What is the best aviation movie?

[retired guy]

An 8 episode series about a fictional squadron (Hornet Squadron) in the days just prior to the British being run out of France, then stationed around Dover. Great scenes of Spitfires...must have rounded up every flyable Spitfire in Europe to make this series. Actually no Spits were stationed in France, several Hurricane squadrons were, however. It`s on disc..got my copy on line. It`s called "A Piece of Cake"

 

[Col Reb]

Retired Guy, "A Piece of Cake" was definitely a great show. Did they really fly a Spit under the stone bridge? It looks real to me.

 

[Pull To Guns]

A couple more of Jimmy Stewart movies come to mind:
"The Spirit of St. Louis" in which Stewart portrays Charles Lindberg in his epic flight.

"No Highway in the Sky" As an aerodynamic engineer in early 1950's Great Britain, Stewart's character tries to warn a commercial aircraft maker of impending catastrophic failure (due to metal fatigue) of the company's revolutionary new airliner design that featured dual horizontal stabilizers.

The movie eerily portends the troubles had by the DeHavilland Comet in the early 60's with metal fatigue.

"Top Gun" in an insult to Naval Aviators everywhere despite some good flying footage.

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

Piece of Cake, was a great series/movie. I remember at the end of the show Allistar Cooke (sp?), the PBS host, stated that some of the old timers were miffed at the display of the "excessive" characters. Moggie's character comes to mind.
Ret. Guy, all the books I have read there were no Spits in France. I speculate there are more flying Spits when the movie was made than Hurricanes - also the Spit is much sexier for the cameras than the old cart horse Cane.

 

[belchfire]

I was sure glad to see that someone mentioned The Blue Max...but they forgot to mention Ursula Andress.

What the hell is this place coming to???

There were some good movies about British flying too. Dam Busters, Suicide of the 731st (don't know if the number is correct), Battle of Britain...

There was a Korean War era movie about early jets in Naval Aviation but I don't recall the title that was pretty good. Almost a prequel to Flight of the Intruder...

 

[414Flyer]

I was sure glad to see that someone mentioned The Blue Max...but they forgot to mention Ursula Andress.

What the hell is this place coming to???

There were some good movies about British flying too. Dam Busters, Suicide of the 731st (don't know if the number is correct), Battle of Britain...

There was a Korean War era movie about early jets in Naval Aviation but I don't recall the title that was pretty good. Almost a prequel to Flight of the Intruder...

Dam Busters was a great movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMfBKrdErY

George Lucas must have stolen a lot of the Star wars sounds effects from it

 

[tomgoodman]

There was a Korean War era movie about early jets in Naval Aviation but I don't recall the title that was pretty good. Almost a prequel to Flight of the Intruder...

"The Bridges at Toko-Ri"? Starred William Holden & Mickey Rooney as I recall.

 

[say again]

The Great Waldo Pepper.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Soul Plane!

 

[Fearless Tower]

"The Bridges at Toko-Ri"? Starred William Holden & Mickey Rooney as I recall.

Could also be 'Men of the Fighting Lady' another F9F movie with Van Johnson and also featuring VF-192 and ORISKANY.....I believe they filmed both movies during the same deployment.

Speaking of Van Johnson, haven't seen anyone mention '30 Seconds Over Tokyo' yet. Another classic.

Another one that deserves mention is the 1948 'Fighter Squadron' with Robert Stack. That movie taught me to stay the heck away from black cats.

 

[andy_paul]

Enjoy
Excellent documentary of the last tomcat pilots

http://www.hulu.com/watch/49206/speed-and-angels

 

[retired guy]

Retired Guy, "A Piece of Cake" was definitely a great show. Did they really fly a Spit under the stone bridge? It looks real to me.

Looked real to me also. I was at Duxford last year and was lucky enough to see a Hurricane make a few high speed passes over the field. That Rolls engine also powered the Spitfire. What a great sound!