Movie |
Airplane Pilot | World War I
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Budget 5,000,000 USD
Box Office Collection 20,642,922 USD
There are no studio takes in airplanes. All close-ups of actors being airborne were done for real, sometimes with George Roy Hill, a former Marine pilot himself, flying the airplane while directing. Scenes with Robert Redford and Bo Svenson climbing out on the wing were done without any security harness or parachutes.
When Waldo is recounting his fight with Kessler at the start of the movie, he mentions that his guns jammed and Kessler, seeing that he was helpless, saluted then flew away. This actually happened to Ernst Udet (on whom Kessler is based) when flying against the French ace Georges Guynemer in 1917, only it was Udet (at that time inexperienced) who had the jam and Guynemer (a high scoring ace) who let him go.
One of the stunts the movie recounts is the first outside loop. It's the stunt that kills Ezra Stiles. The first person in the U.S. to successfully perform an outside loop was Jimmy Doolittle, who went on to become a hero of WWII.
In keeping with the aviation theme, the film opened with black-and-white Universal Pictures logo presentation in use from 1927 to 1936 which features an old early 20th Century plane flying around Earth.
When Ezra Stiles (Edward Herrmann) tries to do an "outside loop" in a homebuilt airplane, the aircraft actually is a modified De Havilland "Chipmunk". The prototype first flew in 1946.
"Dillhoefer: Now, here's what we do. We put her up on the wing... Duke: And she'll fake being afraid... Dillhoefer: Right. Duke: And the wind will blow her clothes off! Dillhoefer: Yes! Yes! Waldo Pepper: Wait! Why would the wind blow her clothes off? When I'm wing-walking, the wind doesn't blow MY clothes off. Dillhoefer: Fool! Nobody wants to come and see YOU with YOUR clothes off!"
"Ezra Stiles: It's gonna be a monoplane. Waldo Pepper: A monoplane. Are you telling me you're building me an airplane with only one wing? Ezra Stiles: Just thought you'd like to know: the biplane's gone the way of the Dodo."
