Spectators Balcony (Spotters Corner)If you're not a professional pilot but want to discuss issues about the job, this is the best place to loiter. You won't be moved on by 'security' and there'll be plenty of experts to answer any questions.
i have been watching aviation movies and think they are quite appalling. just think of "turbulence" when did boeing start fitting cd players into their cockpits of 747s?
anyway, main question is, have you noticed that whenever a gun is fired and the cabin is pierced, the aircraft always seems to lose control? surely the cabin pressure would just drop and a warning appears on ECAM or EICAS if your a boeing fan.
i really cant think why the plane would just suddenly lose control......
Well let me put it this way, when pepole go to the cinema they want to see drama and action and there wont be any action if the side of the plane doesnt blow up or a wing falls off or something will there ?
Actually, there is a reason for this. It is something akin to why, when a car leaves the road and continues out of control down a cliff, a fire breaks out on the back seat.
Funny, I still think the origional Airport movie with the 707 and the chap who tried to blow it up was the best aviation movie out there, shame the rest of the airport movies were a bit lacking....747 trapped beneath the bermuda triangle and a loop-the-loop dutch barrol rolling Concorde!!!! Mind you, the only true life movie about aviation is of course the classic...AIRPLANE!!!
Surely the best, most technically accurate aviation film, well, documentary really, was 'airport - the concorde' - when the heroic liner is fired on by a baddie in an F-4 with a sidewinder.
The quick thinking co-pilot winds down the window, and at mach 2 sticks his arm out, fires a verey pistol, hey presto the missile goes for the flare.
Presumably if attacked with a radar guided missile he could have used foil food packs for 'chaff'.
One that does the rounds on telly every couple of years or so is "From Hell to Victory." It stars George Peppard and George Hamilton, so need I say more?
Unbelievably bad, but if you watch it as WWII's answer to Airplane, it's hilarious. The plot's a bit on the thin side - sort of: there was a war; the Americans won. I think that's been done once or twice before, but it's a must watch, honest.
There have been a couple of films about the terrible accident at Sioux City some years ago - the one where the DC10 lost its hydraulics.
One of these films was not bad at all, the other one starred Charlton Heston. Heston has played many memorable parts in many classic films, but this was not one of those films.
In the accident, the flight crew did an unbelievable job in at least getting the aircraft to the airport, with help from a pilot passenger. Special praise was also given to the leader of the cabin crew, a (white) lady who was credited with saving many lives.
And that is where PC comes in. In the film, this heroine's part was played by the Token Black, who played the part of a stupid moron who wouldn't know a DC10 from an AC Cobra. Not only that, she played it very badly, in my opinion.
I still have not decided who or what the producers insulted the most - the profession, the business, women or blacks.
Whay about the orignal Airport. How many airports would threaten to move a stuck aircraft with the snow ploughs The best aviation film I have seen is Top Gun some excellent flying in it Paul
One of my favourite aviation films is a 1955 Ealing Studios production called Out of the Clouds, not because of the story, which in truth is quite ordinary, especially to today's sophisticated film-goers, but because of the contemporary aviation feel.
It was made in colour and features well-known British stalwarts of the day such as Anthony Steel and James Robertson Justice.
The story centres round a day at Heathrow (then known as London Airport) where everything is disrupted by fog. It is almost an early version of Airport in that it follows the lives of various people, passengers and staff, throughout that foggy day.
Best of all though are the extensive location shots of the Heathrow of the mid 1950s, together with much footage of Lockheed Constellations, Boeing Stratocruisers and Vickers Viscounts, to name but three types.
The internal airport scenes were filmed in a studio mock-up and there is not a security barrier, metal detector or armed policeman in sight. The airport restaurant divides passengers who have entered Britain from those who are passing through from one country to another by a rope.
Every passenger seems to be at least middle class and they are all in their Sunday best - distant, never-to-be-seen-again times indeed.
The film is still shown quite regularly on British mainstream daytime television and is well worth a look for those interested in aviation in its halcyon days.
Coming soon? "Pigs may fly" - a dramatisation of a LoCo business plan
Favourite factual program - Air Accident Investigation
Best live events 1. Formation scramble of 4 Vulcans Waddington air show late 1950s 2. RAF Lightning - vertical climb on afterburners from 20ft Woodford Air Show 3. Impromptu Battle of Britain Flight transit overhead on my birthday 4. 2 Concordes landing at Heathrow on // runways - also the saddest 5. Aerobatics in a Hunter 6. First solo Chipmunk T10 7. Lancaster 'bomb run' on Ladybower Dam 50th Dambuster anniversary 8-10 Personal
About the same time as 'Out of the Clouds' was a film called 'The Runaway Bus' starring Frankie Howard as a BOAC coach driver trying to transfer passengers (Margaret Rutherford was one) from a fog bound Heathrow to Blackbushe; they get lost in the Bisley Ranges! It's hilarious.
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Best aviation film
