Favorite Aviation Scene from a Film.

[Dan K]

Ok, this lacks originality, but...

What are some of your favorite aviation scenes from movies? You know, the spots that you rewind to repeatedly.

For me:

1) Mass Hurricane take-off from French airfield in "Battle of Britain"

2) Last 10 minutes of "Flight of the Intruder". The movie is mostly a stinker, but the film ends with a most impressive attack by two Sandy Skyraiders (one flown by Steve Hinton, not sure of the other pilot--Jay Cullum maybe?) that really must be seen to be appreciated.

3) Mass B-25 take-off in "Catch 22"

4) The P-40 pulling contrails off the wingtips in "Tora".

5) Crewdson flathatting the runway with a B-17 in the "War Lover".

So which ones have I forgotten (Or perhaps have never seen)?

[Scott Rose]

The A-26 fire bombing the Catalina in Always, farfetched but fun to watch

The Buchons ripping up the Hurricanes in the opening sequence in Battle Of Britain

The aerial shots in Top Gun (you have to admit there are some pretty shots there)

The Air Cav coming over the treeline with Flight Of Valkyrie playing in Apocolypse Now

The scene in Off Limits when the Huey hovers over the intersection...
"When are you going to learn? We're Americans, we are NEVER outgunned"

[C170BDan]

Some good ones listed already...

Always... great A-26 stuff... Skyraiders in Flight of the Intruder... Opening scene with the 109 attack from the Battle of Britain.

My favorite is the opening scenes to the Rocketeer. I watch that about once a month. True Disney fantacy flick... but the vintage airfield setting and the excitement of the first flight makes for a fun scene!!

[N3Njeff]

All of the scenes have been A++++ sofar, though I could do without the top gun. So I will add.

Murphy's War......Frank flying the Duck
Stragic Air Command........All of it!!!! Love the B-36 through the clouds
Battle of Brittian "Boomps a daisy.....enought to make you weep"
We Were Soldiers.........Introducing the Huey as their new Horse
Empire of the Sun...........P-51 Mustang Cadillac of the sky
Memphis Belle(2nd version)......Start up and taxi out and take off
A Bridge To Far........C-47s take off/ spit buzzing kid on bike
The Right Stuff..........Yeager taking up the F-104

[JimH]

THe opening scene of Always, the guys diving out of the boat as the Catalina scoops water

The dogfight scene in Cloud Dancer jimmy leeward and john caradine duke it out in a Mustang and Cherokee

The dogfight scene in Waldo Pepper

[Dennis Bergstrom]

The mass B-25 take-off in Catch-22

The P-51 strafing scenes in Empire of the Sun

The P-40s trying to get off the ground with Zeros on their tail in Pearl Harbor

The many Spitfire take-off, landing and fly-by scenes in Piece of Cake

Spitfire scenes in Dark Blue World

A-26 and PBY scenes in Always

B-25 sequence in Forever Young

Battle of Britain

Memphis Belle

Dennis

[Stoney]

The mass B-25 take-off in Catch-22, all four times!

[Jack Cook]

The opening scene of Top Gun before they start talking and ruin it. For those of you who've never worked the flight deck that has real has you'll get.

[Steve T]

Scott et al--

This is fun...Most of my faves have already been mentioned (proving my good taste I suppose!)...here are a few.

*Opening sequence of Spielberg's 1989 "Always", PBY vs small motorboat

*Same film, Holly Hunter's hotshot landing in the Lynch A-26 with Goodman and Dreyfuss scrambling out of the way

*"Piece Of Cake" Episode 1...long-lens view of three Spits coming directly at the camera, very near the ground...midway through the shot a fourth Spit appears from BELOW the frame! (Ray Hanna, I presume...) In a later episode a Spit (definitely Hanna this time) flies under an actual stone bridge: no CGI here!

*"Empire Of The Sun" flyby of P-51 "Tugboat" with the kid yelling at the top of his lungs and the pilot waving back

*Sunset motorbike-and-Tomcat "drag race" in 1986's "Top Gun"

*One-wheel B-17 landing in "Tora Tora Tora"--a genuine hydraulic hiccup and resulting spectacular arrival caught by a camera crew who doubtless couldn't believe their luck

*Opening sequence of that '49 NAR flick where the derelict F2G morphs into its former pristine self, and that incredible CGI P-51 crash sequence near the end...oh, wait. That flick doesn't exist yet...

Cheers

S.

[Warhawk]

Some real greats have already been listed and those would certainly be on my own list. However I must say the the D-Day jump sequence in episode 2 of Band of Brothers is at the top or very near the top of my list.

[Tim Landers]

Since most of the great ones have been mentioned, how about Archie Donahue flying the Zero in Final Countdown. Also I remember watching a movie about a guy who teaches himself to fly a Kingfisher (I think) and attacks a German Sub that has traveled up a river with homemade bombs. Anyone remember this flick?

Tim Landers

[TimAPNY]

Murphy's War ?

[Pat Carry]

Anything from Twelve O'Clock High (the movie, not the tv show)

[Michel Lemieux]

Also I remember watching a movie about a guy who teaches himself to fly a Kingfisher (I think) and attacks a German Sub that has traveled up a river with homemade bombs. Anyone remember this flick?

Yes its Murphy's War.

The scene where Murphy learns to fly is amazing.

Its quite surprizing that a Duck can take so much abuse on the water.

At one point I tough the bird would break in half.

It was actually painted in British Navy color.

Was it ever used by the British Navy ?

[Randy Haskin]

Personally, I love both Flight Of The Intruder and Always.

I think that every single (flying) scene in Top Gun is laughable, as they're trying to pass off formation flying as dogfighting.