High Flight
 

A heads up for the film High Flight on Talking Pictures tonight, 13th October at 17:15
A brief extract from Wikipedia says:-
The film was made at various RAF airfields including Cranwell and Leuchars and released in 1957.
A group of flight cadets arrive at RAF Cranwell to begin a three-year training course to become RAF pilots...The use of RAF Percival Provost piston and De Havilland Vampire T.11 jet training aircraft and operational Hawker Hunter fighter aircraft heightened the authenticity of the film.......One Hunter was converted into a "PR" camera platform, specially modified at great cost, to carry a forward-facing Cinemascope camera. A screen was drawn on the front windscreen of the camera Hunter with a Chinagraph crayon. The pilot was instructed to fill the windscreen with aircraft​​​​​​.
It​​​​​ is on Freeview 81, Freesat 306 and Sky 328

I hate to admit it, but one of the footprints on the way to my wanting a cadetship at Cranwell. mind you, I have never regretted the decision

I recently met at a party a chap who learned in that era and in those aircraft as a National Service pilot. I'm hoping to take him flying soon even though our combined ages are 162. Another link to the film for me is that an old friend's uncle was the main camera man for the film, spending many hours in the back of a Beverly.

As I have recorded before, one A Squadron Towers Flight Commander in '68 (Keith Williamson) himself starred as a Flt.Cdt. in 'High Flight".
(Or rather his boots did ,marching up and down)

Slight but I hope excusable thread drift. A book I read recently 'The Cry of the Jets' by John Du Cane (that was his nom de plume real name John Wilkinson) deals with almost exactly that same period. It is a novel but is very closely based on his experiences as a Flight Cadet and junior pilot before branching off into politics and life as an MP. Before my time but some PPruners may have known him. If you enjoy the film (as I do) you'll almost certainly enjoy the book - at least until it slopes off into Cold War skulduggery and some very un-officer-like conduct.

Quite apart from the aircraft in it, there are some great cars including a MkVII or IX Jaguar and an Austin A99 Atlantic, which is quite a rare beast.

Got it set up to watch later, that's my Saturday night sorted. Mrs TTN can read her book!

I think just before this, as a wealthy bachelor, he treated himself to Jensen Interceptor. It was being delivered to the Mess but was written off before delivery. He was not best pleased.

So which Entry's Graduation featured. Just watched, end was a tadge cheesy but by standards of other aviation based movies, not bad. Hope in reality they inserted the seat pins before rescuing him

By coincidence I've just watched (and enjoyed) it again. A markings question - note how the Provosts sport the Cranwell blue fuselage band but not the usual yellow trainer wing bands (the same markings, or lack of them, applied to the initial batch of Chipmunks too) but the Vampires have both the blue fuselage (tail boom in this case) and yellow wing bands. Can anyone offer an explanation please?

The film will be broadcast again this coming Friday at 1815.

Oh come on Wander00, be honest, it was a load of old tosh from beginning to end, although admittedly it was enjoyable tosh. I noticed the pins too, but if you had been making notes of errors you would be have been well down the second page of your A4 pad by then. The pilot failing to recover from hypoxia after several minutes (never mind several seconds) at low level was a classic one.

Great Hunter shots though. I can never make up my mind if the Hunter or the Victor B1 was the most elegant post war RAF aircraft - Hunter by a short head I think.

Oh and Mrs TTN put her book down and said she enjoyed the film.

Dont`cha just love that mournful wail(blue note) of the Hunters doing aeros...don`t remember hearing it in the jet.....
Thought Section Commander Harvey might have been in it to keep Beagle happy...!!
Great flying by all the guys involved.....

Well that was great fun, thanks for the 'heads-up,' the locations and the camera-ship info. Some lovely low flying, loved the pairs approach for the wheels-up landing.

The first time I saw High Flight was in 1968 on a small screen B&W TV at the De Parys Guest Housein Bedford, where a number of us were being accommodated during our Flying Scholarship course at Cranfield. Every so often we'd have to put a coin in the meter attached to the TV, which meant we missed parts of the film. But now I have a copy of High Flight on DVD, which is of much higher quality than the rather washed-out version showed on Talking Pictures TV yesterday. A pity that they didn't use a better copy.

'Section Officer Harvey' would have been about 18 when the film was made :ok: , but was at RADA at the time.

If you watch the clip of the single seat Vampire taking off, it actually clips the grass before only just missing the camera crew. The low flying Provost shots were astonishing - imagine the nanny state allowing such things these days!

YouTube will now occupy a wet and windy morning ... thanks for the tips!

A few changes between single seat and 2 seat Vampires too. Seemed an odd time for the Hunter blue note - thought had to be fast and low level

One could criticise 'continuity' on several occasions, including the 1 Sqn Hunter joining 43's. However, as a bit of 'period PR fluff' it was quite enjoyable. Made a change from reading Forums on a Sunday morning. :)