the Hunters (1958) w/ Mitchum

rreis · **Joined:** Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:42 pm **Posts:** 441

Just watching it, are the Mig15 really F84F Thunderstreaks?

michaelharadon · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 5:23 pm

I don't remember which aircraft the Migs are, but I'll never forget reading the book of the same name, by James Salter, for the first (of several) times. It's stunning. I wish I had thought of Cleve when that post about your favorite pilot in literature was making the rounds of the WIX hangar. He's so the real deal.

READ THE BOOK if aviation stories are of interest to you, as well as, Burning The Days, Salter's autobiographical tome. His portrayal of fighter plane squadron life, as well as aerial combat in Korea, is just not to be beat, or missed.

As an aside, he also wrote the script for Downhill Racer, starring Redford and Hackman back when both were young. But this is just an aside, because if the movie were any good I would have seen it more than, oh, say 7 or 8 times back in the day when I was a downhill instructor, and young myself...

Obergrafeter · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 5:26 pm

The F-86 shots were filmed at Luke. One of our CAF members was one of the pilots flying the formation and other shots.PS he says the gal that was the love interest was a real babe back in the day.

rreis · **Joined:** Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:42 pm **Posts:** 441

michaelharadon wrote:

As an aside, he also wrote the script for Downhill Racer, starring Redford and Hackman back when both were young. But this is just an aside, because if the movie were any good I would have seen it more than, oh, say 7 or 8 times back in the day when I was a downhill instructor, and young myself...

I thought downhill was a mountain bike thing...

michaelharadon · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 5:52 pm

rreis wrote:

michaelharadon wrote:

As an aside, he also wrote the script for Downhill Racer, starring Redford and Hackman back when both were young. But this is just an aside, because if the movie were any good I would have seen it more than, oh, say 7 or 8 times back in the day when I was a downhill instructor, and young myself...

I thought downhill was a mountain bike thing...

Try telling that to Lindsey Vonn~ :rolleyes:

warbird1 · **Joined:** Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:25 pm **Posts:** 2760

rreis wrote:

Just watching it, are the Mig15 really F84F Thunderstreaks?

Yes, they are. That's a fantastic movie, one of my favorites and I have it on DVD.

A bit of trivia for you. A very young Steve Hinton saw this movie back at the movie theater at China Lake NAS, where his dad was stationed. It was THIS movie, which inspired Steve to get into warbird flying. It also made him want to fly the F-86 which he did not very long after that!

RickH · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 5:55 pm

Quote:

PS he says the gal that was the love interest was a real babe back in the day.

May Britt was definitely a BABE !!!

Oscar Duck · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 7:59 pm

The "Migs" were F-84F Thundersteaks...

The Inspector · **Posted:** Mon May 17, 2010 9:16 pm

....and they had large bags of coal dust in each gun bay so when they were 'shot down' the pilots would release the coal dust to look like a smokey fire, I understand the coal dust got into everything and maintenance crews for years afterward were find coal dust in odd places on the airframes.

Rajay · **Posted:** Tue May 18, 2010 2:58 pm

It's been a while since I've seen this movie, but if it's the one that I'm thinking of, I remember being a little doubtful of the fact that in the movie, all of the "kill" stars on the Sabres are painted over or on top of the standard identification and servicing stenciling near the canopies. Surely, the Air Force would not have allowed that! Does anybody know for sure?

baldrick · **Posted:** Tue May 18, 2010 7:38 pm

After reading the excellent James Salter novel, the movie was a disappointment. Apart from the excellent aerial footage it was a load of Hollywood bulls**t, nothing like the book.

flyboyj · **Joined:** Sat Oct 10, 2009 1:01 pm **Posts:** 157

Rajay wrote:

It's been a while since I've seen this movie, but if it's the one that I'm thinking of, I remember being a little doubtful of the fact that in the movie, all of the "kill" stars on the Sabres are painted over or on top of the standard identification and servicing stenciling near the canopies. Surely, the Air Force would not have allowed that! Does anybody know for sure?

Would not have made a difference unless some IG weenies were coming around.

McConnell's Plane
http://www.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/ ... 9G-005.jpg

So much for the stenciling...

http://aces.safarikovi.org/victories/ob ... f_asla.jpg
http://www.warbirdalley.com/articles/im ... 6wba02.jpg

From the movie...
http://www.hyperscale.com/images/thehuntersjh_6.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ9q_iUZl34

My favorite movie. The story line is trash but the flying scenes are great!

Mudge · **Posted:** Tue May 18, 2010 10:57 pm

I was at Kirtland AFB when they were filming. We would get NOTAMS every day they were shooting aerial sequences that read, "Movie scenes being filmed. Do not fire upon." I was at the 34th AD(D) Control Center. The radar sites in the division (which included AZ) would report aircraft movement in our area of responsibility. We were able to track all the "dogfights" on our 20' square plotting board. Yes troops, this was WAAAAY BEFORE all the radar goodies used today. It was grease pencils and plexiglass. :roll:

Mudge the geezer

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