Warbird Information Exchange

The problem is that there are very few (i.e. zero) videos of Val's dive bombing or Kates dropping torpedos. So what's a filmmaker to do? Have model airplanes on a stick or do the CGI thing? Us pilots and enthusiasts get ornery over those shots too.

I'm guessing the filmmakers realize this and just do it the best they can in hopes that the plotline is good enough to overshadow any minor technical details they can't replicate perfectly.

I'm still furious about the Great Planes episode on the P-39, so please forgive my venting for a moment.

The P-39 episode DID have some excellent historical footage and presented a lot of good information. They covered early escort flying with B-25's in the Pacific and discussed dogfighting with Japanese Zeroes at length. However, they showed only some old film footage and a pretty lame interview with a mechanic about the flight characteristics of the P-39. DAMMIT! I HAVE A FLYING P-39, A FLYING B-25, AND A FLYING ZERO REPLICA!!! Did the Discovery Channel bother to look for a flying P-39 to shoot modern footage to present to their viewers? NOOOO! How good would the P-51 episode have been with only grainy historical footage?

The Discovery Channel did a HUGE disservice to its viewers and the men who flew the P-39. If they want to provide an accurate, honest historical presentation of any military aircraft in the future, prehaps a quick check of the Internet, the CAF, or (best option) WIX would be in order.

Thanks for letting me vent...

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Ray Clausen
Maintenance Officer
Centex Wing of the CAF

Thanks for your hard work and dedication to the CAF. You might be giving this show more credit than it deserves. Clearly, it doesn't have a very high budget, because it uses spliced footage, and few flying scenes. Most of the flying planes are filmed as a 15 second clip taking off. Everything else is simply a discussion on the ground next to the plane. To take it a little further, the majority of the show is spliced, and seems geared for kids w/ short attention spans as the whole thing consists of 1 min clips flashing back and forth. Just my opinion.

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"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!" R.R.

Welcome to the USSA! One Nanny State Under the Messiah, Indivisible with Tyranny, Higher Taxes, Socialism, Radical Environmentalism and a Loss of Income for all. Boy I'm proud to be a part of the USSA, what can I do to raise taxes, oh boy oh boy!

"Great Planes" is T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. It *could* have been such a good show but the factual errors, bad amateur graphics, and such makes me sick. The SR-71 episode I saw 5 minutes of the other day showed a wireframe-type graphic of the Blackbird... with a single rudder, in the middle, and no engines! Seems that it's too hard for them to generate a real 3D wireframe CAD model, so they just made a "3D" graphic using the top and side views. It must have taken all of three or four minutes of slaving over the computer to make... those poor, overworked SOB's. Why exactly is it that the news networks can show a fairly realistic, computer-generated 3D movie of a plane crash on the same day as it happens, yet the Discovery network can't even get a simple 3D graphic of an SR-71 together in however many weeks they took to make it? And that's not even the worst of the errors that fill these shows!!! (Like the F-110 Super Sabre) Yikes. The old episodes of Wings were better, fortunately... but "Great Planes" really has lowered the bar to where I truly wish they hadn't even bothered.

Couple days ago on one of those shows, they spent several minutes talking about the Ford Trimotor and how it revolutionized aviation... but the entire time, they were showing films of FOKKER Trimotors!!!!!

There are far too many people with a very detailed knowledge of aviation history available in the world for Hollywood to keep making these incredibly basic errors over and over again... yet they keep doing it. Amazing.

More bashing:

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.o ... c92cca3774

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

I could have sworn I saw an F9 landing in the movie 'Midway' as well.

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S.

I'm glad they did decide to give the P-39 some coverage as I think it's probalby one of the under-represented fighter types of the war. I haven't seen the episode in question so i can't comment on it. I did catch a portion of it and they were filming again at The Fighter Factory and as far as I know they do have one in restoration. Was this shown in the show? The part that I caught didn't have it, just the B-25 and a taildragger fighter type undergoing maintenance the background.

I'm not sure but I figure, along with the budget, there must be some sort of travel restriction with regards to Major Moga. Either that or just for easyness sake they just shoot the person to person and actual aircraft portions of the episodes on any given Saturday.

The reason I say this, is that so far all the actual physical aircraft shown that they talk about in front of have all been Hampton Roads based. Either at the Virgina Air and Space Museum, the Air Park just outside of Langley AFB, The Fighter Factory, NAS Oceana (F/A-18). I don't have a problem with this, but for me personally after being stationed and living in HR for several years it becomes a little predictable as to which actual aircraft they're gonna use.

Ray I'm sure if they were ever to do an episode on the C-60 Lodestar we'd see them down at the Old Dominion Wing of the CAF with Lady Lodestar in the background. Seems to me a matter of convience for Major Moga.


Shay
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Semper Fortis

Yep. When Chuck Heston's SBD crashes near the end of the film, they show a ramp strike by an F9F. Ironically, Heston's character is killed, but I understand the pilot of the Panther walked away with minor injuries after the forward fuselage was thrown clear of the fireball and skidded down the deck.

The same bit of footage was also used to represent an F-14 crash in "The Hunt For Red October."

SN

Silly Rabbits!!!!!!!!!

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S.

The P-39 restoration is going on Down Under along with a Dragon Rapide and a Mosquito. No word of late (at least at the Fighter Factory hangar here in Suffolk) how much progress is getting along. The Discovery crew were actually in the FF hangar once, at least in the past 18 months and it was the time you mentioned. If I remember right the B-25 was at some stage of it's annual and I think the Hurricane was in at that time too. Other tail dragger would have been the Mig 3 which is still in the shop waiting on a spinner backing plate. Oh, they did shoot some footage for the A-26 show over at the storage hangar. Most everything else was shot over at the the Military Aviation Museum at Pungo where all the aircraft live when not in MX.

Craig

Thanx Craig good to know.


Well GREAT PLANES is at it again. I'm watching their F-84 episiode and man it's giving me a head ache. At one point Major Moga say that the F-84s flew from Japan to korea via inflight-refueling. The "G" model had the capability of inflight-refueling but very few saw action in Korea most being stateside. Not saying it didn't happen but the way it was said made it seem as though it happened regularly.

Also when talking about the Thunderjet's using RATO for take off purposes they show footage of the ZELMAL testing. I mean C'mon

Shay
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Semper Fortis

Editors!
"That shot looks good! Let's use it!"

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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."

I can't remember which episode it was, but they were talking about the virtures of a liquid-cooled in-line engine while showing footage of a radial engine.

"Show this clip. It's an engine!"

When they did the remake of Memphis Belle one days footage of the P51's was widely claimed to be "the worse stuff they had shot so far" when viewing the rushes back at Dx later that day & Stephen Grey said "That's what they will use in the movie while all the good stuff will end up on the floor"

He was right.....

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Those who possess real knowledge are rare.

Those who can set that knowledge into motion in the physical world are rarer still.

The few who possess real knowledge and can set it into motion of their own hands are the rarest of all.

What realy worries me is that we pick holes in this stuff, what about the stuff we watch that we don't know about?
How many wives did Henry the eighth have?
Did Custer have his last stand at the battle of the little big horn or was it at the horny big little?
When ever I watch this stuff I Turn the sound down and look at the back ground. If I have a question..."Errr Hello WIX...."!

Rgds Cking