Not the supermarionation puppet series… but a 1942 aviation flick.
I soied an advert while researching through wartime magazines for this film called “Thunderbirds” starring Gene Tierney. The advert said it was made in technicolor so I looked it up on IMDb and yes it is coloured.
The plot is about a USAAF training base and apparently someone who appears flying a Harvard is Richard E. Bong!!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035438/
It sounds good on paper, but has anyone seen this? Are the coloured aviation scenes good? As good as, say, “Dive Bomber”? And is the story ok?
If so, I might have to hunt it down.
By: stewart1a - 9th April 2005 at 21:05
might have melted in the sun though
By: merlin70 - 9th April 2005 at 19:28
I think they would have made a great display team. :rolleyes:
By: James D - 9th April 2005 at 11:03
Oh. Interesting – I should have thought of something like that I suppose!
By: Dave Homewood - 9th April 2005 at 11:01
James, I am unsure about RAF pilots, but RN Fleet Air Arm pilots did train in the USA. A man just round the corner from me went from NZ to the UK then back to the USA to train at a station called Bunker Hill, (not the ship, a land base, I think near Washington from memory). He told me the FAA trained loads of pilots in the USA in a scheme much like the Empire Air Training Scheme in Canada
By: James D - 9th April 2005 at 10:58
[QUOTE=J Boyle]A monor correction to my earlier ststement…I double checked my source and Anderson said his brother was trained at Falcon Field in Mesa (just east of Phoenix) and told him there was a USAAF base nearby…Thunderbird Field.
QUOTE]
Gerry Anderson is a Brit. Would his brother really have trained at a base in the States?
He used a lot of car names in his other shows also – Stingray, etc, so i would say that was the answer.
By: Dave Homewood - 9th April 2005 at 07:14
Cheers John, I mised seeing the word “there” before (my only excuse is it was early Saturday morning 🙂 )
Thanks.
By: J Boyle - 9th April 2005 at 03:20
Yes, according to IMBb the film was made and set at Thunderbirds Field, Pheonix.
That is interesting about Gerry Anderson, I wonder in what context he heard the name, perhaps through someone who trained there. Don’t the Native Americans call the Bald Eagle the Thunderbird? I guess the station/base was named after them?
A monor correction to my earlier ststement…I double checked my source and Anderson said his brother was trained at Falcon Field in Mesa (just east of Phoenix) and told him there was a USAAF base nearby…Thunderbird Field.
Yes, the Thunderbird is also a native American symbol, hense its use for the USAF flight demonstration team and Ford luxury sporty (as opposed to sports) car.
By: Dave Homewood - 9th April 2005 at 01:07
Yes, according to IMBb the film was made and set at Thunderbirds Field, Pheonix.
That is interesting about Gerry Anderson, I wonder in what context he heard the name, perhaps through someone who trained there. Don’t the Native Americans call the Bald Eagle the Thunderbird? I guess the station/base was named after them?
By: J Boyle - 8th April 2005 at 18:52
There was a WWII Training base named “Thinderbird Field” near Phoenix Arizona. Despite having lived in Phoenix area for two years, I don’t know if it still exisits.
Perhaps someone with the Arizona Wing of the CAF at Falcon Field (another base used to train RAF pilots) could answer the question.
Or you could also post a query on the WIX message board.
BTW: The creator of the “Thunderbirds” TV series, Gerry Anderson, has said that his brother went through RAF flight training there and that’swhen he first heard of the name. Later, he thought it would be a good title for his show.
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April 8, 2005 at 4:37 pm