the aviator

Steve, don’t get Andy going again! :rolleyes:

CNN just gave it a very good review. I’ve always been a fan of Martin Scorsese, and this looks to be a blockbuster of a film.

Remember, there are no bad aviation movies. Even Pearl Harbor had airplanes, and airplanes are a good thing.

Andy, don’t forget that CGI are created to look best on the silver screen, and not on some wee television set.

I’d go see the flick before calling names at it!

More Clart…

Hi all
just seen a two minute clip of ‘The Aviator’ on the Johnathon Ross show.

Ross was doing an interview with director Scorsese and as per usual had his tongue so far up his ar*e it must have been irritating his larynx.

The bit they showed was Leornado wrestling with the controls of a large twin boom aircraft.
The digitally created aircraft looked bl**dy awful.
Looked like he was in command of something made from cardboard.
If this is the standard throughout those hard-earned Jones Beers Tokens will stay locked away with Messr’s Barclays Ltd.

Daz, I can feel another rant coming on.
Cheers
Andy

If it’s showing in Greeley tonight, I’ll be there….however, widespread release across the nation isn’t till X-mas day, so we may not get it till then…

Mark

I read where they made a full scale mockup of the fuselage…but only semi-scale wings. I’d like to see it saved for a museum somewhere.

Thanks for that – there was a few seconds of the XF-11 crashing in the trailer.

http://www.spyflight.co.uk/xf11.HTM
http://prototypes.free.fr/xf12/xf12-7.htm

Hughes XF-11 Daz.

😎

Looks like a serious tool !! , did Hughes just build that as a personal project or was he under a military contract
, I see the DVD pirates are selling copies already , filn isn’t even in the cinemas and they are ripping it off already .

Daz – checkout Ingliston at the weekend , the same pikeys from Bathgate market will be out at Ingliston – they even had it playing it on a huge plasma monitor. Be nice to see them getting lifted by the police last week , the police were too busy shoving pikeys into the van to notice the shoppers looting the stalls .By the time they did get back to the stalls there was a fraction of the stalk left behind 🙂

Hughes XF-11 Daz.

😎

What a horrible tragedy for Jim Wright….and just before all of his hard work and labor would have been revealed to the world in all their glory in the movie. Damn shame!

John

Extract from my personal database

Hughes H-1. Exchangeable short and long span wings. With short span, set new closed-circuit speed record of 352 mph on September 13, 1935, pilot Hughes.
Modified as 1-B with 1 000 hp Pratt & Whitney engine, 280 gal fuel tanks and new 32 ft wing as 1936 Bendix Trophy entrant, but Hughes withdrew. With long span wings set new transcontinental record of 332 mph average on January 19, 1937, pilot Hughes. Re-engined with 1 100 hp Pratt & Whitney in 1937. Appeared in 1940 film “Men Against the Sky”. Total flying time only 40 hours. Stored at Hughes factory, Culver City, California.
Donated to National Air & Space Museum, Washington, DC in 1975, displayed with long span wings.

Does the original still exist anywhere?

Yes, it was destroyed and in any case the prime mover of the project (see my post #7) was unfortunately killed, so there is no chance of a rebuild.

I thought it was totally destroyed in the crash? Can’t recall offhand, however.

….it really was gorgeous, I saw it at OSH last summer also, never got to see it fly, but it was sure as hell something to look at. Any word as to whether someone is going to attempt to do a rebuild on it? I’m guessing not…

Mark

A stunning achievement. What a tragic waste of a life and all that work. Terrible.

That H-1 replica is a beautiful aircraft. Very sad.

Yes it would have 🙁

Hughes H-1 Racer replica

I believe this aircraft, which sadly crashed fatally a couple of days after I took this photo at Oshkosh last year, was to have featured in the film. The pilot and constructor who died in the crash was James Wright, who had spent with 5 employees and 7 major subcontractors 35 000 hours and USD 2 million on it. The original aircraft gained the world speed record of 352.3 mph on September 13, 1935 at Santa Ana, California. Hughes also set a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York of 7 hr 28 min on January 7, 1937.