SA318B Alouette II Astazou G-AWAP (unknown location) in 1968
The
Maestro Dennisimo wrote on page
46: ...
just to say I surely worshipped the wonderful John Crewdson who in the 1970s after I left Royal Air Force planking ... showed me so much of the rotary world. As time allows, I'm putting together a story of his incredible career.
This being the case you will doubtless visit his exploits surrounding the production of the 1962 movie 'The War Lover'
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In 1959, novelist John Hersey’s "The War Lover" was published, creating the story of a volatile B-17 combat pilot who enjoyed his job just a bit too much. The setting was a fictional B-17 bomb group operating from England with the Eighth Air Force. Columbia Studios adapted the book for the silver screen in 1961. The film was shot in England, arrangements having been made to utilise Bovingdon airfield as the fictional bomb group’s base. A number of British war films, including 633 Squadron (1964) and Mosquito Squadron (1969), were also filmed at Bovingdon.
Nothing like a good buzz job to get the juices flowing! In this case one of the War Lover's ex-PB-1Ws being flown by John Crewdson for a key scene in the movie. Crewdson flew the airplane solo for the sequence (Photo: David Kay)
Sadly, no story covering the life of the late great John Crewdson would be complete without reference to the ill-fated Alouette topping this post and seen above in 1968 wearing 'Film Flight' titles.
Crewdson bought her in 1974 and operated her for a decade until that fateful day in 1984 when she met her demise. An image of the corroded bolt attributed to causing the detachment of AWAP's main rotor (as well as the link to the accident report) can be seen in post
518 on page
26.
Brilliant Stuff wrote: Sav please tell you had oxygen for your high jinks ..
For the benefit of our freshman flyers .. Absolutely! [cough] Yes!
.