Warbird Information Exchange

I just caught the end of Capricorn One on a movie channel. I'm sure that you've all seen it. It's the 1977 movie in which they fake a mission to Mars and then have to kill the crew when the re-entry goes wrong.

That has to be one of the best aerial chase sequences ever filmed where the two OH-6 (Hughes 300C) helicopters are chasing the Stearman over, presumably, the west Texas desert. The low-level and cockpit "eye" views of the cameras were great and the drama in regard to the movie was great, too.

The only thing that sucked was the obviously radio-controlled models that were used for the helicopter crashes into the side of the cliff.

Wait! I must correct myself. Because I only caught the end of the movie, I missed the other part of it that really blew. OJ Simpson!

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“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

Telly Savalas was great, I loved his whole "Do you know which one of the A's in A&A I am?" speech....

The Lear Jet takeoff sequence where it loses a main gear when it barely clears the car, was that a fancy stunt or was it a stunt almost gone wrong? I mean was that for real?

Great movie!

cheers

greg v.

The stunt where Clay Lacy took off in the Lear and "hit" the cars was just that, a stunt.
There was a fake landing gear and wheel set-up that was fired off out of an air cannon behind one of the cars. It looks great!

Frank Tallman's last flying gig was this film. He said the most dangerous stunt during the filming was the left hand, diving turn, over the edge of the cliff in the Stearman. The wind currents and the "blind" dive over the edge would spell disaster if not planned properly.

BTW, when the astronauts are taken from the launch site and climb into the Lear near the beginning of the film, the two C-133's at Mohave are in the background.
They've been there a long time.

I wonder what became of the capsule and LM mockups?
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

The Lear belly landing in the desert was accomplished buy digging a flat trench the depth of the landing gear making it appear to be on its belly. For the shots of the astronauts getting out of the Lear, dirt was filled in around the gear.
I got the DVD a couple years ago just to get to see Tallman yank the Stearman around the desert. Its a so-so movie,
just the aviation part is good. I always liked the part where Brolin dives out of the service station window to get away from the 'black helicopter guys' and sees Elliot Gould waving from the Stearman idling in the road.

Steve G

The 1973 movie "Birds of Prey" has an excellent chase sequence of two helicopters. It starred David Janssen as an ex military pilot flying a traffic helicopter who gets chased by the bad guys through some wild scenery and a hangar, before CGI.

IIRC, the close-up of the gear retracting after it 'hit' the car is actually the gear that supposedly was torn off.

One of my favorite TV flying movies!
Great shots of the Hughes 500 and SUD Allouette "dancing" in the desert!
Even Tallman's P-40 makes an appearance!
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

'Blue Thunder' always causes me to chuckle when Malcom McDowell and Roy Scheider are doing fighter plane passes @ each other over downtown L.A. They're in helicopters for petes sake! Sit still and slug it out toe to toe, or would that detract from the later scene where the SWAT chopper hits the bridge abutment?
I wonder how many takes on blowing up the BBQ factory and how long it took to round up all those fried chickens for the next 'take'?

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Yeah, but at least in 'Blue Thunder', they're really in the choppers for 100% of the sequence (even some of the closeups were filmed "live" instead of in front of a screen), and McDowell got over his fear of flying because of it. There were some interesting lines about his first flights through the maze of LA.

Yeah, but Malcolm McDowell was absolutely wrong for that part - C'mon, I mean an Englishman playing an American Vietnam vet? Who's brilliant idea was that?

Blue Thunder was around the same time frame as Airwolf and whereas Airwolf was so perfect and awesome (supposedly), I loved Roy Scheider's line in Blue Thunder about how nose heavy it was with all of the gizmos and gadgets they had hung on it. Apparently, it wasn't so perfect - and I always appreciate any form of self-deprecating humor.

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"

Now, I haven't seen that movie for YEARS. But isn't he BOTH? Isn't that the punchline?

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Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives, and I decline......

Larry Hagman did a helicopter movie where he's flying a Hughes 500 in Mexico and "the Stearman Squadron" comes to his rescue at the end of it. Can't think of the name of the movie though...

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

Capricorn One was a great flick! The only problem is it gave fuel to the 'We faked the Moon Landing crowd." I believe there's talk of a re-make...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

Malcolm McDowell wasn't supposed to be American at all, but English.... believe it or not, some Brits did serve in Viet Nam (on exchange), as did a whole bunch of Australians (which nearly everyone over here seems to forget).

Cheers,
Richard

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Richard Mallory Allnutt - Photography - http://www.rmallnutt.com

What makes you so sure that he was supposed to be English? In the flashbacks, he was flying with an American pilot (Roy Scheider) in an American helicopter and he was wearing an American uniform. Years later, in the movie/story's "present" he is working with an American law enforcement agency and US Army and Air Force personnel in an American city. The only thing English about the character was the actor and the accent.

Even if Malcolm McDowell wasn't English himself, he was still the wrong actor for the part. IMO Robert Duvall would have been a better choice - he has often played the quintissential US Army colonel roles (Apocalypse Now) or USMC (The Great Santini).

_________________
“To invent the airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything!” - Otto Lilienthal

Natasha: "You got plan, darling?"
Boris: "I always got plan. They don't ever work, but I always got one!"

Remember, any dummy can be a dumb-ass...
In order to be a smart-ass, you first have to be "smart"
and to be a wise-ass, you actually have to be "wise"