My Air Combat movies list - additions are welcome

[Franz von Werra]

Thirteen days - U2 shots are great, but the F-8F scene (with real Crusaders!!) is magical and shows the uncanny courage of pilots who faced "birds" (hits from AA) only armed with cameras. For all those who think that recce is an uneventful rear-echelon job...

[Mark Beaumont]

Ok it may not be a film, it is a series but for me- Piece of Cake has some of the best flight scenes containing WW2 planes ever. The Heinkel 111 is also real, as are the two Me 109's (although the Spanish version with British built engines produced after WW2) and the Spitfires (though historically inaccurate) range from Mk1 to Mk 1X versions. There is also a scene where a Spitfire is flown under a tiny bridge by one of the Hanna family and it is just superb, as well as scenes of 109's and Spitfires dogfighting over the white cliffs of Dover!

[Klaus Schiffler]

The Blue Max is one of my favorite war movies. The replica Pfalz D. IIIa is particularly convincing except the wooden fuselage which was never covered with the lozenge fabric. The two Fokker Dr. I triplanes would also never have had the lozenge fabric. I assume the monoplane at the last part of the movie was supposed to represent the Fokker D. VIII. I never read the book but looked at it in a book store and I seem to remember that Hermann Göring was a part of the plot.

[Martin Bull]

I don't think anyone's mentioned Appointment In London ( 1953 ). Script co-written by John Wooldridge ( ex Bomber Command ) and starring Dirk Bogarde as 'Tim Mason' - based on characteristics of Guy Gibson.

Some very good Lancaster footage but a creaky script, overshadowed by The Dam Busters.

[gaynako]

Yes, in the "Blue Max", at the end of the film, the Morane Saulnier 230 is supposed to be a Fokker D VIII. But the scene remembers a real one which took place on the 3rd July 1918, at Berlin Adlersdorf airfield. That day, Goering flies a prototype, a Zeppelin-Lindau (Dornier) D1. Reinhard, the Richthofen's successor, wants to try it just after, and... a wing breaks loose; Reinhard is killed ! Goering will replace him at the head of the JG 1.

Christian

[gaynako]

Here is a (non exhaustive list) of air combat films (WWI, WW2, Korea, Vietnam) :

20000 men a year
633 squadron
Above and beyond
Ace of Aces
Aces high
Aerial gunner
Air America
Air Force
Air Force bat 21
Angels one five
Annapolis story (An)
Appointment in London
Army surgeon
Battle of Britain
Battle of the Eagles/Partzanska eskadrilla
Battle of the V1 (The)/Missiles from hell
Beginning or the end (The)
Behind enemy lines
Bombardier
Bridge too far (A)
Bridges at Toko Ri (The)
Command decision
Dam busters
Dark blue world
Dawn patrol
Dawn patrol /The flight commander
Desesperate journey
Destination Tokyo
DIII-88/The new German Air Force Attacks
Dragonfly squadron
Eagle and the Hawk (The)
Eagle has landed (The)
Enola Gay
Fifth offensive (The)/Sutjeska
Fighter attack
Fighter squadron
Fighting American (The)
Fighting seabees (The)
Flat top/Eagles of the Nest
Flight nurse (The)
Flight of the Intruder (The)
Flying fortress
Flying leathernecks
Flying tigers/Yanks over Burma
God is my co-pilot
Gun bus/Sky bandits
Hanover street
Hell below
Hell's angels
Hell's horizon
Hunters (The)
International squadron
Jet attack
Journey together, the story of the RAF
Kampfgeschwader Lutzow
Lafayette escadrille/Hell Bent for Glory
Malta story (The)
Memphis Belle
Men of the fighting lady
Midway
Mission over Korea
Never so few
Night plane from Chungking
Objective Burma
One minute to zero
One of our aircraft is missing
Operation Crossbow/The Great Spy Mission
Pearl Harbour
Pilota ritorna (un)/Return of the pilot/
Purple plain (The)
Sabre jet
Sea shall not have them (The)
Ships with wings/Find, Fix and Strike
Shout at the devil
Sink the Bismarck
Sky commando
Son of Lassie
Stukas
Suzy
Target for tonight
Target unknown
Task Force
Thirty seconds over Tokyo
This man's Navy/Air squadron 4
Thousand plane raid
Thunder birds
Tora ! Tora! Tora!
Tuskeejee airmen (The)
Twelve o'clock high
Von Richthofen and Brown/The red baron
War lover (The)
Way to the stars (The)/Johny in the clouds
We've never been licked/Remember Pearl Harbour
Wild blue yonder (The) (Story of the B 29 superfortress)
Wing and a prayer/Story of carrier X
Winged victory
Wings
Wings for the eagle/Shadow of the air
Wings over the Pacific
Yank in the RAF
Zeppelin
Espoir. Sierra de Teruel
Instinct de l'ange (L')
Normandie-Niemen
Baltiskjoe Nebo (Baltic sky)
Battle stations
Battle taxi
Berlin via America
Bespokoinoje Chozjasjtvo (Falsely Equipped)/Trouble business
Burning the sky
Courage under fire
Divine soldiers of the sky
Dora crew (The)/Besatzung Dora
Doroga K Zviozdam (The way to the stars)
Flames in the sky
Gente dell'aria
Geschwader Fledermaus/Bat squadron the
Here come the jets
High Flight
Khronika pikurujujtjrgo Bombardirovsjtjika (The story of a dive bomber)
Legion Condor
Legion of condemned (The)
Luciana Serra pilota
Mesta tut Tichije (Calm places)
Muzjestvo (Bravery)
Nashe Serdtse (Our heart)
Nebesnyj Tichochod (The sky flight)
Nebo Moskvy
Night witches of the sky/V Nebe Nochnye vedmy)
Pathfinders (The)
Power dive
Richthofen
Sky raider (The)
Squadron leader X
Tactical assault
Under fire
Weep people of Japan, the last pursuit plane
Wings of the sea
Le grand cirque

Best


Christian

[Franz von Werra]

Lucky you, I wonder how you can have seen so many movies in your life. I only know a handful of these, and the rest might have disappeared from Blockbusters also.

[gaynako]

I dont say I have all those films; I only got 2/3 rd of them; its very difficult to find japanese, russian or even italian, movies. As an aviation movie collector (all subjects), I spotted 956 aviation films. I think that more 1500 have been shot since the beginning of the 20th century, the great period being the thirties.

Today, I have 526 films on VHS or DVD.

Best

Christian