Mistakes in Aviation Films

[Peter Barron]

Just been watching 12 O'Clock High again, great film, but in one scene when the formation of B-17s are being attacked while on their raid they are attacked by a Spitfire.

Has anyone else spotted mistakes in any other aircraft films ?.

Peter.

[Ex Oggie]

Not quite an aviation film, but did anyone catch the recent re-run of an episode of Poirot? Set at a very Art Deco 1930's airfield (Cambridge?) with a Seneca in the line up of aircraft on the pan, and a C152 taxying past the camera with its flaps dangling having just landed.

ExO

[reynoldsno1]

Tom Cruise was a mistake in Top Gun, or any movie for that matter. Actually, the whole movie was a mistake....

[Genghis the Engineer]

"Air America". All of it.

"Fly away home", the bit where an engine failure immediately causes an ultralight to enter an unrecoverable spiral dive (which is then survivable when he hits the ground).

"The Right Stuff", the proximity to clouds of all the high speed test flying. (And, for that matter, much of the rest of the bits about the planning and conduct of test flying).

G

[Dan Winterland]

Not a flying film, but 'Cromwell' had clearly visible contrails above the battle of Naseby!

[AerBabe]

Oi, Genghis... that was a Mel film! Mmmmmel....

"Flying Virus" was particularly terrible. It was inaccurate both in its flying and its virus. For example, at one point the staring aircraft (I can't remember what type, but it was carrying a good number of passengers) executes a steep turn in about 4 aircraft lengths. :confused:

[reynoldsno1]

"Air America". All of it.
The bit with the Porter landing on the uphill strip was quite good, otherwise I agree....

I came, I saw, I concurred....:hmm:

[Genghis the Engineer]

Aerbabe, are you sure it wasn't just Danny flying ?

Reynolds, okay, all but 20 seconds for that landing, and another 10 seconds so that Aerbabe can admire that Australian chappie. That's ½ minute worth watching out of about 80 minutes !

G

[pigboat]

Fate Is The Hunter. It was so bad Ernie Gann totally disassociated himself from it. In one scene, where the aircraft is flying up the fiord toward Bluie West One, it's a DC-4 instead of a DC-3, they have three engines feathered and you can actually see the wires holding up the model.
There was another piece of excrement on TV awhile ago - can't remember the name. It featured a Beaver on skis. The airplane was being flown with no cowling, a plywood cargo door on the left side, and wing tanks.:yuk: :yuk:

[innuendo]

A couple of shadows in Doctor Strangelove are definately not of a B-52 and the models are a bit obvious at times but I can forgive all, for one of my all time favourite movies. Too many good lines to quote here. Well just one " Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room"

[XL5]

Airplane! , released in 1980. Stared Lloyd Bridges and Peter Graves. Many of the SOPs are of a highly questionable nature and, more than once, B707 clippage is accompanied by the droning sound of a propellor driven aircraft. The sequel was just as bad.

[WHBM]

Any film (there are so many) that features that stock footage from Boeing of a 747 centre landing gear retracting after liftoff, flmed from a camera mounted under the belly, just has to be bad .....

I'm sure you know the clip I'm referring to. Presumably Boeing made it available free of charge.

[RabbitLeader]

In The First of the Few the "prototype Spitfire is seen with a bulged canopy - and later on (after the test pilot taxies in) it has a PR-type canopy (the type with the bulges on the sides)!!

[Lukeafb1]

XL5,

Er, I think you've missed the point somewhere.:p

(Mentioned this before on another similar thread) "The Hunters", Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner. When Lt. Corona is trying to land a terminally damaged F86F, it mysteriously turns into an F100 for the stock footage crash!

[CoodaShooda]

This is a thread of almost infinite length.

Much more manageable would be a thread on "Aviation Films with No Mistakes".........except I can't think of any titles to start it with :\ :rolleyes:

[Duckbutt]

XL5,

I think you've missed the point somewhere.


But that's not important right now!

[AerBabe]

Are you sure XL5 wasn't being ironic? :hmm:

[No comment]

Sure it was Iron Eagle II...

One of the heroes shouts "MiG-29s" just as a couple of Phantoms wheel overhead... great stuff

[BeauMan]

An amusing, and rarely noticed, bit in the otherwise excellent "Battle of Britain" is the pair of 'Me109's tagged on as bogus Hurricanes at the back of the Polish formation.

"Rippit Pliz" zoooooooooooooooooom

"Rippit Pliz" zoooooooooooooooooom

"Rippit Pliz" zoooooooooooooooooom

:D

[Evanelpus]

The James Bond film with the Vulcan in it.

Entering the bomb bay through the door from the crew compartment....CLASSIC!!!

[wub]

How about Conan Doyle's 'Lost World'? Where a group of explorers take off in a Sikorsky S-55 to reach the top of the plateau where the lizards, with the frills glued onto their necks, live.

Cut to in-flight scene of about five of them standing in the 'S-55' cockpit, gazing in awe at the scenery :hmm:

[Genghis the Engineer]

Virtually all of the aviation stuff in whichever Die-Hard film it was (3?). In particular the C-130 with ejection seat, bulletproof cockpit, a harness that our hero could strap into in about 3 seconds... Not to mention the ILS where a simple keypress could reset the ground downwards a couple of hundred feet.

G

N.B. Re: the James Bond film, I thought that the Vulcan was only acting and was pretending to be some fictional V-bomber called a Vickers Vindicator.

[Saab Dastard]

Was this (http://www.aerofiles.com/moon_A20.jpg) an out-take from Catch-22, I wonder?

The bum-aimer's position, obviously! :)

[AerBabe]

Air Force One?

[Xeque]

The High and the Mighty

and that film from the Neville Shute book where the tail falls off due to vibration.

Scary stuff when you're only 11 years old

[Bus429]

I think that Neville Shute film was "No Highway" and the featured aircraft was the "Reindeer". It seemed to be the horrid result of the coupling of a Viscount and...a reindeer!

I watched one the other day featuring external shots of a 747-200 with cockpit shots of a "747-400" (at least I think it was).

My family hate me watching films like this with them. You can guess why...
:ok:

[Ex Oggie]

Anything filmed in a Herc when you can talk to each other, plenty of duffers there!!

Recent film about smoke jumpers on the Beeb, when a nice big shiny red button fired both extinguisher shots, feathered the prop, closed the fuel taps, shut the engine down, applied rudder and trimmed it all out so it could be flown hands off. Can I have one of those in my cockpit? :ok:

ExO

[Orange Arm Waver]

The Bond film "Living Daylights" where the C-130 becomes a C-123... :mad:

[Woomera]

Xeque "...where the tail falls off due to vibration"

Bus429 That was the "Nomad". It seemed to be the horrid result of the coupling of a DHC6 Twin Otter and a BN2A-MkIII Trislander, carried out in a nefarious science experiment in an Australian high school biology laboratory!

:} :} :}

Woomera

[Lukeafb1]

Which airforce one, Aerbabe? There's loads of ones about the Air Force.

Irony, nah, not on Prune!:p

[VP8]

The Bond film "The world is not enough" when the AN124 gets a IL76 nose job in computer graphics!!

VEEPS

[fintan]

Top Gun, MIG 28's aren't they F5's

[Genghis the Engineer]

Top Gun, MIG 28's aren't they F5's Acting again !, no worse than passing Sean Connery off as Russian.

and that film from the Neville Shute book where the tail falls off due to vibration. I confess that I've not seen the film, but have read the book a couple of times, and the theory is absolutely spot on. (As you'd expect given the author's credentials.)

I've just remembered two more.

(1) The recent James Bond scene where they start and fly away in an R22 thrown (no engine running) out of the back of a C-130 at low level.

(2) (Numerous offences) Film showing the outside of an airliner, then cutting to the cockpit where the pilot advances - a different number of throttle levers to the engines fitted to the aircraft.

G

[VP8]

(1) The recent James Bond scene where they start and fly away in an R22 thrown (no engine running) out of the back of a C-130 at low level.

wasn't that "The world is not enough" ??

If so it was allegedly out of the back of the AN124 and chopper was an MD thingy.......:}

Takes anorak off

VEEPS:D

[Gainesy]

633sqn, no fin visible in cockpit shots.

Numerous, Harrier engine noise (accel checks in particular) fits any jet aircraft.
Numerous, sound of rotors running down as helicopter settles.
Numerous, Bell 47 sounds fit any helicopter.

I usually get berated for shouting at the TV:( :)

[Orange Arm Waver]

VP8
- "Die another day" was Bond 20... (think it was an MD600)...

Takes bigger chunkier anorak off!!

OAW:ok:

[surely not]

News reports about recent events at LGW which feature footage from the early 90's with Air Europe aircraft taking off!!!!!!!

I can't remember the film, it wasn't a spoof, but the a/c alternated between being a DC8 and a DC7!!!

[Gainesy]

Dangerman TV series when I were a lad; the 007-type hero would routinely take off in a BEA Viscount and land in a BOAC 707 and vice versa. A few times it was take off in BOAC land in Pan-Am.:)

[BeauMan]

And of course every movie which features an airborne disaster scene - when the engines fail somehow a glide descent manages to sound like a Stuka-esque bombing attack. :rolleyes:

[Duxford_Eagles]

Mosquito Squadron - the biggest mistake was making a film without having a plot that ran to more than a beer-mat.

The use of airfix models on the end of fishing rods for the flying sequences was particulalrly laughable.

Rob

[Zlin526]

XL5,

Comments like that are even funnier than the film!!:8

[Genghis the Engineer]

Did anybody ever work out in the pilot film of "The six million dollar man", why when Steve Austin was supposed to be a "rebuilt" Test Pilot it was vital for him to rescue a pilot from gaol just so that he could nick a DC3? Why didn't he just fly the thing himself?

G

[PLovett]

Can't remember the name of the film but it was one of the "quickies" made after the Israelis rescued the hijack victims from Entebbe.

After the rescue all make way back into C-130. Shot of engine start showing large radial with lots of smoke and sound of large radial engine starting.

Also any film with cockpit shot of modern transport category aircraft showing either, both pilots with hands on controls or even scarier, hand flying said aircraft.

[RabbitLeader]

Not a big mistake, but a historical inaccuracy:

The Fokker E.III in Aces High (from 1916) flying against the SE5a (from 1917)...

Still, one of my all-time favourites!

[The SSK]

I'm pretty sure that the aerial scene in 'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines' - flying across France and being overtaken by a train - has the cooling towers of a power station in the background

[Maxrev]

Where do you start? Worst offenders are TV movies, like the one where they had an AAR KC10 'fill' the cargo area of a 767 with water 'to get the nose down' after the elevators stuck upwards. Rubbish.

How about 'Airport 80' aka 'The Concorde' where they shoot down an air-to-air missile through the cockpit window with a flare gun? Unlikely!

I thought Air Force One wasn't too bad, apart from a few glaring differences in the cockpit layout.

Also the sequence where the MD-11 goes down in 'Castaway' is one that seems pretty realistic to me, apart from the jet engine still whirring round despite being detached from the wing!!!

[RabbitLeader]

When the B-17 crashlands at the start, it comes down on one wheel and the port wingtip. Two prop blades break off (clearly a model) and go flying away.

Next time you see it, the Fort has all four props, bent backwards...

[Peter Barron]

Memphis Belle.

The whole film was a mistake, nothing like sticking to a true story.

[Dan Winterland]

At least when the BBC made Pride and Predjudice, they tried to make it authentic by getting Cranwell to stop using Barkston Heath while they filmed at Belton House nr Grantham. There was a circuit ban until 1400. Unfortunately, one day had a snag getting one scene right. After many takes, they finally got it right at 1401 - just as I flew overhead at 250' in a Tucano. Doh!

[Synthetic]

The battle of Midway. An aircraft with a large single radial crashes onto the deck of a carrier. As the front section of the aircraft emerges fron the smoke the nose has become pointed, with an intake either side of the fuselage, near the canopy. Ooops:\

[AdLib]

Battle of Britain.

1. Grumpy squadron boss (no I can't remember his name or the actor who played him) emerges from front door of cute cottage, gazes all steely into the dawn, dons ubiquitous flying jacket (UFJ) and totally fails to notice electric 'Avon lady type' door-bell on door frame ...

2. Chirpy Flt Sgt informs staish that spares are in short supply, staish says "well see what you can do", when should have filled in RAF Form 398567 in quadruplet etc ... oh lord!

[RabbitLeader]

Bugger... I had thought of one earlier....!

Umm...

Yeah....

Oh wait....

No, 's gone.. :(

[Dop]

Not a film, but thoroughly laughable was that Doctor Who story where they load the TARDIS onto Concorde and fly it back in time to the prehistoric era, despite the lack of runways or jet fuel in them days...!
And no, I'm not making it up (http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=6c)!

[CoodaShooda]

TV showed that waste of space "Pearl Harbour" last night. I only caught glimpses as doing the dishes seemed to be more entertaining ... but....

Would a yank flying in the Battle of Britain really have turned up at his RAF squadron in full US Army Air Force uniform?

[RabbitLeader]

I would think not...

Plus he couldn't "volunteer" if he was an acting service pilot, could he?

In any case, it's NOT the Battle of Britain... :mad:

[astir 8]

Never mind the big movies, what annoys me are the "factual" documentaries on the History & Discovery channels etc where they clearly just reach into the film bin marked "black & white WWII aircraft" & you end up seeing clips of Manchesters where they mean Lancasters, cannon armed Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain etc etc etc

[RabbitLeader]

One HUGE howler in Pearl Harbor is where Ben Asslick is doing his Yank in the RAF part, and he reckons he's got "two MEs dead ahead."

One of them has elliptical wings, mate! ;)

[Lukeafb1]

One bit of Pearl Harbor has confused me since I first watched it.

It appears that Affleck was adrift in the Channel for something approaching 3 MONTHS!

Why else did it take so long for his friends in the States to find out that he was still alive??

Unless I missed something, it was a damn bad show on the part of Air Sea Rescue!!:p

[treadigraph]

Personally I found the Pearl Harbour CGI animations laughable compared with the live action (but very good if you like computer games...) Tora Tora Tora seemed much better!

[QNH 1013]

Only watched a bit of "Pearl Harbour" but I was irritated to see the "pilots" of WW2 S/E fighters wearing period, but non-aviation, headsets that would have fallen off their heads if they had performed anything more adventureous than gentle circuits. Couldn't be bothered to watch more of the film, and from what I have now heard I made the right decision.

[White Bear]

I wonder if there is a notice board somewhere where Doctors, Nurses and Patients, especially old patients, amuse themselves pointing out the mistakes made during filming hospital scenes?

Do you think they would make fun of English Doctors accents, their use of Latin, and criticize nurses uniforms because British nurses are still required to wear skirts in this modern day and age? What would they make of James Robinson Justice storming down the halls and wards of Guy's, in those 50's hospital drama/comedies that were so popular then?

How about that scalpel, did you see that! Never seen the like!. How could they have been so stupid! Don't they know AAR 14 Mk II scalpel was not introduced into service until a full 6 months after that scene was set!!! And those pillows...........

Or is there I wonder, a CSI web site that is swamped with vindictive over the mistakes, and oversimplifiation made by the poor television actors trying to portray the very complicated life and job of a CSI operative?

Easy lads and lasses, I know the criticism is mostly in fun, but every so often I get more than a hint of arrogance and pedantry, reveling in others mistakes no matter how well intended. If it's a documentary then shame on the maker for not getting it right, but if it's a film then it's only for our amusement, just for fun. The intent is for you to 'suspend your disbelief" just for the length of the film, OK?
Regards,
W.B.

[Iron City]

Don't know that "Memphis Belle" was that great a movie, they probably didn't listen much to their tech advisor, Col Morgan, the pilot/A/C Commander. He died last week.

[RabbitLeader]

In the sequence where Ben Assf*ck gets the wind knocked out of him, the Buchon is seen flying behind him, and you can easily hear the cannons and machine-guns firing - but there's no muzzle flash from the wings or the cowlings.