Blue Max DR1Have stumbled across a cache of Blue Max stuff, which I don’t recall seeing before, though I haven’t searched the whole archieve.
http://rwebs.net/avhistory/wwi.htm
”In the early 1980s, a group called the Fighting Air Command (FAC) was formed to fly WWII aircraft. Then, a number of the aircraft used in making the movie The Blue Max came up for sale in Ireland, and were purchased and shipped to Hartlee Field, near Denton, Texas. There, many of the planes were reassembled and flown by members, including myself. These are some notes and other documents either received with the planes or developed by myself to help others fly them. The F.A.C. was disbanded in the late 1980s and both the WWII and WWI aircraft sold to various new owners. There are also some photos of WWI aircraft, including my own Dr.I Triplane and other Blue Max planes, plus my father, who served in France in WWI.”
”Caudron 277, built by Caudron, serial number 7546/135, N907AC, former EI-ARF, hours unknown. Not currently certified or flyable. This aircraft was modified to play both the British and German two-seaters in the movie. It was heavily damaged in a hangar collapse in Ireland and needs complete rebuilding. ”
Also included is pilot’s notes for all the a/c.
”Notes on Flying the Miles / SE5a Replicas
[These aircraft were not acquired by the F.A.C. and are believed
to have been full scale replicas. We were told that both crashed
during filming or shortly after.]These SE5 replicas have simple handling characteristics and ample
power.Starting
Chocks in place and fire extinguishers at hand. Fuel **** on
(Push on), throttle closed, switches off. Pull ring at top,
right hand side of instrument panel until ground crew confirm
that fuel drips out of the carburetor overflow pipe below the
cowling. Prime with one to two full strokes of the Kigas primer
while the propeller is turned over. Do not over prime or you may
start an intake fire.Throttle set at half an inch open, both switches on and press the
starter button.After starting, check for normal oil pressure and warm up at 1000
– 1200 r.p.m. for 5 minutes when cold. (Oil temperature may not
register in this time)Stick hard back during run up. Check for a dead cut, normal
static revs 2100. Select hot air (Turn T handle and pull) and
check that the engine note changes or the r.p.m. drops indicating
that the control is serviceable. Return the cold air. The
acceptable magneto drop is 100 r.p.m. Check the oil pressure is
normal and the slow running 6 – 700 r.p.m.Taxying
There are no wheel brakes but the steerable tail skid gives very
satisfactory steering in most conditions on grass. Use extreme
caution on concrete as the tailskid gives no control and the
aircraft is heavy and cannot be stopped quickly. Care is needed
to prevent a ground loop after landing on concrete.Vital Actions
Normal pre take off and landing drills should be used. However,
there are no trimmers, pitch control, mixture or flap. The fuel
gauge tap on the instrument panel should be kept in the off
position except then using the gauge as otherwise air could enter
the fuel lines and cause an air lock during steep attitudes. The
gauge is of little value as slight changes in attitude upset the
reading.” etc.
One of the SE5s was lost in a mid-air with the Alouette camera helicopter, over Wicklow Bay, Ireland,during filming of Zeppelin. The other was lost, a couple of weeks later, in a crash on September 16, 1970 during the Richthofen & Brown project.
Blue Max DR1It is not often these days you see two Lancasters together.
The location is a top secret airfield location not too far from London.;)
I think the one in the background is part of KB-976, a Lancaster I flew on July 4, 1964 as the last official RCAF flight for the type. My co-pilot was F/L Ralph Langemann. I then purchased KB-976 from Crown Assets Disposal Corporation for inclusion in my collection of classic aircraft. I had already purchased FM-136, still on display in Calgary.
The rest of KB-976 is in Florida.
Blue Max DR1Thanks Mark,
There are two options
-a shattered wreck:confused:
-a fully restored Stranraer, one of only two extant.:)Guess what my choice (and yours probably as well) will be.
The metal looks to be in excellent condition so perhaps a lot of
material could be incorporated.
Canada still is a haven for extinct or rare aircraft types, but the
restoration record needs to be improved (constructive critisism
chaps).Cheers
Cees
I can remember when this aircraft was still operating. They had to pump the water outof the hull every morning. We were offered the aircraft for our collection in Calgary, but couldn’t manage to move it, just like the Sunderland in New Zealand without engines. Wouldn’t be a problem today, but in 1964 no one was interested.
Blue Max DR1Just finished watching the “Blue Max” on BBC2 and I was wondering what happened to the aircraft used in the film, particularly the SE5 “replicas”. I seem to remember that they were not easy to fly and were in store for a long time after the film was completed. Which Tiger Moths and Stampes were used as “fillers”? My wife and I stumbled on to the set while on a touring holiday in Ireland and it was very strange being spoken to by a “German” officer with a broad Irish accent. The plot may have been corny but the flying was better than the current CGI stuff and Ursula Andress looked good too!
The two full sized SE5s were a charm to fly. They had lots of power, unlike the three D-V11s that had been constructed with tubing that had thicker walls than specified in the plans. The two Pfalz D-111s were a little stodgy but the Fokker Triplane was really the most exciting of all.
I purchased the collection after The Blue Max and did several films, plus a load of TV ads before selling the collection to Allen Clarke’s Fighting Air Command in Texas. He had some problems and the aircraft were dispersed from there. Some stories suggest one of the Fokker D-V11s ground-looped during filming in Ireland. This is not the case. It was wrecked in the United States.
Blue Max DR1Just one question, if Marshalls have not been paid, and im not for one minute saying that this is wrong, but then where has all the money all ready donated gone????:eek: Hole dug and tin hat on :diablo:
Sometimes ingenuity and emotion can overcome common sense.
Six million in any currency is a lot of money.
The concept of operating a Vulcan, on a regular air show basis, is really beyond belief.
Just trying to fly an F-86, when fuel was a fraction of today’s price, was a killer at 300 Imperial per hour at cruise. On the deck it swallowed JP4 at a horrendous rate. Insurance costs are also impossible. Bob Hoover couldn’t absorb the Sabre into his act because of insurance costs.
What commercial operation could afford the risk of a Vulcan hitting a school, hospital…? This type of aircraft should fill a static role.
Blue Max DR1Quite often I see museum aircraft painted in markings or colours schemes that do not match the actual history of the particular airframe. Sometimes I guess it’s done because all original examples are long gone and it gives visitors a chance to see one today in that livery.
For example the Constellation G-GONI displayed at Science Museum store Wroughton is displayed in TWA colours. I wonder why when it could have been displayed as Dutch Airlines KLM PH-TET/PH-LDT (it’s true identity).How do most preservations group feel? I guess a lot has to do with how historically significant the plane is..Many a civil DC-3 is transformed into Army DC-3 in order to create the warbird look or a postwar Lancaster returned back to a WWII configuration that it might never have served.
Just thinking aloud.
I bought a Mosquito from Spartan Air Services in 1963. It had never seen operational service with the RCAF and was produced after the war.. I would have painted it in a wartime camo paint scheme. Now they want to paint it in its survey colors. Not too exciting.
I bought Lancaster FM-136 to build a memorial to the BCATP. When it came time to paint it I just took a wartime photo of VN-N and sprayed my aircraft in those colors. FM-136 didn’t have much of a record. As VN-N it looked great on the pedestal.
I don’t think the public worries about what the purist’s think.
Blue Max DR1FIRST AIRCRAFT FLOWN IN
An ex-RCAF Cessna Crane belonging to McTavish Air Services on the old Calgary, Alberta Municipal Airport, now McCall Field. This was during June, 1946. I believe the airport was an SFTS under the BCATP. This first flight blossomed into a life with lots of flying scattered here and there, something over 100 types and thousands of hours.
Blue Max DR1YESTERDAY
Posted by Blue Max 15 Jan 2007- Search for WW1 survivors thread
Did you not find this when you asked in September?
”Sadly i can, both of the full size SE5 replica’s built by FG Miles for the Blue Max Film were lost in fatal accidents.
Initialy registered as G-ATGV and G-ATGW in 1965 and issued permits to fly. Reregistered to 20th Century Fox Productions as EI-ARA and EI-ARB.
Folowing the finish of filming they were transfered to Shillelarge Productions Inc and were used in several other WW1 films, including “Darling Lili” (see pic)Ei-ARB was lost in an fatal accident on the 18-8-70 in a mid air collision with the camera ship, Alouette G-AWEE, durring the filming of “Zepperin” This claimed the life of all on board the Alouette and the pilot of the SE5.
EI-ARA was lost in a fatal crash at Weston on the 15-09-70. The A/C spun in durring a low level dog fight durring the making of “Von Richtofen and Brown”
This accident claimed the life of my father Charles Boddington, I remember that day like it was yesterday”
So do I. Charles was doing a sequence with Derek Piggott when he crashed.
The entire unit wanted to quit.
I insisted that we press on with the final sequences.
The following day, Derek Piggott and I took off to do the last shot that would show Roy Brown down the Red Baron. I was in our Stampe with actor Don Stroud in the back seat. We had a camera located in front of the cockpit that filmed the back seat, making it look like Stroud was actually flying the sequence. (As a point of interest, I taught Don Stroud, and John Phillip Law, how to fly during the production.) As we swept across Lake Weston at low level ( about 4 feet) a jackdaw came through the propeller arc and hit me in the face, knocking me out. I pulled up into 5 power lines, then snap rolled into the water.
Derek was impressed with the flashes, as power lines broke, and the splash.
Stroud and I floundered around a long way from shore until we were rescued. Two people were given Deeds of Valor – an Irish award for heroism, for their part in the rescue. They swam out to us. Paddy Corcoran and Bruce Morrison. My son was named Patrick Bruce Garrison in their honour.
With my accident, the entire unit closed down.
Somewhere between hitting the jackdaw, and then the water, without thinking, I managed to remove the key from the Stampe’s magneto switch. I found it in my flying jacket pocket some weeks later.
Blue Max DR1Lynn Garrison is now a member
Hello- I am Lynn’s son, and wanted to let you all know that he is going to be able to communicate with you all here. I made this profile for him after our Birthdays had passed, and think it will be nice for all involved to carry the conversations regarding the Blue Max and other collections.
Please send him mails with any questions, and also see the photo album that is included with the profile for him here.
Happy Landings to you all!
Blue Max DR1Lynn Garrison is now a member
Hello- I am Lynn’s son, and wanted to let you all know that he is going to be able to communicate with you all here. I made this profile for him after our Birthdays had passed, and think it will be nice for all involved to carry the conversations regarding the Blue Max and other collections.
Please send him mails with any questions, and also see the photo album that is included with the profile for him here.
Happy Landings to you all!
Blue Max DR1Lynn Garrison is now a member
Hello- I am Lynn’s son, and wanted to let you all know that he is going to be able to communicate with you all here. I made this profile for him after our Birthdays had passed, and think it will be nice for all involved to carry the conversations regarding the Blue Max and other collections.
Please send him mails with any questions, and also see the photo album that is included with the profile for him here.
Happy Landings to you all!
Blue Max DR1Lynn Garrison is now a member
Hello- I am Lynn’s son, and wanted to let you all know that he is going to be able to communicate with you all here. I made this profile for him after our Birthdays had passed, and think it will be nice for all involved to carry the conversations regarding the Blue Max and other collections.
Please send him mails with any questions, and also see the photo album that is included with the profile for him here.
Happy Landings to you all!
Blue Max DR1Blue Max Collection
Hello all- I am proud to have owned and flown the planes in the Blue Max Collection. I can answer questions directly, as time permits, in regards to the history of these aircraft.
Also, I am wanting to open discussion about EI-APW. It has been missing since the mid 1990’s. It was taken, without permission, from where it was stored. Recently, it surfaced on another chat forum, and the folks that have it are not responding to requests to return this stolen aircraft to us.
Please see the photo album that has been created along with my profile here, as there are many other photos of the collection, as well as the photos that Mr Boddington has recently shared.
Hats off to you all, and happy landings!
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