba took it to Reno in '81, not really to race, but more to have a dogfight routine with Jerry Billings in a Spitfire...and on the Saturday of race week he groundlooped it on landing...donated it to Planes of Fame on the spot.

And it was "restored", or I guess more appropriately, "put back together" specifically by Steve Hinton for the filming of "Pearl Harbor". IIRC, the airplane was shipped to England to be used for filming. On landing, one of the brakes had problems, and Steve ended up ground-looping the aircraft. That was the end of it's filming days. I don't believe the aircraft made it into any of the final shots of "Pearl Harbor". To this day, the plane sits disassembled in the hangar at Chino, waiting to be fixed again. That plane just doesn't have great luck.

Not exactly - it was flying prior to Pearl Harbor, as I've seen photos of this aircraft in flight (in a spotty camouflage and white rudder). I'll see if I can find one.

The aircraft is most definitely in the film, chasing The Fighter Collection's Spitfire V around Dover....

I thought I had read that the POF's Buchon was specifically readied for flight ONLY because of Pearl Harbor. I know it was flying before they filmed the movie, as they had to get all of the squawks out before shipping it to England. I'm almost positive that that airplane hadn't flown between Reno, when it crashed, and the preparation for the movie. Am I wrong?

The photo I posted puts the aircraft flying sometime after Spitfire NH904 moved to the USA (I'm guessing mid-90s at least).

warbird1 · **Joined:** Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:25 pm **Posts:** 2760

DarenC1 wrote:

The photo I posted puts the aircraft flying sometime after Spitfire NH904 moved to the USA (I'm guessing mid-90s at least).

I believe you. Does anyone know when the POF's Buchon first flew again after the Reno accident?

Ztex · **Posted:** Wed Aug 05, 2009 10:59 am

I have a couple of photos of N109ME in the VFM hanger, back when it was the CAF hanger, in Fort Worth. It has a different paint scheme on each side.

Photo caption says it is Hindenburg movie paint.

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11330

Speedy wrote:

Are you talking about the eastern front paint scheme with the yellow 5 on it? I think that that was an actual paint scheme...as I've seen an artists rendition of it on a BF-109G.

Just because it may be "authentic" doesn't mean I have to like it! :wink:

After the BoB movie, the new authentic came into being. After I get one, it will be painted like that.

Speedy · **Posted:** Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:42 am

bdk wrote:

Speedy wrote:

Are you talking about the eastern front paint scheme with the yellow 5 on it? I think that that was an actual paint scheme...as I've seen an artists rendition of it on a BF-109G.

Just because it may be "authentic" doesn't mean I have to like it! :wink:

After the BoB movie, the new authentic came into being. After I get one, it will be painted like that.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I never liked that scheme on N700E. In fact, the first time I saw it it churned my stomach...of ALL the things you could paint it like. Especially with the THREE squadron logos that were on the left side under the cockpit. Why would you make something like that up? But a couple years ago, I was searching something unrelated on-line and stumbled across a pic of that exact paint scheme on a real 109...the yellow 5 with the squadron markings. Just one of those things that made me go "hmmmmmm......maybe he wasn't losing it after all".

But yeah, I agree. I don't have to LIKE it either!

PeterA · **Posted:** Wed Aug 05, 2009 1:50 pm

Pearl Harbour

A walk past the the PoF Buchon at Duxford on 29 April 2000 prior to filming in the UK.

PeterA

DarenC1 · **Joined:** Sun May 07, 2006 8:10 am **Posts:** 235

Based on Helmut Wick's markings....

Brad · **Joined:** Thu Apr 29, 2004 10:30 pm **Posts:** 1132

Speedy wrote:

Fabulous! Thanks, Brad.

So you say N109ME was used in Hindenburg? I haven't seen that movie in years, but this has me thinking. I have a book in my collection on the CAF...can't remember the title...Yesterday's Wings, or something like that. And in the 'bad guys' chapter there is a photo of a Buchon painted all white with what looks like pre-war Spanish markings (black circle with a white 'x'). Always wondered what was up with that photo...is this possibly what it was from?

The only photo I have seen of N9938 is in an issue of Warbirds International from 1987. Carl Payne did an interview featuring NX8587, but it had a photo from about 1969 of N9938 sitting on the ground with a couple of Colonels standing around it.

And which one is this? http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2473/362 ... a44d35.jpg
I think it said it was from Reece AFB in about 1970.

This one is C4K-152 N4109G belonging to Connie Edwards. She is the only one of his that was flown after coming to the states, as far as I know. I'm pretty sure she hasn't flown since around 1978 or thereabouts so this is probably one of the last times she was seen in public.

N109ME was painted white with the crosses, Spanish civil war markings, for the movie "Hindenburg" so that is the one you saw. If you can locate any pictures of N9938, I'd like to see them.

Speedy · **Posted:** Wed Aug 05, 2009 9:33 pm

Brad wrote:

Speedy wrote:

Fabulous! Thanks, Brad.

So you say N109ME was used in Hindenburg? I haven't seen that movie in years, but this has me thinking. I have a book in my collection on the CAF...can't remember the title...Yesterday's Wings, or something like that. And in the 'bad guys' chapter there is a photo of a Buchon painted all white with what looks like pre-war Spanish markings (black circle with a white 'x'). Always wondered what was up with that photo...is this possibly what it was from?

The only photo I have seen of N9938 is in an issue of Warbirds International from 1987. Carl Payne did an interview featuring NX8587, but it had a photo from about 1969 of N9938 sitting on the ground with a couple of Colonels standing around it.

And which one is this? http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2473/362 ... a44d35.jpg
I think it said it was from Reece AFB in about 1970.

This one is C4K-152 N4109G belonging to Connie Edwards. She is the only one of his that was flown after coming to the states, as far as I know. I'm pretty sure she hasn't flown since around 1978 or thereabouts so this is probably one of the last times she was seen in public.

N109ME was painted white with the crosses, Spanish civil war markings, for the movie "Hindenburg" so that is the one you saw. If you can locate any pictures of N9938, I'd like to see them.

Brad,

P.M. me your e-mail address. I looked through that book and found a black and white pic of it in the Spanish Civil War markings. I can't 'post' it because it's not my pic, but I'll scan it and send you a copy.

Speedy · **Posted:** Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:20 pm

Brad wrote:

Speedy wrote:

\N109ME was painted white with the crosses, Spanish civil war markings, for the movie "Hindenburg" so that is the one you saw. If you can locate any pictures of N9938, I'd like to see them.

So there is a scene at the beginning of the movie that shows George C Scott's character flying the white Buchon in the Spanish markings, and taxiing up to the German staff car on the ramp. Is that the only scene of it in Hindenburg?

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Only Great Escape survivor to fly an ME-109 in the BOB movie

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