Author Topic: “The Flight of the Phoenix” (1965) (Read 2502 times)

Jim Hoffman · « **on:** August 24, 2014, 11:40:35 PM »

Sadly actor Richard Attenborough died today at 90

He played the British Navigator for the Fairchild “Flying Boxcar” C-82 / C-119.
Jimmy Stewart played the pilot.
Hardy Krüger played the German “airplane” designer, Heinrich Dorfmann.

Below is a link to a clip of the immortal scene when Richard Attenborough’s and Jimmy Stewart’s
characters find out the ‘airplane designer’ is actually a model plane designer.

Enjoy, Jim Hoffman

Larry Fernandez · « **Reply #1 on:** August 25, 2014, 12:43:58 AM »

One of my favorite movies of all time.
Is my memory correct, in that the pilot of the Phoenix was killed during the filming of this movie?

Larry, Buttafucco Stunt Team

Randy Cuberly · « **Reply #2 on:** August 25, 2014, 12:52:12 AM »

Richard Attenbourough was one of the Great actors of his time. He acted on the stage as well as movies.
Sad to hear that he is gone.

"The Flight of the Phoenix" is one of the all time great movies in my opinion, and had very moving and realistic emotions displayed in it. Jimmy Stewart said that it was one of his favorite roles and that it actually made a very lasting impression on him during the filming process.

Thanks for the memory Jim!

Randy Cuberly

jim gevay · « **Reply #3 on:** August 25, 2014, 05:14:39 AM »

"The Flight of the Phoenix" is one of my favorites too, although it's kind of a dark movie for me. In the movie some of the darker sides of humanity come out, and the fact that Paul Mantz died in the making of the movie. I'm a big fan of Paul and all the movie flying and racing he did over the years.

Richard Attenborough was a great actor and director with a long career in the industry, sad to see him go.

Paul Smith · « **Reply #4 on:** August 25, 2014, 06:16:14 AM »

Mantz and Tallman were the aviation stunt consultants to the movie. It's now amazing that they actually tried to fly the contraption. Today they would have just cartooned it with CG. That sort of risky business made old movies worth watching.

Harsh reality? Is this what you meant?

German: I estimate that we can live three more days if we carefully ration our food and vater.
Englishman: We might live longer if we immediately stopped feeding the injured men.
German: Dat, of course, vas assumed in my original estimate.

john e. holliday · « **Reply #5 on:** August 25, 2014, 08:28:43 AM »

The story I read said he was killed making a second flight with the plane as he didn't think the first flight was not good enough for the film.

Great actors and great movie. Just like our modelers we are getting to the age we are losing too many too fast.

John Eyer · « **Reply #6 on:** August 25, 2014, 08:53:02 AM »

He's crazy Lew, he builds toy airplanes"

Capt. Frank Towns Flight of the Phoenix

Dan McEntee · « **Reply #7 on:** August 25, 2014, 09:02:25 AM »

"A toy aeroplane is something you wind up, put down and it rolls around on the floor!"

In an old Air Progress magazine there is a story on the production of the movie. The "plane" was actually built from the parts of a C-82 Packet. When they test ran the engine, the vibration was tremendous, so the installed a smaller engine, one from a T-6 I think. I don't know how many flights they attempted with the machine. In the final sequence where they over fly the oasis, look closely and you'll see it's not the title airplane, but looks to me to be a Skyraider with a butchered up canopy and stuff hung on the wings to resemble the title airplane. Great movie. The catalog they flip through looks like it may have been a Graupner item. Paul Mantz's death is acknowledged at the end of the movie, "It should be noted that Paul Mantz, a fine gentleman and great aviator, gave his life in the making of this picture." Or something to that effect.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee

Avaiojet · « **Reply #8 on:** August 25, 2014, 09:11:14 AM »

The crash of that built aircraft is available on U-Tube. Not sure if that one was where the death resulted.

HOLLYWOOD, had an opportunity to produce a fine sequel, but as HOLLYWOOD often does, they made a mess of that second film.

roger gebhart · « **Reply #9 on:** August 25, 2014, 01:56:32 PM »

When I was a kid i worked at the Talmantz museum collecting parking money and wash a few airplanes. This was at Orange county airport (now John Wayne). This was when the airplane was being run up and down the runway either as taxi tests or failed flight trials. Either way it did not fly and looked to be a real handful. This is the opinion of a 15 yr old kid so take that at face value. The movie was great but at a terrible cost. Cool place to work at the time. rog

Michael Massey · « **Reply #10 on:** August 25, 2014, 04:27:07 PM »

When I was much, much younger, I met Tallman at Torrance, CA airport. He was on crutches at the time and as I recall from my dad's account (from that time) his injury was from a skate board accident and that is the reason Paul Mantz was flying the plane for the movie.

billbyles · « **Reply #11 on:** August 25, 2014, 09:19:48 PM »

Quote from: roger gebhart on August 25, 2014, 01:56:32 PM

<snip> This was at Orange county airport (now John Wayne).

Hi Roger,

The name may be (and is) officially "John Wayne" airport, but when you fly in there if you call "John Wayne tower this is Skybolt 39WB..." they will correct you to say "Orange County" airport this is Skybolt 39WB..." So much for the name change.

billbyles · « **Reply #12 on:** August 25, 2014, 09:22:51 PM »

Quote from: Michael Massey on August 25, 2014, 04:27:07 PM

<snip> He was on crutches at the time and as I recall from my dad's account (from that time) his injury was from a skate board accident...

Hi Michael,

Frank Tallman was standing on the back of his son's go-kart and his foot slipped off breaking his ankle (just trivia.)

Randy Cuberly · « **Reply #13 on:** August 25, 2014, 09:25:17 PM »

Quote from: billbyles on August 25, 2014, 09:19:48 PM

Hi Roger,

The name may (and is) officially "John Wayne" airport, but when you fly in there if you call "John Wayne tower this is Skybolt 39WB..." they will correct you to say "Orange County" airport this is Skybolt 39WB..." So much for the name change.

I was told once that the Terminal was named for John Wayne but that the airport was still officially the Orange County Airport. I don't know about the actual veracity of this statement...The guy that told me that was actually an Air Traffic Controller...and you know you can't believe anything those guys say!!!

Randy Cuberly

Mike Keville · « **Reply #14 on:** August 25, 2014, 09:56:35 PM »

Quote from: Randy Cuberly on August 25, 2014, 09:25:17 PM

...The guy that told me that was actually an Air Traffic Controller...and you know you can't believe anything those guys say!!!
Randy Cuberly

================================================================
...unless that guy happened to be working the L.A. TRACON...and who knows what he's talking about. And we all know who THAT is, right?

Jim Thomerson · « **Reply #15 on:** August 26, 2014, 06:46:09 AM »

I've seen a couple of pictures in Aeromodeller of a rubber powered (I think) flying scale version with the people on the wings.

MarcusCordeiro · « **Reply #16 on:** August 26, 2014, 07:23:09 PM »

The old version is way better than the new one... But then again, nowadays everything seems to be like that...
Great movie!!
I've even named one of my ships "Phoenix"

Marcus

Mike Scholtes · « **Reply #17 on:** August 26, 2014, 09:51:46 PM »

According to Wikipedia there were two flying aircraft seen in the film. The primary one was built for the film using the outer wing panels of a Beech Model 18 and a fuselage from steel tubing with plywood formers and skin. It actually won a Type Certificate and is known as the Phoenix P-1. This is the craft that crashed, killing Paul Mantz. A second flyable stand-in was built from a rare North American 0-47A, an ugly and obsolete-by-1941 liaison airplane. The one we see most of in the film, being dragged while Captain Towns manages the throttle, is a non-flying stage prop, though a big and dramatic one. The film was produced and directed by someone named Aldrich so I guess the model plane reference was inevitable. My favorite line, which my wife heartily endorses, is "He's crazy Lew ... he builds toy airplanes!"