After all that effort, money and organization, I feel for those people who’ve obviously broken a gut to try and make this happen, bloody Allison engines, who would use ’em, stick Merlins in it instead.
If the P-51 continues to hammer along at the rate it is, it could well make DX on Sunday, he says hopefully, having arranged a meeting on Monday, though all my clients have been warned that Bollero takes precedence over the next few days, I’m lucky to be able to do that.
Let’s hope the predicted bad weather doesn’t happen, though it’s p###### down here at the moment with quite strong winds from the west.

Nice one, what were you doing up there. That was my old stomping ground when I was a kid, we used to cycle over and watch the ‘Flying Bedstead’ with horror from the safety of the trees, can you believe that ‘The Blue Angels’ once performed from there, those were the days, but nice to see the tradition being carried on.

Pete,

Heres a list of what I know was done as far
as a/c destruction is concerned:

4 Catalina hulks from Orange County were
destroyed for the film. They were wired by
Steward-Davis Inc. who did the Val conversions.

1 B-25J (N9754Z) found at Honolulu airport
was blown up in the hangar scene.

1 of the B-17’s was damaged in a wheels up
landing but it was later repaired. Scene was
actually used in the film.

The P-40 take-off was filmed next-door to Wheeler
airfield and is not the actaul airfield used by
Talyor / Welch on the day which was miles
away at Haliewa.

The hangar was a real one but not sure where
it was – will write more later if you are interested,
I don’t have my notes in front of me right now.

The Japanese carrier take-off (highlight for many)
was done off the USS Yorktown in Dec. 1968 with
almost all 30 Harvard conversions. The Yorktown
was then used to carry all aircraft to Hawaii for
filming.

The only mystery is the ID of the Stearman bi-plane
with an N34307 rego.???? no-one no where knows
anything about this a/c…….

Hope this helps you out.
Simon Beck
http://www.uswarplanes.net

Sorry, I meant to say many thanks for your interesting information but I’ve been hideously busy over the last few days and only managed fleeting glimpses of the thread.
I was interested to note that the carrier used was the Yorktown, you can just about make out the slightly angled flight deck in the film, but I do find this a wonderful scene, taking off into the sunrise as well, does anyone know where the carrier was when it was filmed, presumably the a/c landed back on dry land.

The REAL reason it was considered a failure in the US was it cost $25 million to produce (a lot of money for a film back then) and only took in $14million in the U.S.

Pete, since you quoted the IMDB, a pity you didn’t look up the real reason for it being considered a failure… rather than guessing the motives and confidently speaking for all Americans on what they thought of a film 37 years ago. A bit of a stretch…:D

Other reasons it didn’t do well:
-It was released at the peak if the Vietnam war, no war pictures were doing THAT well back then…(except MASH an anti-war film).
-It got so-so reviews. Look at the IMDB…many reviewers thought it dull…and it does play like a history lesson.
Students of WWII history, ships and planes think its great, but to someone else…it’s a bit “iffey”. (rather like the Battle of Britain film).
-The US lost the battle. This was less than 30 years after the real event…so probably a lot of folks weren’t too thrilled to pay money to go see dad get killed. I doubt if “BoB” or “The Dam Busters” did big box office in Germany.:D

To give you an idea of how your assumption offended me, imagine an American writing that the reason why those films didn’t set German box office records is because they didn’t like the way the UK films painted them as mere targets to be defeated at all costs.

BTW: Has the UK produced a film where it lost the battle? (none come to mind..) If it did, did it make money in the UK ?:D

BTWII : I rather enjoyed the film. A few years later my university showed the film as part of its low cost “:Friday Movie Night”. I took my girlfriend, a Hawaiian of Japanese ancestry.

I apologise sir, I didn’t mean to be offensive, and you are right, I should have gone through IMDB, I usually do, it was a lapse on my part.
I am in fact quite pro-American with regard to the war, they saved and helped a few members of my family a few times, including my uncle on board Illustrious in the Pacific and my old man in Europe several times.
Your reasons are very interesting and valid, Vietnam was not such an issue over here, or was it. I happened to be a student at Portsmouth when the carrier Enterprise paid a courtesy call on it’s way back home from the war. I spent a most amazing night out with members of the crew, I like to think we learnt a lot from each other that evening.

CGI “Rushes” of new Dambusters Movie????

smiles, stirs the pot and sits back to watch it brew

Mark Pilkington

So they are going to use some of those Liberators then.

Incidentally, when you’ve watched the video clip, watch ‘Combat America’, which is advertised afterwards. If you’ve never seen it, you’ll be surprised to see colour footage of Halifaxes landing at Bassingbourne. One of my relatives was on board one of these, they had run short of fuel after a long mission, it’s a long story but they were treated like royalty by Clark Gable himself who personally shot this bit of film, loads more of it must exist somewhere, but where do you find it.

Not much happening at the moment, I keep waiting for the dragonfly larvae to emerge, unless that pike has got them. He’s on his way this week, we’re having a midsummer eve fishing session down the river and he’ll be taken down there and released.
We have a telegraph pole at the bottom of the garden, a large Tawny Owl decided to take residence the other night, our Jack Russell went absolutely mental, he must have good eyesight to spot it.
Apart from that, the Reed Buntings are regular visitors, mainly the female, they obviously have a nest nearby.
One problem we have is that the froglets are all over the place and it’s difficult to spot them in the grass, it had to be cut very carefully over the weekend.

EN830
In which case, I appologise, I obviously missed that bit and agree with your sentiments entirely.
As for Yak 11, the EMU was last seen chasing Michael Parkinson around Jumbo.

Is your Native American name *Two Anoraks Spotting* by any chance?
😀 😀 😀 😀

I was wearing my shorts and tee shirt actually, the anorak stayed on the coat hook, yes, I have got one, though it’s a posh designer thingy passed down to me by my son, he understands the significance and won’t touch it anymore.
If I could find the lead to transfer my video on to here, you will see a lovely bit of filming of a Colchester bound EMU with the Reds appearing in the distance, nice one.

I did chortle over that comment about the Sea Harriers, I found the whole thing quite moving though, especially as I happen to be reading Vulcan 607 at the moment. Unfortunately we were having a fathers day bash in the garden and although I kept nipping into the living room to watch bits of it, I couldn’t seriously concentrate on the progamme, which was a shame.
By the time the flypast was coming up, father in law and I were well into the wine and his tales of escaping from the Russians and East End gangsters were getting quite interesting, but I forced myself to stumble in front of the telly and watch it.
I thought that Mrs T looked a bit of a sad old thing, the only person who seemed to attempt to talk to her was Prince Andrew, a proper veteran, I didn’t like the way that Blair kept his distance from her, I was never a Thatcherite or Royalist, but certain people did their bit and others should appreciate that, I do.