Favorite Aviation Scene from a Film.

Wolverine · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:00 am

BURNING THE MOSQUITOES!! :twisted:

MOO HOO HOO HA HA HA!!!

Actually, that was the worst scene in all warbird movies; past, present, and future. :cry:

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Fri Jun 24, 2005 1:48 am

Do you mean "The Purple Plain", "633 Squadron", "Mosquito Squadron", or all three? (Toss in "Fate is the Hunter" as well; it wasn't on fire but it was rotting away before your eyes...)

Nathan · **Posted:** Fri Jun 24, 2005 7:29 pm

Hi all,

I am new here.

My all time favorite is every part in Torax3 that involves P-40's!

I also like the P-39's and B-17 take-off in the movie "Airforce"!

-Nathan

Brian · **Posted:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:13 am

I'm another newbie

I agree with Nathan on Tora, especially the dogfight scene with Welch and Taylor. The throaty purr of the P-40 as she dives is an incredible sound in that flick.
I also like the scene in Patton where the village is strafed by the He-111s.

Saville · **Joined:** Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:45 am **Posts:** 518

I liked the low alt chase in "The Hunters" just before "Casey Jones" is hosed.

All the flyign scenes in "Wings of Fire" (P-51 and an F8F), and "Battle Hymn" (P-51's)

DazDaMan · **Posted:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 8:18 am

An oldie, "Wings".

The scene where the two heroes go balloon-busting and the "Fokkers" pounce on them. If you saw the British Channel 4 broadcast of it, they had new music added to it, and the music in that particular sequence is brilliant.

DazDaMan · **Posted:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 8:18 am

Ooh, and another WW1-themed movie, "Aces High", the big dogfight at the end.

ThinkingManNeil · **Posted:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:25 am

Favourite scenes? I've got lots of 'em:

1/ Watching those three De Havilland Mosquitoes boogey up that fjord at 0-feet in "633 Squadron" and watching them peel off at altitude then race down the valley in Scotland; but forget "Mosquito Squadron" -- it's unforgiveably bad.

2/ There's a couple of scenes in "Battle of Britain" that are real favourites; first is when the Spitfires peel off over the White Cliffs of Dover (how much more evocative can you possibly get!?!?) to bounce the Stuka attack on the radar site, and then later in the film there's a sequence where the Luftwaffe is attacking from the North sans escort. In one scene after one Heinkel's forward gunner has been killed, the pilot turns forward with a start to see three Spits curving into him like a trio of hungry sharks -- gorgeous! The big air battle at the end is another great scene.

3/ The F-104 going vertical and piercing that whisper-thin cloud deck towards the end of "The Right Stuff"

4/ The two AT-6's landing on the country road and pulling up in front of the prison chain gang in "The Tuskeegee Airmen"

5/ The P-51 strafing run in "Empire of the Sun"

6/ Stachel's Pfalz taking off on his first mission in "Blue Max"

7/ The Gee Bee take-off and low-pass at the biginning of "The Rocketeer"

8/ There's an old British sci-fi film from the late 1930's called "The Shape of Things to Come" that features a lovely aerial sequence of a beautiful, white Percival Mew Gull being chased down through the clouds in a dogfight. Brief but very nice.

9/ The airborne drop in "Day of Days", episode 2 of "Band of Brothers"

10/ The Mustang attack at the end of "Saving Private Ryan"; love those Mustangs, but I'd liked to have seen P-47's.

11/ The bomb-run in "Dr. Strangelove", especially Maj. Kong riding the bomb down (yes, i know it's only a model, and yes, I know the low altitude shots show the shadow of the B-17 camera ship, but what the hell...)

12/ "The Bridges of Toko-Ri" I'll watch it over "Battle Hymn" any day -- and I'm a Mustang fanatic!

13/ The takeoff from the USS Hornet in "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"; can you imagine what the noise must've been like on that soundstage? YIKES!

14/ Kenneth Moore as Douglas Bader bailing out of his tail-less Spitfire in "Reach for the Sky"; they must've hung poor Ken upside-down for hours for that take!

15/ Robert Redford sabotaging Bo Svenson's Jenny in "The Great Waldo Pepper"

16/ The Hueys coming in over the surf in "Apocalypse Now"

17/ The B-36 flying over pitcher Jimmy Stewart in "Strategic Air Command". Amazing!

18/ I remember my dad letting me stay up late one night when I was six or seven years old to watch an old, British war film that featured a scene with a pilot aerobating a Spitfire through a gorgeous cloudscape on a perfect English summer's day. I don't know the name of the film or who was in it, but I'll never forget those images of pure, unadulterated joy and freedom in flight; it's one of the things that sparked my life-long passion for airplanes and flying.

19/ There's an Oscar-winning, short documentary film that was produced by Canada's National Film Board way back in 1968 called "Blake" that's about a somewhat eccentric guy who's a Montreal-based car designer who drives a truly beat-up, old VW Beetle. But to get away from it all he flies a tiny, single-seat, radio-less, homebuilt biplane across country. It's a beautifully conceived, written, and shot little film. The scenes of him trying to retrieve the map that blew out of his cockpit mid-air and landing at Dorval squeezed in between impatient Air Canada DC-8's and Vickers Vanguard's are priceless.

20/ It's not strictly an aviation movie, but the launch and re-entry sequences from "Apollo 13" are real favourites of mine (I have nearly worn the tape out on those!) as well as the Apollo 11 moonlanding sequence from Tom Hanks' superb "From the Earth to the Moon" mini-series.

Cheers,

Neil H.

Saville · **Joined:** Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:45 am **Posts:** 518

ThinkingManNeil wrote:

Favourite scenes? I've got lots of 'em:

18/ I remember my dad letting me stay up late one night when I was six or seven years old to watch an old, British war film that featured a scene with a pilot aerobating a Spitfire through a gorgeous cloudscape on a perfect English summer's day. I don't know the name of the film or who was in it, but I'll never forget those images of pure, unadulterated joy and freedom in flight; it's one of the things that sparked my life-long passion for airplanes and flying.

Cheers,

Neil H.

Could that have been the one about busting the sonic barrier? The one where the "controls have to be reversed"?

CWBuff · **Joined:** Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:14 am **Posts:** 854

From 'Battle of Britain'

From that same flick, I also like 'Repeat please...' and 'He blew up! Just... blew up...'

And I have to agree with some of ya'll about Wild Bill Kelso...

'Lost...'

'Wh... uh-oh...'

Fade to Black...

Hiergehts · **Joined:** Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:54 pm **Posts:** 16

Hello Everyone,

While it's hard to say this is my "all time favorite" it's definately near the top. I refer to the scene from the 1954 British film "The Dam Busters" where the farmer complains about how his chickens aren't laying any more eggs and at the same time you hear the incredible roar and rumble of 4 Merlins at full tilt from a Lancaster flying 50' above his house which is shaking, etc. Just incredible to hear even in mono!!! I do hope a remastered version of this film with an optimized soundtrack is issued at some point.

Andrew

DazDaMan · **Posted:** Sat Jul 23, 2005 7:50 am

ThinkingManNeil wrote:

18/ I remember my dad letting me stay up late one night when I was six or seven years old to watch an old, British war film that featured a scene with a pilot aerobating a Spitfire through a gorgeous cloudscape on a perfect English summer's day. I don't know the name of the film or who was in it, but I'll never forget those images of pure, unadulterated joy and freedom in flight; it's one of the things that sparked my life-long passion for airplanes and flying.

Not "First of the Few", is it? There's a sequence near the end of the movie showing the Spitfire "prototype" being wrung out by "Geoff Crisp" (David Niven) on a test flight. Great movie, that.

ThinkingManNeil · **Posted:** Sat Jul 23, 2005 7:25 pm

Well, like I said Daz and Saville, I really don't remember who was in it or what it was called, but the mention of the David Niven film sounds to be more likely than the film about breaking the sound barrier. As far as I know it was made during or shortly after the war; beyond that I just don't know.

William S. Phillips' painting "A Time of Eagles" seems to best illustrate what I'm talking about:

Cheers,

Neil

Jiggersfromsphilly · **Joined:** Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:15 pm **Posts:** 951

How about the 1942 movie Spitfire, which tells aboput RJ Mitchell and Mutt Summers. David Niven Played Mutt and Leslie Howard played RJ Mitchell.

This sounds like th eone you describe.

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11324

Most definately the takeoff scene in "The Defender" starring your friend and mine, Mr. Robert Diemert. The best quote of the film, "It was a great idea, it just didn't work."

The defender. [Canada] : National Film Board of Canada, 1988. 1 videocassette (55 min.). Directed and written by Stephen Low ; produced by Charles Konowal ; executive producers, Michael Scott, Ches Yetman ; film editor, Alfonso Peccia ; music, Eldon Rathburn. SUMMARY: This program is about Bob Diemert of Carman, Manitoba and his dream of building the world's next great fighter plane. His worldwide reputation as a genius at restoring "warbirds" enables him to finance his dream. Shows Diemert working to perfect his design of "The Defender" and restoring a Japanese Zero to flying condition.

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