Best warbird DVDs?

[mjanovec]

With winter well upon those of us in the Upper Midwest, I’m looking for suggestions for great warbirds DVDs to help cure the winter blues. So far I have the nice 5-disc (20 hour) Warbirds set from Point Five. I also just ordered a couple of the Roaring Glory DVDs (the Lightning and Thunderbolt ones…but will probably get them all, if these two are good). Plus, I have a couple of the box sets from Aircraft Films (the F4F set, the F-86 set, and the Memphis Belle set…and will order the Corsair set soon).

What great DVDs am I missing? What are people’s favorite discs from these categories:

1. Best DVDs with recent (i.e. last 10 years) footage of vintage restored warbirds…whether it is airshow footage, documentary, etc.

2. Best DVDs with historical footage (i.e. filmed in the ‘40s, ‘50s, etc.) of warbirds (WWII or early jet age preferred).

3. Best dramatic movies or television productions with warbirds (either vintage films or recent films).

Any suggestions are very much appreciated!

Mark

[srpatterson]

Get all the "Roaring Glory" shows. Some are not available on DVD, like the P-51 and B-17, but get them all.

I enjoy the "Warbirds over Wanaka" and "Flying Legends" airshow DVDs. You can order them from

http://www.aviation-worldwide.com/

I like Aviation Worldwide as they have a good international selection, as well as having NTSC movies in addition to PAL (remember PAL is the European standard, NTSC for North America). The Royal Navy Historic Flight film "Sea Fury" is one of my favorites (wonder why?), and they have it. Great footage, both historic and recent of the Sea Fury, as well as a cockpit checkout and in-flight view during an airshow display.

For drama I always come back to the same classics...12 O'Clock High and Battle of Britain, but also look at The War Lover, Piece of Cake, Bridges of Toko-Ri, The Right Stuff (the F-104 takeoff scene), Dark Blue World; just to name a few.

In the documentary catagory the color films "Memphis Belle" (the original one filmed during the war), and the British version "Target for Tonight" can't be beat.

[mjanovec]

Thanks for the suggestions...I have a multi-region, PAL/NTSC compatible, DVD player, so I'm not limited by formats.

I do have the Memphis Belle documentary already...it was recently reissued by Aircraft films. It includes the original version of the film and the restored version...big improvement in image quality there.

I remember Piece of Cake from the early 90s...pretty good mini series.

I wonder why the B-17 and P-51 Roaring Glory episodes never came out on DVD...

Mark

[James Church]

www.hartaviationvideo.com Very good airshow videos, with a large warbird content. Jim