Hello,
Over the last seven years while researching my (hopefully) upcoming
book on Movie Aviation, I had the good fortune to come across the
s/n & c/n for the 18th flyable Buchon that was to be used in the
‘Battle of Britain’ movie. As most readers will know this one crashed prior
to filming killing it’s Spanish pilot leaving 17 for the moviemakers.
I am curious to gauge just how significant others find this discovery, as
a dedicated fan of this classic I’ve read all accounts I can find on the
making of this film but have not been able to find anywhere, not even
in Robert Rudhall’s legendary books, the identity of this airframe. Alan
Mosley’s ‘Making of’ book listed this event back in 1969 and the pilot’s
name but again no other details were given.
Thank you
By: Simon Beck - 13th September 2012 at 23:00
Roobarb:
I think they simply retained their miliary IDs during filming as it was all
just a ‘temporary’ arrangement only. The Spanish crash report I have from
the AF lists the military s/n only and no civil Spanish one.
Interestingly I also received a letter from a Spanish ‘civil’ department
that lists a crash at El Corpero on March 21, 1968 and lists the aircraft
as a Hispano Buchon? Was this another BoB flyable??
Sorry I’m not listing the s/n’s for everyone but they are kind of ‘under
wraps’ for my book.
By: Roobarb - 13th September 2012 at 20:11
El Corpero is where the Buchons were finally based in service and largely operated out of there for the Spanish filming. Yes the question of the identity of this airframe has eluded many of us for many years as I’m sure Septic and others will testify. What really interests me is under what form of certification they operated on whilst in Spain. They were not registered with the “Air Registration Board” until they arrived in the UK, yet neither were they still on Spanish Military strength (despite being largely flown and maintained by the Spanish Air Force at this point). I asked the qustion about this and the identity of the Buchon that crashed some time ago when we painted up Yellow 10.
By: Simon Beck - 12th September 2012 at 23:47
Yes, sorry Leonard Mosley is the author. He detailed the event
but no aircraft details were given, likely as it was outside the
scope of his work.
I was surprised to learn after some translating part of the report
that the crash hapened at El Corpero not Tablada as most often
reported.
By: trumper - 12th September 2012 at 22:25
Didn’t Leonard Mosley write a book .
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Britain-The-Making-Film/dp/0330023578
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September 12, 2012 at 10:46 am