I picked up a brand new condition copy of The Right Stuff on video the other day for $5.00 and on watching it for the first time in many years I was still impressed. I’d forgotten how much aviation was in it. Brilliant.
Was that Fifi playing the B29/B50 in the film? Or was it actual footage from the real tests? In fact, was any of the Bell X1 footage real or was it all recreated for the film? Was it perhaps a model? It was so realistic it was hard to tell.
I noticed another B29 in one ground shot, with a dark painted undersurface, like olive drab.
Who flew the F104 for the film, that was amazing. Any trivia welcome about the film.
Do you recall the first (or was it second) episode of Quantum Leap, Scott Bacula lept into a EAFB test pilot’s body and it used what I think was footage cut from The Right Stuff.
One slightly unrelated thing, does Chuck Yeager still own a P51D? If so, does he still fly it? And does he fly it at airshows?
By: J Boyle - 11th March 2005 at 14:34
Accoring to ancient Air Classics and Wings articles in my files, Fifi was painted to look like the B-29 mothership. At one time they planned toeven hang the X-1 mockup from it…but eventually the technical barriers got the better of the ideaa.
They used a second B-29 fuselage section (ex- “Last flight of Noah’s Ark” from Pima air museum for the closeup shots of the X-1 mated to the Boeing.
And yes,German 104s were used to simulate the NF-104…agin they thoughtabout putting the rocket tailpipe on one…byt time/money/tech stuff got in the way.
BWT: I once worked for a 4-star general who as a young test pilot had flown the NF-104…he said it was his biggest thrill….ubelievable power and acceleration.
By: Eric Mc - 11th March 2005 at 14:02
Apart from some black and white footage at the beginning of the film, as far as I know ALL the colour footage was shot specially for the movie. The ground shots of the X-1 feature a full size mock up and the flying shots were actually done with models on wires (no CGI of any note back in 1983).
The F-104 is indeed one of the US based Luftwaffe F-104Gs. I think Yeager had his accident in the NF-104.
I’m pretty sure the B-29 is the CAF’s “Fifi”. The underside would have been painted black to simulate the colours of the B-29 used in the real X-1 drops back in 1947.
By: Jim_Harley - 11th March 2005 at 13:53
One of the guys at Stallion 51 told us that we missed Yeager by about a week getting recurrent in the Mustang. That was in late February.
jim
By: Helican - 11th March 2005 at 13:10
Chuck Yeager
In my last job part of my duties was to do recurrency training with FAA inspectors.
One of them was from the office where Mr. Yeager has his paperwork.
This guy said that Yeager was such an ass that no one wanted to be around him. Since he was “the first through the sound barrier” he expected to be treated like a god…and always had an opinion about everything when it came to airshows.
It ended up with Chuck only being allowed to fly straight and level passes at airshows.
Oh well.
BTW..is there any truth to the story that when the F-86 was tested while the X-1 was trying to break the soundbarrier, the test pilot was told to not enter a dive with full power…and when he still did so broke the barrier before the X-1 did?? Of course not spoken of, and X-1 got the glory.
By: ...starfire - 11th March 2005 at 13:02
AFAIK, the F104 was actually a Starfighter from the German Luftwaffe. During the Take-off scene you can read the stencils “LT.COL. Heinrich Thuringer” (or so) on the aircraft… When Chuck walked around the F104 some scenes earlier, the pilot´s name was hidden by black tape.
In the final credits they also thank the German Luftwaffe for their support, so I think it was a German Starfighter. The German trainers in the USA all habe to carry USAF-markings due to legal problems. I´ll have to watch my DVD this evening.
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March 11, 2005 at 12:24 pm