Was just looking at some trivia for the James Bond film Thunderball, and it states:
The aircraft that plucks James Bond and Domino out of the life raft was a highly modified B-17G (and was a prototype for the USAF/NASA Satellite Airborne Recovery Project).
Anyone got a picture of this?
Must say, it’s been so long since I saw this movie that I can’t remember seeing a B-17! :rolleyes:
By: DazDaMan - 10th February 2005 at 08:21
Thanks for the info – I’ll have to look out for that sequence next time Thunderball is on TV! 🙂
By: RMAllnutt - 10th February 2005 at 06:36
A version of the skyhook was going to be used on a helicopter to recover that NASA probe last year, as it parachuted back from space…. trouble was that the parachute didn’t open.
SPLAT! 😮
Richard
By: J Boyle - 9th February 2005 at 23:54
Photos of the configuration with the Fulton Skyhook are published in various books including Final Cut. Interesting story behind the Skyhook project, including its planned use for agent extraction from remote locations.
Don’t forget some USAF HC-130s were fitted with a modifed nose for the gear.
Somew were with the 21st SOS at RAF Woodbridge in the 80s…
By: RMAllnutt - 9th February 2005 at 23:26
Robert Edison Fulton, who designed the skyhook, was an extraordinary man. He traveled around the world on a motorcycle, by himself, in the early thirties… through all of the “Stans” to boot! Many ingenious aviation inventions too, as well as restoring several aircraft in his later years, including a P-51 Mustang. He died last year at the age of 95. His son, Robert Fulton, was one of the worlds greatest aerial film photographers… doing a lot of work for the BBC, as well as the motion picture industry. Sadly, Robert was killed in a flying accident in 2002.
Richard
By: Corsair166b - 9th February 2005 at 23:10
Flew in her!! She is now ‘Shady Lady’ for the Evergreen museum up in Oregon, back in 1997 she was in Arizona for an airshow along with the CAF’s ‘Sentimental Journey’ and I managed to finagle a waist gun seat for a flight (a friend who was with me PASSED on flying in her, said his breakfast was’nt sitting too well with him)…we chased Journey around the pattern a few times and it was a great flight!
Mark
By: Swiss Mustangs - 9th February 2005 at 19:06
http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/95unclass/Leary.html
also has photos
Cheers
Martin
By: DazDaMan - 9th February 2005 at 19:02
Tell us more…. 🙂
By: aerovin - 9th February 2005 at 18:52
That was N809Z flying for Intermountain Aviation, a proprietary company of the CIA. Now marked as N207EV and on display at the Evergreen facility at McMinnville, Oregon. AAF serial is recorded as 44-83785 but more probably is 44-85531. Photos of the configuration with the Fulton Skyhook are published in various books including Final Cut. Interesting story behind the Skyhook project, including its planned use for agent extraction from remote locations.
By: danohagan - 9th February 2005 at 18:44
Right at the end of the film. B-17 has equipment on the nose to collect a wire from a balloon attached to a liferaft containing Bond and his beau.
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February 9, 2005 at 6:42 pm