Heads up "The Blue Max"

Blue Max Aircraft

this afternoon I found a report in a box file regarding of aircraft used in ” The Blue Max ”

board in the hanger at Baldonnel 12-10-65

Rapide G-ASKO (seen photo showing it painted up with german crosses)
Lucioles G-ATIO/G-ATIP ( ” TIO indicated as non-flying and not seen ” )
SE.5A,s G-ATGV/G-ATGW
Stampe G-ATIR and a reference to F-BBIT
Fokker Triplanes G-ATJM/G-ATIY
Fokker D.VIII F-BNDF/F-BNDG/F-BNDH
Tiger Moth G-AIRK/G-ANKK/G-AIRI/G-ANDM
Morane 230 F-BGMR/F-BGJX

at Weston 12-10-65

Tiger Moth fuselages EI-AFJ/EI-AHF plus one other all in German markings

Swallow EI-ABY

report said that filming at Weston was carried out by Alouette F-BLYO of Heli Union

DH83

Lynn Garrison is now a member

Hello- I am Lynn’s son, and wanted to let you all know that he is going to be able to communicate with you all here. I made this profile for him after our Birthdays had passed, and think it will be nice for all involved to carry the conversations regarding the Blue Max and other collections.
Please send him mails with any questions, and also see the photo album that is included with the profile for him here.

Happy Landings to you all!

Thanks for the pic BM. Yeah that’s the one. As Derek Piggott states in his book, “Bombing shots are always exciting”…..and dangerous too from the sound of it.

A wonderful legacy for you.

There is a huge amount of Dads slides, even when he was flying he would always give his camera to someone else to take pics for him.

Judging from some of the shots you have posted BM you must have an amazing collection of images from this time.
Many thanks for sharing them.

Like this burning Fokker? Must dig out the shots of that “you carnt win em all” scene, got a great shot of the Mini SE5 with a ball of flame behind it somewhere!! Dad was leading and the piro’s went of after his pass leaving Derrek to fly through the ensuing inferno 😮

And the Western Front looking suspiciously like the Wicklow Mountains and the CIE train being strafed by low flying aircraft.

Seeing that picture of the mini SE5 from “You can’t win ’em all” reminded me of an old edition of “Clapperboard” from the 70s that covered the career of Derek Piggott. Lots of clips were shown, from “Blue Max”, “Darling Lili”, “Red Baron” and “You can’t win ’em all”, about which Derek talks about flying the aircraft through a fireball from an explosion set off on the ground and getting slightly cooked as a result.
A few years later I bought Derek’s autobiography “Delta Papa” where he talks about this incident some more. I remember the illustrations in the book too, including one of a burning “Fokker” on the ground from “Darling Lili” which left me determined to see this movie whenever it was to be shown on TV. I know critics panned it but I kinda liked it, despite all those tedious musical numbers.

My thoughts exactly…

Damn wig tape!!!

Never mind the nightie, how did the towel stay put 😮

Sounds like it would have been highly unlikely that YOU would have noticed the Dragon Rapide then…..:)

I have fond memories of this film for different reasons.
The release of this film coincided with that of ‘How I Won The War’ with John Lennon, which, being the period of Stawberry Fields and Sgt Pepper, everyone wanted to see.
( Didn’t it feature a Tiger Moth, sorry wrong thread.)
At the time I had this absolutely stunning girlfriend from school, a Sandy Shaw look alike, but with big bits, and, wanting to impress, took her off one friday night to see Lennon at the pictures.
Unfortunately, the qeue was horrendous and we were told we wouldn’t get in.
Panic, find another film, oh this looks good, The Blue Max.
So, no snogging in the back seats, not even with her, I was quite overwhelmed with the film that night, she took it quite well as she told me she quite fancied George Peppard, I didn’t mention my stirrings towards Ursula Andress.
By the way how DID that nightie stay on.

There is also a BA Swallow fuselage in the Blue Max used as set dressing and can be seen briefly against the wall by the entrance gate to the airfield – it is light blue (IIRC) so stands out.

The ‘toy’ SE5’s were also used in a wallpaper paste commercial,
for which they were covered in (guess what) wallpaper.

. The Darling Lili “SE5″s were absolutely hideous ,as I recall those in TBM (Miles?) not too bad. Also what happened to the Rousseau “DVII”s? -they seemed to disappear soon after. .

The Mini SE5’s were not that bad, to the General public they would look fine on the screen, the nose was scled wrong so they looked a little pug nosed!! They served well and did what was needed of them, very easy for people to scoff tears later :rolleyes: The miles SE5’s looked good but had a slightly longer nose to accomodate the Gipsy Queen Engine, they were also a bit of a handfull to fly.
The Rousseau DVII’s all went to the USA in the early 80’s to the FAC (see earlier post!!) They had been in store at Powerscourt with the rest of the Replica’s since the filming of VR & B. One is now with The Stampe Museum in Antwerp currently under rebuild, the other two are still in the USA, one with Javier Arango ( who also has the Bianchi Pfalz ) and is airworthy, the other is as far as i know not airworthy at this time with another US owner.

Miles SE5 and a Mini to compare. plus both in a line up at Weston

Without wishing to bore everybody (again), I am sure I saw, in the mid 60’s, a picture of a Rapide with “German” camouflaged upper decking ,with white fin and black cross patee used ,or intended to be used, in “The Blue Max” for filming. It was in one of the popular Brit mags -Aircraft Illlustrated or Air Pictorial at a guess. Memory plays tricks I know , however I did get involved in a discussion on the subject at the time…….
Perhaps it could have been intended to be for “rear seat” shots to emulate a Tiger Moth type replica with the heavy cameras of the day – only a suggestion. Also I think people are perhaps getting a little confused as to which replicas were used for what film. The Darling Lili “SE5″s were absolutely hideous ,as I recall those in TBM (Miles?) not too bad. Also what happened to the Rousseau “DVII”s? -they seemed to disappear soon after. Ray Hillbourne (a delightful man!) tried to reproduce Pfalz fuselage construction with his D III -allegedly it flexed a good bit more than the Tiger based one!!
Like a lot of films, it started off with big ideas: 60 odd replicas of the major types etc. and was going to be the new “Hell’s Angels” -the inspiration for many of the shots if you compare. Anyway , compared to its immediate successors it was a creditable effort for what it was and has stood the test of time well. With the “benefits” of CGI I doubt if we will see the same again.

The estate is now owned by An Taisce (the Irish Equivalent of the National Trust) so I don’t think maintaining a flying strip is high on their priorities.

Hmmm,

I flew into Powerscourt once, round about 92 / 93. Lovely strip. Such a shame it appears to be no more.

Moggy

Yes ” Darling Lili” and other WW1 films were made in Ireland around that time and reused the same A/C. Richard Bach did some flying for Von Richtofen and Brown, also released as “The Red Baron. Filming for all these films took place at Weston and Baldonel, Powerscourt was where the A/C were stored for many years. The hangar they were in fell down durring a storm and many were badly damaged, shortly afterwards they were sold to the USA to “The Fighting Air Comand” As for ” The Red Baron/ Von Richtofen & Brown” the link to an earlier thread is below and i will say no more.

whttp://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=46334&highlight=von+r…