Operation "Credible Sport"

[rp122]

My mash of some video of the testing of an idea for rescuing US hostages in Iran in 1980.

The mash titles explain the basic mission idea, incredible as it was.

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The downward facing rockets failed on the last attempt, but the idea was sound.

Now go take a look in Google maps for the US Embassy in Tehran and the nearby football stadium that was to be the landing field.

Complete "Thunderbirds" idea, but for real.

The hostages were released after negotiation prior to this operation being put into effect.

That last C130 crashed in testing, but all crew survived.
(My understanding is that the fires were put out within ten seconds of the aircraft coming to a stop)

Full story here
Operation Credible Sport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Credible_Sport)


I think there's the basis of a great action film here, but if you promoted it as 'based on true events', well....

[BarbiesBoyfriend]

The surviving 'Credible Sport' Herc is at Warner-Robbins AFB museum in Georgia.

[vecvechookattack]

Awesome...... I bet those rockets would shut the goggles down.... Wow.

[rp122]

Surviving C130 -

index (http://www.museumofaviation.org/C130.php)

[Two's in]

At least you clould claim 0.1 Actual for every landing.

[West Coast]

Always make the first turnoff as well.

The T/O mid tape was impressive. The ground roll seemed to be no longer than the length of the aircraft itself.

[barnstormer1968]

Thanks for posting this.
There have been many different videos of the test on the internet for some some, as well as audio from the cockpit, but I have not seen this video before.

Although it should have possibly been realised that stopping a C130 in flight, to land in a stadium, would massively stress the wings (with the results being obvious in some tests), this was a very impressive triumph of engineering in such a short time!.


At the time of the hostage rescue attempt, I was impressed with the planning of the op, and considered it's failure as very bad luck. With the passing of time, it has become more clear that the move of the hostages was not by pure chance, and that it was not pure co incidence that the hostages were freed at around the time Reagan came into power!

[rp122]

"There have been many different videos of the test on the internet for some (time), as well as audio from the cockpit, but I have not seen this video before."

It's a mashup. I took the best of the rest, cleaned it up, and added the graphics and music.

Many thanks to Jean Michel Jarre for letting me use your music like this...

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It's an amazing piece of film with an even more amazing and little-known story behind it.

Review the mission profile -

Flyfrom USA to Iran using 5 refuels, land in stadium, fight and rescue hostages, take-off from stadium with everyone onboard.

"and..."?

Land the C130 on an aircraft carrier.

There's got to be a great movie in this.

(You could even add the political angle to help present-day relations with Iran by highlighting the fact that things were in the end solved by negotiation).

[barnstormer1968]

rp122.
But who would make this movie?
Bearing in mind that secret negotiations had already doomed the rescue mission to failure, and that those same negotiations were responsible for the release of the hostages, at a pre planned time, to make a certain politician look good (to discredit his rival, rather than for the benefit of the hostages!).

On the face of things, this was a very risky mission, thwarted by Col Beckwiths ever present bad luck (not his fault, it just seemed to go that way for many of his operations), but in hindsight, and IMHO yet another loss of life for brave souls after politicians did their meddling, rather than helping.

[Duncan D'Sorderlee]

Barnstormer,

Why would this proposed film have to be based on a tru story; Hollywood have never let the truth stand in the way of a good story before!

Duncs:ok:

PS Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all (well nearly all;)) at PPRuNe!

[rp122]

I think someone hinted that there may be some cockpit audio online for this film.

It would be cool to remix this with that included, so as to make a more defintive version.

Any pointers please?

Any requests to improve the graphics to make a more definitive version?

(I'm thinking of adding Google maps stuff here, to show the 'impossible' landing site)

Any pointers to the proposed mission track?
A story to be told better perhaps.

Even better - more pointers to the final aircraft carrier landing scenario.
Any film out there to show a C130 carrier landing I can mix-in?

[TEEEJ]

C-130 carrier footage at the following

YouTube - C-130 Hercules 798 aircraft Carrier landing and take off on CV-59 USS Forrestal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QymXO8fUP2g)

YouTube - C-130 Carrier Landing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF-PZpaFVOc)

TJ

[rp122]

Good try TJ,

I found some longer and cleaner footage here (off the back of your links)...

YouTube - C 130 Hércules Landing on a Carrier (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sa3OGnFGlA&feature=related)

You have to use the very best source footage possible, as it will degrade during the mashup process.

[TEEEJ]

No problem, Rp122.

All the best with your project.

TJ

[barnstormer1968]

Duncan D'Sorderlee (http://www.pprune.org/members/116303-duncan-d-sorderlee)

Good point.
Look at 'The hunt for Red October' for example. Same name, but very different story (and vessel) in real life

Happy Christmas to you and everyone else too:ok:

[rp122]

Here's a share -

Because the video has so many views, YouTube Insight kicks-in with Hotspots data that shows which parts of the video people liked along the duration of the video.

This information I cannot show you, but I can tell you, as the uploader.

At the start of the video, I show some text that sets the context.
The viewers appear to hate that.

I'm losing views from the word go, only to recover quite well midway and then see a steady decline in interest thereafter.

So viewers - do you really hate intro text on videos?
What's the limit?
5 secs, 10 secs for intro titles?

In this video, viewers decline for the first 40secs before a recovery.
In other videos I make, I try to keep the intro text to 5secs or so.

So yeah, maybe I should have spotted that 40secs is FAR too long for an intro.

I'd appreciate some feedback on this whole issue from you online viewers.

Video intro stuff - how much are you willing to put up with online before the 'meat' of the presentation?

I'm learning as I go here, and I suspect even seasoned producers are.

So what say you to the duration of online video intro-segments?

Help us producers make stuff that you like better and not waste your viewing time...