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  • Will J

'A must for Bristol Freighter fans'

Just wondering if anybody has seen the following, presumably a vastly underreted cinematic masterpiece:

With thanks to ‘leccyflier’ on rcgroups.com
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302521

Just watched the tail end of a TV Movie in which the only actor I recognised in it was the guy who used to be in Hill Street Blues – I think his name is Charles Haid?

Anyhoo it’s an incredibly cheesy action fillum where he is a US Navy SEAL who is captured with his pals whilst on a secret mission and they are imprisoned by the North Koreans. The President won’t OK the proposed rescue mission and the SEALS are going to be executed. It’s a desparate situation until their teenage children steal the plans for the mission and mount it themselves. They escape in……..A Bristol Superfreighter!! Big and bright and red and yellow with Chinese writing on the side, luckily one of the dads has flown one before. Both engines are shot up by flak guns as they overfly the border into South Korea, one at a time they cut out and the wounded dad SEAL pilot brings her in for a dead stick landing with all on board A-OK!

They undoubtedly chose the Superfreighter so that on landing they could open the bow doors and have the kids jump out and run to their moms, who by this time have assembled on the runway.

There is also a novel IFF system fitted to the Superfreighter that comes into use when they are intercepted by South Korean A-4 Skyhawks- a 10 year old boy is hoisted out of a hatch in the top of the aircraft and shows the pilot his Bruce Springsteen – Born In The USA T-shirt. Naturally the A-4 peel off instead of shooting the invading aircraft down.

The film is called “Rescue” and is a must for all fans of the Bristol Superfreighter

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By: Cargomaster - 13th March 2005 at 06:44

As a (very small) child I used to watch and hear Freighters flying in and out of Rochford in the old Channel Air Bridge and Channel Airways colours together with Vikings, Elizabethan/Ambassadors and Britannias from BKS and the other local stuff. What a step forward when they developed the Carvair!

I wish I had some pics from those very old days – Carvairs I’ve got as they were around until the late 70s/early 80s?

CargoM

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By: Dave Homewood - 13th March 2005 at 02:08

Am I right in recalling that RNZAF Base Whenuapai was used as a set too?
The Freighter was ex-Safe Air, wasn’t it?

PS – wow, that’s a lovely model of the Safe Air Freighter on the link, thanks for sharing. 🙂

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By: hairy - 13th March 2005 at 02:01

Yes, it was shot in NZ (around Queenstown) in the ’80s. The RNZAF got the Corsair that they traded for the P-40 for their museum from Walt Disney in return for the A-4K flying.

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By: David Burke - 12th March 2005 at 21:52

Filmed in New Zealand in the 1980’s if I remember correctly.

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