Aviation History Movies

[Rob Sherlin]

 Despite the movies seen, for those of you who have been in AFJROTC, Aerospace Education Classes, and so forth (you know the ones I'm talking about!....the guys on rocket powered roller skates with wings.....The "flapping" bicycle machines and such).

  Name some movies that give you an actual history of aviation.............

  I will name one off the top of my head that deals with WWI.........."Fly Boys"!

[lordmonar]

12 O'clock High
Stratigic Air Command
Spirt of St Louis
Tuskegee
Memphis Belle
God is my Co-pilot

[jimmydeanno]

Command Decision is a good one too.

[lordmonar]

Forgot about The Right Stuff!

[Rob Sherlin]

Dreams of Flight: The History of Aviation (2001)

Wish they'd do a movie on more specific "aces" in history. It would be interesting to know the thoughts and lives of those pilots (friendly or foe) at different times in history. What ridicule did the "Wrights" actually go through before making people say "WOW!!!"...etc...

[A.Member]

Aerospace related:

• The Right Stuff
• In the Shadow of the Moon
• Apollo 13
• Bat 21
• The Aviator
• The Battle of Britain
• The Blue Max

Boy, looking at this kind of illustrates the need for more/updated aerospace movies out of Hollywood.     There are a lot of amazing stories that should be told.

[MIKE]

• The Blue Max

http://www.hulu.com/watch/24431/the-blue-max

[Gunner C]

Aerospace related:

• The Right Stuff
• In the Shadow of the Moon
• Apollo 13
• Bat 21
• The Aviator
• The Battle of Britain
• The Blue Max

Boy, looking at this kind of illustrates the need for more/updated aerospace movies out of Hollywood.     There are a lot of amazing stories that should be told.

I'd scratch Bat 21 if you're showing it to cadets - it's rated R.

[A.Member]

I'd scratch Bat 21 if you're showing it to cadets - it's rated R.

Good point.  I was just simply listing films without regard as to the intended audience.

[lordmonar]

I'd scratch Bat 21 if you're showing it to cadets - it's rated R.

Good point.  I was just simply listing films without regard as to the intended audience.

I would also scratch BAT-21 due to its gross historical/tactical errors.

[A.Member]

I'd scratch Bat 21 if you're showing it to cadets - it's rated R.

Good point.  I was just simply listing films without regard as to the intended audience.

I would also scratch BAT-21 due to its gross historical/tactical errors.

That's all Hollywood movies though. 

The Right Stuff is full of errors as well.  Nonetheless, the films can serve as a platform for learning.  Perhaps even begin by discussing the factual errors of a film.

[Rob Sherlin]

  I think there's a lot of flaws in a lot of movies. For example: When most people think of the "Red Baron", they think of a WWI German fighter ace, who flies a red DR-1 triwing (this concept comes through missguided media).

  He did fly a DR.1, but most of his fame was in an "Albatross".

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/richthofen2.php

  Being an illustrator/animator, I'm thinking about putting together a publication about different "famous" pilots through the ages. Nothing to complicated...Maybe a full page about them, and on the opposite page, a portrait of them with the plane they flew in the background.

[Rob Sherlin]

Back to movies.......

  There was some good stuff in "Pearl Harbor" too.

  (thought) I'm suprised I don't see "skip bombing" in movies (except for "Discovery Channel" history)....American Bombers invented that, and were the best at it (other countries have tried....but just weren't as good as our good ol' boys).

[CAPLAW]

What about flight of the intruder?

[A.Member]

What about flight of the intruder?

What would be the history lesson from that movie?

[Timbo]

What about flight of the intruder?

What would be the history lesson from that movie?

The Movie is from the 1980's........that was the past

[jimmydeanno]

What about flight of the intruder?

What would be the history lesson from that movie?

It gives a view of the political climate of the time. 

It's got a heck of a lot more relevance that "Flight of the Navigator" 

[A.Member]

What about flight of the intruder?

What would be the history lesson from that movie?

It's got a heck of a lot more relevance that "Flight of the Navigator" 

The Movie is from the 1980's........that was the past

LOL!

[Cecil DP]

I would definitly have "Spirit of St Louis" in my Aerospace Library. It shows just what Lindbergh had to go through and the actual hazards of the flight. PLus you can always point out that the star was an Air Force Brigadier General

[SarDragon]

"Top Gun" and "Flight of the Intruder" were both crap, the latter being worse.

"Dambusters" was a lot closer to reality, and had a decent depiction of the events.

[Duke Dillio]

    Being an illustrator/animator, I'm thinking about putting together a publication about different "famous" pilots through the ages. Nothing to complicated...Maybe a full page about them, and on the opposite page, a portrait of them with the plane they flew in the background.

You would of course have to do a piece on Robin Olds.  He's one of those names that you don't hear very often but apparently he was the only American WWII ace who almost aced in Vietnam as well.  Just a thought.....

Oh, and you gotta include Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Isn't that the one where they find Amelia Earhart?   

[ol'fido]

No, that's Star Trek: Voyager. Episode name: "The 37's".

[Rob Sherlin]

  Come to think of it, I don't recall any movies that show aircraft when they first got involved in warfare. When guns weren't calibrated to the propeller (they basically took to the air with shotguns and such). When bombs were carried in the cockpit and dropped by hand, etc...

[Duke Dillio]

Here's some good, non-Hollywood aviation films for sale.  They look pretty good to me:

http://www.ihffilm.com/aviation-history-ww2-allied-aviation-history.html

[♠SARKID♠]

Does the Death Star trench run count?  There were all sorts of X-Wings and Tie-Fighters in there

On the serious side, if you're looking for an educational aviation movie there's always One Six Right.  Its a documentary, not a feature flick but its outstanding none the less.

[Smithsonia]

1. Hells Angels. Howard Hughes WW1 Movie. Special Effects hold up. Great Movie considering how old it is. It's on Turner Classic Movies all the time. WATCH IT!
2. 12 O'Clock High. Gets better every year. The first movie I ever saw that had little melodrama and lots of realistic action with a bit of PTSD therapy for human interest.
3. The Great Waldo Pepper.
Everybody has there own - These are mine. Mine are best.

[Gunner C]

1. Hells Angels. Howard Hughes WW1 Movie. Special Effects hold up. Great Movie considering how old it is. It's on Turner Classic Movies all the time. WATCH IT!
2. 12 O'Clock High. Gets better every year. The first movie I ever saw that had little melodrama and lots of realistic action with a bit of PTSD therapy for human interest.
3. The Great Waldo Pepper.
Everybody has there own - These are mine. Mine are best.

These aren't movies, but they are historic:  History Channel did a series on Dogfights.  They used computer graphics to dissect what happened, had fighter jocks comment on each engagement, and had some of the actual participants talking about some of the dogfights (Gen Olds preferred "Engagement").  Like I said these are TV shows, but I Tivo'd them all and watch them from time-to-time when I need an excitement fix.  As aviation history lessons, they are absolutely priceless.  They go from WW1 to the (recent) present.

Gunner

[Smithsonia]

Dogfight is an excellent series. Excellent indeed. I toyed with the idea many yeas ago and was going to use Confederate Air Force Planes and some camera tricks to tell many of the same stories. I proposed it to the History Channel. I couldn't get it to work (in my demo) with the kind of vitality and drama that it needed to turn it into a series. So I scrapped the project before my pitch meeting with the network.

Meaning, the guys who finally did it... mostly in animation... had to solve many storytelling problems and resolve those visual elements to pull it off. I think they were very successful. These same folks also do the series Shoot Out.... which is a remarkable and admirable work too. Often times when one fails to tell a story -- but then sees another team pull it off -- it makes one envious. I don't feel that at all. I feel like these guys had a vision that perfected a concept and I admire them for doing it ever so well. Good for them.

That said, these are all TV series and not movies.

[CAP_truth]

Gathering of Eagles; Rock Hudson and Rod Taylor