Strategic Air Command - Film
 

If you're on Sky , Strategic Air Command is being broadcast on Sky Classics at 5pm this afternoon (Sunday 11th November).

A brilliant film - my favourite aviation movie - majestic air-to-air sequences mainly of B.36's as below.

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Agree.

Some of the film shots from the air are superb.

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great movie...james stewart was as real B24 pilot
 

This is a beautifully photographed aeronautical film.

The B36 was a great success as a weapon...it never had to be used.

My favorite part is the GCA into Kadena at the end.

In the movie, when flying the B-47, he utters the phrase "jet penetration" several times. Hmm...anyone know what he is referring to?

Before there was an ATC system with radar coverage and navaids everywhere, "jet penetrations" were a direct transition from enroute to the approach. Sort of like a "High ILS," which I can no longer find an example of. Keeps you from mucking around down low where old jet engine fuel flows were outrageous.

jet Penetration...watching the film closely shows the rear tandem landing gear is down while the front is still retracted...this is used as a speedbrake. the B47 was notoriously ''clean''.

so, you overhead the airport, make a big teardrop turn to intercept the ILS, oh and lose3 10 or 20 thousand feet in the meantime at idle thrust. fuel efficent with minimum of navaids.

I've seen penetrations published on jep plates...but from some time ago.

lots of things have changed over the years...anyone remember:

triangular patterns?
airway markers
DME Arcs
vor displays with colors
PTATEN

yup...oh, and VOR based RNAV?

Recently walked about the B36 at Pima Air Museum in Tucson AZ.

It's magnificent. I wish one could get inside.

Strategic Air Command
 

The Flight Engineer had the best line in the film, ....."..starting number ten"..

Apart from the great air to air stuff for me was the fact that James Stewart could actually fly

these beasts! Three DFC's too in B-24s.

After WW2 he was a Reservist in SAC....

" Throughout his years in the Reserves, Stewart maintained familiarity as a SAC bomber pilot in the B-36, then the B-47, and finally the B-52."

I believe he flew in a B-52 over Vietnam as well - as an observer.

Come on Paramount and get this superb VistaVision film released on Blu-ray. Even DVD would have been nice...:rolleyes:

Raremovies-UK have it listed here:
STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND 1955 JAMES STEWART DVD

other great films
 

the SAC films also include: "bombers B52", and one that is rarely seen, "A Gathering of Eagles"...Nice refueling scenes with B52, and a great emergency ''breakaway''.

great min interval takeoff...and of course the world famous: SacSong.

two other films worthy of note for fine air to air photography..."THE X15 Story" (mary tyler moore's first movie) and "Toward the Unknown".

Sevenstrokeroll,

Wasn't Bombers B52 the one where Karl Malden was a crew chief? If it is, it was something of a let-down (no pun intended).
I have 'Strategic Air Command' and 'A Gathering of Eagles' on DVD, but I've only ever seen 'The X15 Story' at the cinema in the early 60s. Wasn't Charles Bronson one of the pilots? :D

lukeafb1

affirmative to all...charles bronson flew an F100 super sabre ''chase'' plane and then had a hydraulic problem (indicated by a phony looking gauge that said hydraulic problem or something dumb) and then footage of the famous SABRE DANCE was shown.

Yes about Bombers B52...but is the story or acting the star? NO...its the planes. for all of these...granted Jimmy Stewart is the ultimate pilot...flying B36, B47 (movie), B24, B17 (real), He also flew a Constellation (movie), A flying Boxcar (flight of the phoenix) and the smallest one, THE SPIRIT OF ST.LOUIS.

He narrated, "The X15 story". Also a short feature about the B58 hustler.

The next great actor portraying pilots would be Spencer Tracy as Jimmy Doolittle.

And like I said, MARY TYLER MOORE at her lucious best.

Lovely little Freudian slip in SAC. Stewart is supposedly an ex-B17 pilot, when in reality he was ex-B24. When he gets home from his first trip in the B36 he is all excited and talking to his wife says "I used to think the B24 was big..." I guess the diector missed it. Excellent film though, and made all the better by having a real pilot (and a good actor) playing the part.

luke

Bomber B52 was worth it again, for some of the film sequences of planes flying,
especially that trip around the world !!!

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sevenstrokeroll, one of the reasons that the Jet Penetration was either canceled or modified was due to altimeter lag that the old style altimeters had, which were installed in the early jet aircraft.

During my father's career in the US Air Force he was assigned to the Accident Investigation Branch. There had been an F-86 that had crashed at Kirkland AFB located at Albuquerque, New Mexico. The F-86 had been cleared for the penetration and impacted the ground, on course but well below the altitude limit.

So my father flew a T-33 out to Kirkland. The weather was better than when the F-86 had crashed, but was still low enough for my father to use the penetration procedure. I have forgot the altitude he started the procedure, but it was about the same as the F-86 was at.

During these penetrations the Vertical speed indicator would be pegged at the bottom of the scale, not giving the pilot the actual rate of descent. My father came out of the bottom of the cloud deck three thousand feet lower than the altimeter was showing him to be at, heading directly at where the wreckage of the F-86 was. Even then he had pull a lot of Gs to keep from adding more aircraft parts to the wreck of the F-86.

He of course reported this and after a lot more research Jet Penetrations procedures were change and the altitude limit for the procedure were raised. At least until a new type of altimeter was made that could keep up with the rate of descent required for this procedure.

I once sat in the B.47 captain's seat in the cockpit section used for filming. It is at March AFB in California.

hi...B24's were what jimmy stewart flew in WW2 has over 20 missions...he flew the B17 a little bit...so he flew them both.

that is super interesting about the jet penetrations and lagging altitmeters.