New air combat movie

[AWwrgwy]

is it just me, or does that "p40" look like 2 diff airplanes? the front of a p40 with a p51B's tail stuck on it? 

Uncross your eyes.



P-51 and P-40.

Otherwise, it's just you.


wrongway

[FiLtH]

"All right Tuskeegee..lets get em!"

"Meesa come killem!"


(other cast members groan)

[Guppy35]

My 2 year old is African American.  Just put up a framed print of a Tuskegee P51C in his room this morning with him making the sign for flying while I was doing it. (He's deaf).  It goes well with the Red Tail Mustang hanging from the ceiling.  I would really like this film to be worthwhile, but with all the stops and starts, and that it's Hollywood, makes me pessimistic.

It makes me shake my head sometimes when I think that my two sons couldn't have flown together back then.

[Slash27]

I hope it's good but Lucas makes me nervous. Hopefully his buddy Stephen gave him some good ideas.

[morfiend]

I have on my hard drive somewhere  a link to (brief) info about the Tuskeegee Airmen providing escort to Mossies over Southern Germany in the latter part of the war. IIRC one of the units they likely covered was 60 Squadron of the South African Air Force, which in some ways may be the ultimate irony.

 Wow never heard that before,great stuff Scherf,so right you are!


  Guppy......








      

[Devil 505]

I think I will see it regardless if its good or not for two reasons.
1. If a financial sucess, avation films will be seen as good investment for film studios. More airplane movies = good.
2. Lucas has always had an eye for how a flying aircraft thould look in flight. I expect at the very least a rival of Top Gun for greatist flying sequences in a film.

[Scherf]

 Wow never heard that before,great stuff Scherf,so right you are!

The Tuskeegees seem to have escorted PR Mossies to Munich on a number of occasions, according to:

http://www.afhso.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-101222-041.pdf

The article I was thinking of seems to have been removed from the net, but I saved the relevant part, interview with Leon Spears::

Q: Please relate your first combat encounter with enemy aircraft.

Spears: I had an air combat encounter in Kitten when my flight of about five aircraft escorted a... I believe it was a British Mosquito reconnaissance plane over a target area. He led us while we kept him in sight. We escorted him to the Munich area to this German ball bearing factory. As soon as he started his photo run, we backed off a little so he could do his work. He had to fly straight and level. The Mosquito was a very fast plane. When we came back from the target area he just out ran us. We could not keep up with him because of his speed. We heard him say on the radio "Ta, ta, chaps!" and just keep on going past us. As we started after him we noticed a He-l 11 bomber turning our direction. Well, we turned into him. When he saw us turning, I could see little specks coming out the bottom of the bomber, which meant he was firing his hand-held machine guns. He did not hit us. I think he waited too long to fire because we were just right on top of him. By the time he made his turn we started to fire on him. We keep firing and I could see pieces coming off and then smoke and fire would come out and then the plane went in toward the ground sideways. Both me and James Mitchell destroyed this aircraft and shared the victory.



I can't find the reference to the He 111 in the other link.

Also some good work on Tuskeegee victory claims here, though again I can't tie up the He 111 encounter:

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-070207-059.pdf

He 111 or no, if the Tuskeegees were flying into southern Germany / Austria from Italy, there's only two Mossie PR units for them to have escorted, 60 SAAF and 680 Sqn. However, the latter tended to cover points further east over Greece, the Adriatic, Yugoslavia etc. Unfortunately, the last time I corresponded with a fellow who knew, the squadron records for 60 SAAF for the latter part of the war couldn't be found, so I can't directly tie up any dates. Seems a fair bet however that the Tuskeegees escorted aircraft of the South African Air Force.

  also to Guppy.

[GFShill]

is it just me, or does that "p40" look like 2 diff airplanes? the front of a p40 with a p51B's tail stuck on it? 

They both look ok to me.

The bigger question is, when are they going to do a WW2 air combat movie without Marines and/or Tuskeegee airmen?  Poor Dick Bong. Poor, poor Dick Bong.  Hollywood has forgotten ya.

[jimson]

I really hope it's a big success.

So many stories waiting to be retold, a remake of The Flying Tigers, a feature film about The Blacksheep squadron.

It's actually kind of surprising how the WW2 airwar has been neglected by modern Hollywood.

[Guppy35]

I really hope it's a big success.

So many stories waiting to be retold, a remake of The Flying Tigers, a feature film about The Blacksheep squadron.

It's actually kind of surprising how the WW2 airwar has been neglected by modern Hollywood.

Considering how butchered VMF-214 got by the TV show, I'd imagine no one would go near it.  You are also talking about making money, and how much of an audience there would be.

I to hope the film works as these guys deserve to have it told without any Hollywood melodrama or rewriting of the history.  I got this photo in the mail yesterday to go with the Red Tail Mustang print on my little guy's wall.  A classic fighter pilot.

[jimson]

Considering how butchered VMF-214 got by the TV show, I'd imagine no one would go near it.  You are also talking about making money, and how much of an audience there would be.

It's been a long enough time since the TV show that few remember it.

With the technology available today, they could likely make pretty convincing flying scenes (we are 20 years past Memphis Belle!)

Add a few teenage heart throbs, maybe some actors from the insipid Twilight series to bring in the younger crowd.

I think the genre could be revisited quite successfully.

[Guppy35]

It's been a long enough time since the TV show that few remember it.

With the technology available today, they could likely make pretty convincing flying scenes (we are 20 years past Memphis Belle!)

Add a few teenage heart throbs, maybe some actors from the insipid Twilight series to bring in the younger crowd.

I think the genre could be revisited quite successfully.

And the history destroyed with all the stuff you mentioned.  You ever talk to any 8th AF bomber crew about "Memphis Belle"?  I remember talking to some 91st BG vets.  That's the bomb group the real Belle flew with.  That movie made them cringe. Not in a good way.  Without looking, what do you know about the real Belle and her last mission?

How bout Pearl Harbor or U-571 speaking of destroyed history.

[bozon]

...
The Mosquito was a very fast plane. When we came back from the target area he just out ran us. We could not keep up with him because of his speed. We heard him say on the radio "Ta, ta, chaps!" and just keep on going past us.
...

lol, thanks for the links too.

[jimson]

Of course I would prefer a movie to be one that the veterans could get behind and be proud of.

"You ever talk to any 8th AF bomber crew about "Memphis Belle"?  I remember talking to some 91st BG vets."

I did more than that, I spoke to one of the actual crew members of the Memphis Belle who was at the premier promoting the film.

However, this was 21 years ago and I don't remember his name or exactly what he said.

As far as the last mission of the Memphis Belle, without looking, I seem to remember reading that it was actually fairly uneventful, unlike the movie.

To an extent, creative liberties will always be taken, as a feature film has to be different than a documentary.

As long as it isn't too outlandish and captures the general spirit, it still exposes non purists to the heroism of the men involved.

If it is more palatable to you, I wouldn't mind a fictional story line about a fictional unit that is big budget with awesome special effects just so that we can get more people interested in a unique time in American history where the greatest generation gave their greatest effort.

[Shifty]

With the technology available today, they could likely make pretty convincing flying scenes (we are 20 years past Memphis Belle!)
Add a few teenage heart throbs, maybe some actors from the insipid Twilight series to bring in the younger crowd.

No teenage heart throbs no fediddlein teenage type drama. If you do that we''ll end up with another version of this.