Mid-Air Collision Footage in Hollywood Film

Recently I watched a 1947 film called 13 Rue Madeline, which is a fictional story about OSS operations in France. Early on a training sequence suddenly cuts to footage of three fighters flying at very low altitude. Two of them get too close to each other and crash. The film then cuts back to a room where trainee are asked questions on what they've just seen.

It seems incredible, both that the crash was filmed and that the footage found its way into a movie. I can't identify the aircraft or the location. Could anyone? The sequence begins at the 2:36 mark of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJBge6syFco

[John Beaman]

Well, these old eyes are not what they used to be, but the a/c look like P-40s and the landscape looks suspiciously like southern California. I'd say this is a clip from the classic movie, "Flying Tigers" starring John Wayne. It was done with models. Hollywood special effects were pretty good back then even to our digital jaundiced eyes today.

[ahafan]

Originally Posted by Rome Colonel

Recently I watched a 1947 film called 13 Rue Madeline, which is a fictional story about OSS operations in France. Early on a training sequence suddenly cuts to footage of three fighters flying at very low altitude. Two of them get too close to each other and crash. The film then cuts back to a room where trainee are asked questions on what they've just seen.

It seems incredible, both that the crash was filmed and that the footage found its way into a movie. I can't identify the aircraft or the location. Could anyone? The sequence begins at the 2:36 mark of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJBge6syFco

Hello
info these were air racing P40s, around 1947.California..they collided as why..
they also featured in a sci fi films. ufos..from space.etc..
Sharon

[Larry]

The crash of the two P-40 aircraft in to the ground does look quite convincing. Although the collision in the air could be models is not too different to collisions witnessed at air shows, so I think the collision is real too.

I don't think US film studios could do such a good job in 1947. And anyway why waste a good bit of film at a time when no one bothered if it upset the pilots relatives, unlike today.

Most films of that period right up to the BoB film, made in 1969 used models on wires that usually catch fire in the air and explode on impact like a firework but nothing like as realistic as in this film.

.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

I knew I had seen this scene before. Here is what I have about it:

A mid-air collision occurred near Spokane, Washington, on the afternoon of July 23rd, 1944. Three Curtiss RA-25A "Shrike" aircraft (the Army’s version of the naval "Helldiver") were in formation, and the two in the center and left collided. Aircraft from throughout the Army Air Forces were slated to fly during an airshow, sponsored by the Spokane Air Service Command, at a natural amphitheater north of Baxter General Hospital, an event with an estimated one hundred thousand onlookers in attendance, as well as a newsreel crew from Paramount.

The airplanes had been circling in an area to the north of Spokane waiting for their turn to fly past the crowd. After a flight of two Douglas A-24 "Dauntless" aircraft overflew the area, the formation of A-25s started to make their approach but still had not received permission to overfly the amphitheater. The flight of three made an S-turned and lengthened their flight path until they received approval. The three Shrikes then made a left diving turn and then a right diving turn toward the spectators. The left most aircraft turned into the center aircraft on the right turn, forcing both aircraft down into the valley below, spraying fuel and burning metal. Pilot 2Lt George E. Chrep and engineer-rated passenger Sgt. Joseph M. Revinskas were killed in the crash of RA-25A # 42-79804; pilot 2Lt William R. Scott and passenger Captain Ford K. Sayre, a noted snow skier on the east coast, were killed in the crash of RA-25A # 42-79826.

The footage was shot by the Paramount Pictures Newsreel crew and can be seen on a documentary titled "The Spectacle of Flight," as well as black & white stock footage in several movies. Stills from the newsreel feature heavily in the official mishap report.

The footage was also used in the 1956 movie "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers", a Sci-Fi classic. In the movie the two aircraft are supposed to collide and crash after being it by a beam from a flying saucer.

Source:
http://www.check-six.com/lib/Movie_Crash.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokane,_Washington
http://www.maplandia.com/united-states/washington/spokane-county/spokane/

[NickM]

Originally Posted by ahafan

Hello
info these were air racing P40s, around 1947.California..they collided as why..
they also featured in a sci fi films. ufos..from space.etc..
Sharon

Right! Ray Harryhausen used this clip in 'Earth Vs the Flying Saucers'.

[Boomerang]

Here is a trailer from Earth Versus the Flying Saucers, which shows the collision, triggered by the aliens' death ray:

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=2o4fd...%3D2o4fdX8gUMY

Don W