SE5A's in Aces High

Hi All
They look like the real thing but the wings are obviously wrong. What were they?

Another hilarious thing in this movie was the Fokker E3 shooting down a SE5A. Ah well if you look past the the small detail it gave quite an interseting view of life on a aerodrome during the war.
VBR
Vic

[Vin]

Vic

You have good eye for detail. I thought that Malcolm Mcdowell’s aeroplane was supposed to be a Nieuport. It looked like the S E 5A’s (if that is what they were) to me. But a fun film anyway.


Vin

[PeterL]

The SE's were modified Stampe SV4's. I saw them display at the White Waltham Air Show the year the film was released, the first time I ever saw pyrotechnics at an air show. Very impressive I remember.

[Billy_Bishop]

The Lewis guns on the movie planes had the short 47 round drums, not the typical 97 round drums then in use by the RFC/RAF.

And, other than the EIII, I liked it, though I thought it a bit dark.

VBR,

Al Lowe

[stephen]

Aces High seemed like a potpourri of stereotypical WWI pilot stories compiled into a single movie. Some of the sets (like the French bar they visited on Day 3, I think) were really good and realistic. The biggest flaws in the film were the aircraft themselves, which in some cases were not even very good substitutes. The SE 5's were clearly poor mock-ups.

Aces High was actually and "air" version of R C Sherrif's classic 1930's play Journey's End.

Aces High was a god-awful poor excuse of a movie. It was poorly edited, poorly acted, and poorly written. I suppose I should add poorly photographed as well. I'd rather watch re-runs of "Stop That Pigeon" than see "Aces High"


Tobias Gibson, OTFM

[Vin]

Tobias

That is a bit rough. It was made in the 70's. Are you judging it against 90's film making techniques ? It emphasizes the youth of the pilots - young men just out of school, which many would have been. Callow youths, so to speak. Compare it with Blue Max in which the main characters were mature persons. At the time in which the film is set, 1917 (from memory), Mannock was 30 but McCudden would have been 22, Ball 19, Udet 22, Lowenhardt 20. These are the elite. I wonder if the lesser lights were even younger ? e.g. Herbert Pately (11 victories - chosen at random) would have been 20. More significantly, in terms of the film, I wonder if those RFC pilots who died before achieving the 5 victories that qualify them to take their place at this site were, on average, even younger.

Any ideas, anyone ?



Vin

[stephen]

>>>>>>>>. I'd rather watch re-runs of "Stop That Pigeon" than see "Aces High"

Tobias, make yourself sit through "Battle of the Aces" once. Then see what an outstanding cinematic masterpiece "Aces High" truly is...

[Vin]

I looked at the bottom 10 of the list of English aces. Looks like most of them were 20 years in 1917. Not quite straight out of school but not far off it. They might have been in year 12 in 1915, finishing off in September (that is right for the northern hemisphere, isn't it ?), joined the army in late 1915. After basic training, they would then transfer to the RFC and another 6 months training, meaning they would see action later 1916 - 1917. The lucky blokes who survived into 1918 would be 21 - 22 at War's end.

Edmund Zink 20
Victor Yeates 20
Sydney Smith 21
Walbanke Ashby Pritt 20
Kenneth Charles Mills 18
Francis John Williamson Mellersh 19
Leslie Morton Mansbridge 20
Ernest Leslie "Feet" Foot 22.
Orlando Clive "Bridget" Bridgeman 19
Alfred Victor Blenkiron 22


Vin