Movie "Wings"

In the 1927 Movie "Wings", was that an authentic "Gotha" in the scene where the germans set out to bomb a french village? IF not, what was it.

[PeterL]

It's a Sikorski Mail Plane, possibly the only one or one of two built. They pranged it good in the movie and managed to kill the FX man shovelling fake smoke out of the back. He was still pushing lampblack out of the cargo door when it hit. They don't make movies, or FX men, like that anymore.

Peter L

[PeterL]

Disregard my last, it refers to "Hells Angels." The "Gothas" in Wings are Martin B1's. Sorry pardon.

Peter L

Peter: Your story about the "stunt man" who died in the crash of the Sikorsky isn't entirely accurate either. The man who died, Phil Jones, was a mechanic who'd asked to go up during the stunt in order to earn bonus money. His presence wasn't even required -- the Sikorsky had been rigged with a mechanical blower to spit out the lamp-black that was to simulate smoke, and the blower was set up to be operated by the pilot. Jones was in the rear of the fuselage when the Sikorsky went into its fatal spin, and nobody knows why he didn't jump. The options are that he didn't hear Al Wilson's order to abandon ship, that the centrifugal force had pinned him to the side of the fuselage, or that he'd been knocked unconscious. In any case, the pilot was absolved of all blame -- though Wilson essentially retired from stunt flying after the accident.

The Sikorsky , belonged to Aviator Roscoe Turner and when asked to spin the big bird, Roscoe demanded that the plane be inspected by a Mechanic before he would spin her. Howard Hughs being pigheaded and anxious to finish the movie offered another pilot a bonus to spin the plane when Roscoe Turner wasn't there. In spinning the plane he thought the plane was breaking up and jumped leaving the engineer behind to die. They billed the plane as an authentic Gotha Bomber.