Aviation Movies (non-WW1) you'd like to see done...

[retread]

Like the title states , non-WW1 aviation movies (or for that matter mini-series, or documentaries) you would like to see made or remade. Essentially your fantasy wish-list...

Mine would include a film done on the X-15 project, which included the likes of Neil Armstrong, Joe Walker and Scott Crossfield. There was a film handling this subject made in the very early sixties ( I believe '62) which starred Charles Bronson and Mary Tyler Moore. I have never seen it but would love to whether it be good, bad or indifferent. My fantasy flick would of course follow very closely the actual history of the project as opposed to a story involving a generic pilot and his wife.

My politically correct choice would be a movie on the life of Harriet Quimby, America's first female pilot ( and not incidentally, at least to me, a real babe) who died while exhibition flying over Boston Harbor during 1912. This would be made not because it IS politically correct but rather that it would be a tribute to a genuinely fascinating character and life.

A movie handling the lives of either the Wrights or Glen Curtiss would be a compliment to celluloid. Intense, brave and brillant. A movie with the same qualities could be created if the tendency to wreck a unique story with the application of "artistic license" could be curtailed.

Ideas.....?

[Lufbery]

Great idea for a thread!

I'd love to see something on the first airmail pilots, especially since a lot of that story takes place at small Pennsylvania airfields. Ernest Gann has written quite a bit about that era, and any of his books on the topic might make a great movie.

And yes, Harriet Quimby was a babe but I wonder if her early death would make the movie too sad.

Regards,

[Doc]

I'd like to see one on all the women pilots of the Pre-War era, especially Marie Marvingt, whose life would make a fantastic film. Doc

[Barrett]

Anything with BrisFits.

"I say, Barrett-Tillman, let's have a go at the Bray-Corbie Road this fine morning."

"Smashing idea, Woodul-Powell. I'll keep the blighters' 'eads down while you reload."

[Simba]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Biff, NOT Brisfit! In WW1, anyway.



I recall there was a great RFC two-seater crew who flew along the seafront at Ostend and threw oranges at the German soldiers who were taking the sea air. When asked why they hadn't fired their guns instead, they replied 'that wouldn't have been sporting, sir.' I believe they survived the war, so there's a happy ending.

And the sight of the Germans scattering to avoid the rugby ball dropped from altitude by another (or perhaps the same) pair of funsters must have been something to behold too.

[leo]

How about something about the Cleveland Air Races or the Schneider Cup?

[baclightning]

1. The White Rose of Stalingrad. A (hopefully) well done biopic of Soviet WW2 fighter pilot Lilya Litvyak. This one would have everything - personal trauma (her father was executed in one of Stalin's pre-war purges, and she always feared that it would come back to bite her); a fight against authority (to get women approved as combat pilots); cool airplanes (the early Yaks); success against the odds (she had 12-15 victories, depending on how you count them, to become the world's leading female ace); a love story (she fell in love with her male squadron commander); and a heroic but tragic ending (devastated by the death of fellow fighter pilot Katarina Budanova, she flew like a madwoman for the next two weeks, until she herself was killed). There's even a sentimental epilogue, her mechanic's successful search to find her buried remains over 40 years after the war, which culminated in Litvyak getting one the last "Hero of the Soviet Union" awards before the USSR broke up. And like Harriet, Lilya was a babe...

2. A movie about Alcock and Brown's first successful nonstop transatlantic flight. If only to correct so many people's mistaken impression that Lindbergh was the first to do it...

This would be an excellent movie about perhaps the greatest aviation stunt pilot and cameraman of all. It would have Spads and Fokkers, Nieuports, Curtiss Pushers, B-25s, Mustangs, Air Races and B-17 crashes to name only a tiny fraction of the aircraft he owned and flew. Plus all of the stars of Hollywood and history that he few air-taxi service for.

He died making Flight of the Phoenix in a makeshift aircraft built by Otto Timm. A man whose life encompased all of aviation until his death. And all of his footage is still around.

Ed

[mike_baram]

Originally Posted by baclightning

1. The White Rose of Stalingrad.

How about Marina Raskova, as long as we're talking about Russkie female combat pilots?

After the German-Soviet war broke out on 22 June 1941, Raskova used her personal influence with Joseph Stalin, and her position on the People's Defense Committee, to secure permission to form all-female combat units. This request was at the behest of many Soviet young women and girls who wished to fight their homeland's enemy. In the Soviet Union there were already some pre-war female pilots that had been trained in aeroclubs by the Osoaviakhim (Society for Assistance to Defense, Aviation and the Chemical Industry). With the official approval of Stavka (Shtab Glavnogo Verkhovnogo Komandovaniya = Headquarters/Supreme High Command) and assistance from the Komsomol (Young Communist League) in selecting training candidates, Raskova began forming three all-female aviation regiments in October 1941.

After their acceptance into this new program, the future airwomen were moved to the small city of Engels on the Volga River north of Saratov. While at Engels, the women were to finish most intensive flying and navigation courses in six months, which normally took about 18 months!

Raskova had of course "kept an eye" on the entire training process, deciding on the final posting of each airwomen. With the official Stavka approval, Marina Raskova eventually formed three women's aviation regiments: the 586 IAP (Fighter Aviation Regiment), the 587 BAP (Bomber Aviation Regiment) and the 588 NBAP (Night Bomber Aviation Regiment). The first regiment was initially assigned to air defense duties in Saratov, while the other two were eventually sent to the front. These three aviation regiments were numbered in the "500" series, which meant that they were of special interest to the GKO (Gosudarstvennyy Komitet Oborony= State Committee for Defense).

My personal choice?
Capt. Kim Campbell* (aka "Killer Chick"). It takes a special kind of gal to womanandle a crippled Warthog and land it safely.



* Not to be confused with the other Kim Cambell who was Canadian PM for four whole months in 1993.

[SL DIII]

Hi,
Although this would need to have a big section dedicated to WWI Aviation, I think the Charles Nungesser story would make a great film without any "Hollywoodification"...Of course it would include his post-war stunt-flying, movie-making and end with his mysterious disappearance in the transatlantic race.

Best regards,
SL DIII