My Air Combat movies list - additions are welcome

[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.

[Mel Brown]

I've just joined up but am an avid film buff so here are a few more off the top of my head. Add these to your list in no particular order; WINGS, Catch-22, The Malta Story, The Purple Plain, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, One of Our Planes Is Missing, TORA TORA TORA, A Guy Named Joe, Air Force and ZERO Pilot from Japan. There are many more but these are all good ones. There are some bad ones too like God Is My Co-Pilot, Flying Leathernecks and The Flying Tigers both with lots of gun camera footage if you like it. Fighter Squadron is great for the actual P-47s used post war but it's a silly film. Thanks for the Forum, Mel B

[Franz von Werra]

How about THE HUNTERS? It is not WWII but there's plenty of great flying scenes with Sabres and F84F posing as Korean MiG's.

I did see THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI but I think the book was better.

SPACE COWBOYS has a very funny aerobatic scene with Donald Sutherland.

The 007 series features an ASR Fortress in DR. NO and an Avro Vulcan in THUNDERBALL

THE GREAT ESCAPE contains a scene (my favourite!) in which Donald Pleasance (an actual WWII RAF pilot captured and tortured by the Germans) gets to a plane and flies it.

I read that HART'S WAR, JET PILOT (1950, with John Wayne), EMPIRE OF THE SUN also have great air scenes, but I haven't seen these movies myself. Has anybody of you?

[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

[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

[FalkeEins]

Les chevaliers du ciel

A 'gallic' Top Gun - lots of Mirage 2000 action - check out the clips on the link !

http://www.leschevaliers-lefilm.com/site/intro.html

[Franz von Werra]

Hey, this week I've seen three great aviation movies: Empire of the Sun, The Flight of the Phoenix (with Hardy Kruger) and The Right Stuff, which you absolutely must get it! I bought the double DVD for a nothing. Boys, I love it! I'm surprised no one mentioned it in this discussion.

[gaynako]

I dont think "Empire of the sun" is an aviation movie. Aviation is nor the subject, nor the background. We can see only 2 types of aircrafts :
NA. T-6 "Zero" and a P-51D, and, if you have a good spotter eye, a french Nord 3400 (for a Kokusai Ki-76 ?) on the ground. We can add a large scale B-29 model. Aircraft scenes last only 2.17 minutes (1,4% of the movie lenght).
That's quite poor..

Christian