Category Archives: Aviation

The Ten Best American Aviation Genre Films of All Time: A Highly Personal and Idiosyncratic List

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test pilot

A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer still photograph of Clark Gable, the star of "Test Pilot," a film directed by Victor Fleming in 1939.

I am sure that my selections for the ten best American aviation genre films will be hotly contested. First, let me clarify what I mean by “aviation genre.”  The aviation genre is defined by the manner in which an aviation film pays attention to characterization, values, actions, and iconography.  Broadly speaking, the genre is about professional pilots as masculine heroes, who band together in a tightly-knit community, and who do dangerous work. In large part they have little or no regard for life outside aviation, are somewhat misogynistic, and they are fatalistic about life. They wear pilot gear and their work is set in an environment surrounded by aircraft and the iconographic trappings of aircraft.

I contend that the most outstanding aviation genre films contain these elements, and that for my money, the most representative of them were made during the 1930s and 1940s, a time when aviation was a new and revolutionary technology. After that, the generic elements changed somewhat, in keeping with the times and shifting political and cultural conditions, but not enough to make the genre as exciting or relevant as it was during the Golden Age of aviation and throughout World War II. There are exceptions.

Some will no doubt be disappointed that I omitted foreign films—the excellent British film One of Our Aircraft is Missing (Michael Powell, 1942), or the equally fine Breaking the Sound Barrier (aka The Sound Barrier), directed by David Lean in 1952, for example. Or, that I excluded documentaries—William Wyler’s classic The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress from 1944 or Target For Tonight (Harry Watt, 1941), a British film about a Royal Air Force Bomber Command Vickers Wellington bomber and its crew.

Twelve O'clock High

A movie poster that advertises "Twelve O’Clock High," a 1949 film directed by Henry King for Twentieth Century Fox. Gregory Peck stars.

Also, some may be miffed that I didn’t consider aviation disaster movies like William Wellman’s The High and the Mighty (1954) or Airport (George Seaton, 1970) or even the cheeky spoof on aviation disasters, Airplane! (Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker, 1980). Other films like Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb is not really an aviation genre film or aviation film at all—it’s about nuclear holocaust. The excellent Flight of the Phoenix, directed by Robert Aldrich in 1965 (not the 2004 remake),  and starring James Stewart, is a movie about an airplane and the survival of its crew and passengers under impossible and even improbable conditions. And, although Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (Ken Annakin, 1965) is one of my personal favorites, it doesn’t conform to the generic formula. Although it does conform, Top Gun (1986) did not make the cut because while it has some of the finest flying scenes ever filmed, it is cliché-ridden and full of immature fantasy.

Finally, there are no television productions on the list; I was concerned primarily with feature films made in Hollywood that typically espouse American values and portray American notions of masculinity and courage—the “Right Stuff,” as Tom Wolfe characterizes it.

So, I offer for your consideration, the following in chronological order:

  1. Wings (1927)—Wings is the first true aviation epic film, and the advent of the aviation film genre. It was directed by William Wellman, and based on a story by John Monk Saunders, who won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story. The film stars Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, and Richard Arlen. It won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1929.
  2. The Dawn Patrol (1930)—Howard Hawks refined and redefined the aviation film genre with this examination of stoic men who face death in air combat during World War I. This version, which stars Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., is rarely if ever seen on television and is not available in VHS or DVD. The more well-known 1938 version, directed by Edmund Goulding, which stars Errol Flynn, used footage from the original and keeps the exact story line.
  3. Test Pilot (1938)—Directed by Victor Fleming (Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, both 1939), this film stars Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy. Test Pilot largely follows Hawks’s Dawn Patrol formula. The difference is that as the war in Europe approaches, the individualistic and often reckless test pilot-hero (Gable) reluctantly makes accommodations to the demands of his Air Corps compatriots and his family.
  4. Only Angels Have Wings (1939)—Howard Hawks’s classic tale of unsung mail pilots who face both love and death under difficult circumstances in a remote region of the Andes Mountains. This film stars Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Richard Barthelmess, with a bit part by Rita Hayworth.
  5. Air Force (1943)—Howard Hawks again, although this time the team represents the idealized values of aviation combat heroes in a much different context than the individualistic WWI aviators portrayed in The Dawn Patrol. Air Force hews to the preferred narrative for WWII Hollywood films; i.e., an ethnically diverse, self-sacrificing group that is honorable and working together towards an Allied victory.
  6. Twelve O’Clock High (1949)—Henry King’s poignant portrait of the Organization Man at war, starring Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, and Gary Merrill.  In many ways, this film is a continuation of themes Hawks developed in The Dawn Patrol; i.e., group effort versus individualism, and the psychological and emotional price a leader must pay for sending men to their deaths.
  7. The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)—This film, adapted from James Michener’s novel of the same name, and directed by Mark Robson, examines the nature of combat pilot-hero bravery and its demands during the Korean War, an era in which the genre formula begins to break down. It stars William Holden, Grace Kelly, and Frederic March.
  8. The War Lover (1962)—Based on a novel by John Hersey, directed by Philip Leacock, and starring Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner, this film, along with The Bridges at Toko-Ri, marks the beginning of the break with the traditional master narrative of the combat pilot hero in the post-WWII era.
    9. the right stuff

    A Ladd Company still photograph of Sam Shepard as Charles E, “Chuck” Yeager, the legendary test pilot, in Philip Kaufman’s "The Right Stuff" (1983).

  9. The Blue Max (1966)—Directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, and Ursula Andress, this film revisioned the WWI aviation combat genre for the postmodern era. The Blue Max exposes the politics and nationalism behind the competition among combat pilots to become aces. In the days before computer graphics effects, The Blue Max contains some of the finest flying sequences ever put on film.
  10. The Right Stuff (1983)— Based on Tom Wolfe’s book  and directed by Philip Kaufman, this film stars Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, and Dennis Quaid. It is a brilliant and nostalgic tribute to test-pilot Chuck Yeager and the values of the pilot-hero in the post-heroic space age.

Fortunately most of these films are available in DVD, and in some cases, Blu-ray Disc format. Also, many of them have appeared on the Turner Classic Movies channel. All have synopses and some are reviewed in the TCM database.

Dom Pisano is a curator in the Aeronautics Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

Vought Aircraft Heritage Foundation Retirees Finish Vought V-173 “Flying Pancake” Following 8-Year Restoration Effort

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Flying Pancake

Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake" (Jay Miller photo).

On February 10, 2012, retired Vought employees officially rolled out the one-of-a-kind Vought V-173 Flying Pancake, following eight years of painstaking restoration work.  The Flying Pancake dates to World War II when the Chance Vought Division of the United Aircraft Corporation built and flew the airplane to test Charles H. Zimmerman’s theories about extremely low-aspect ratio wing design that allowed an aircraft to fly at very slow speeds.  Among the airplane’s novel features are the two large wooden prop-rotors powered by a pair of 80 HP Continental A-80 engines.  More of the history and additional technical details about the Flying Pancake are available in the curatorial web essay.

Vought retirees moved the aircraft to Dallas, Texas, in 2004 for restoration.  Early next month, the retirees will move the Flying Pancake to the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field near Dallas and the museum will unveil the airplane to visitors on April 15.  The National Air and Space Museum accepted the aircraft from the U. S. Navy Bureau of Weapons in September 1960 because the design approach to low-speed flight represented by the Flying Pancake was so unusual.  The aircraft will remain on loan from our Museum to the Frontiers of Flight Museum for at least ten years.  It is one of almost 30 Museum aircraft on loan throughout the United States.

 

Flying Pancake

To maintain wing lift at the slowest speed possible, Vought mounted large prop-rotors at the wing tips, and designed the left prop-rotor to turn counter-clockwise (as viewed by the pilot) and the right prop-rotor to turn clockwise (Jay Miller photo).

 

cockpit

Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake" Cockpit (Jay Miller photo).

Vought retirees carefully cleaned the cockpit, stuffed a new seat cushion with the kapok that had spilled from the original, and replaced three missing instruments but otherwise, they left the area untouched.  The retirees carefully preserved original wear marks seen on the trim wheel left of the seat, the two rudder pedals shaped like stirrups, and various struts and braces.  Vought test pilots Boone Guyton and Richard Burroughs, transatlantic flyer Charles A. Lindbergh, and other pilots made these marks while test-flying the V-173 during test flights totaling 131 hours in the air.

 

Russ Lee is a curator in the Aeronautics Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

The Pilot as Hero in the Aviation Film Genre

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The relationship between film, history, and mass culture is especially intriguing when we examine the correspondences between the representation of pilot-heroes in film and public perceptions of aviation. These connections are applicable during the heyday of the aviation genre film—the interwar years and WWII. For many years, films in the aviation film genre have been overlooked by scholars because they were perceived to be formulaic and cliché-ridden. While this charge may be true, these films contain important elements that confront and resolve problems of the individual pilot versus the group, and of the individual and group versus the outside world. Moreover, the best of these films not only reflect but often define American notions of heroism, masculinity, responsibility, and nationalism.

The aviation films of Howard Hawks—The Dawn Patrol (1930), Ceiling Zero (1935), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), and Air Force (1943), seem to me to be the solidifying force in the definition of the aviation film genre and the genre’s significance in molding public perceptions of masculinity and  heroism, particularly during the 1930s and WWII. More than any other director of his era, Hawks was responsible for defining the aviation hero in popular film, and the generic elements in his aviation films helped to reinforce the popular image of the pilot-hero. The formula Hawks established for heroic behavior in his aviation genre films can be seen in other film genres like the Western and the combat film.

Dawn Patrol

A First National Pictures (Warner Brothers) still photo from "The Dawn Patrol" (1930), directed by Howard Hawks. "The Dawn Patrol" solidified the aviation film genre by focusing on a group of professional military pilots in WWI who face danger and death stoically.

Hawks’s The Dawn Patrol, made in 1930, set the standard for portraying pilots in a dramatic wartime situation. The Dawn Patrol blended the realism of William Wellman’s Wings (1927) and Howard Hughes’s Hell’s Angels (1930) with more fully developed generic elements. More than any other WWI air combat film, The Dawn Patrol redefined and reinterpreted the genre, by exploring the psychological pressures and stresses of wartime flying. These tensions are characterized by situations in which fighter pilots must come face to face with their impending death and the death of their comrades, and by the emotional difficulties faced by squadron commanders who must send young men to die.

The film chronicles the 59th Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps during 1915, when the RFC was suffering severe casualties at the hands of the German air force.  Squadron Commander Brand (Neil Hamilton) faces the difficult task of sending young and inexperienced fliers to fight the Germans because so many of his veteran pilots have been killed.  Flight Commander Courtney (Richard Barthelmess) accuses Brand of butchery, but finds himself in the same position when Brand is promoted and Courtney becomes squadron commander.  Nerves stretched to the breaking point by the pressures of command, Courtney finds that he must send the unseasoned younger brother of his best friend Scott (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), into battle.  Scott’s brother is killed, and Courtney’s relationship with Scott is damaged irreparably.  Courtney himself takes on a suicidal mission that Scott had volunteered for and is killed.  At the end of the film, Scott finds that now he must assume the duties of command, re-initiating the deadly cycle.

Hells Angels

A dramatic but perhaps doctored United Artists still photo from Hell’s Angels (1930), directed by Howard Hughes. Originally shot as a silent, the film was remade as a talkie. Hughes went to great lengths to film the aerial combat footage, and he designed many of the dogfighting scenes himself.

The paradigm below outlines characteristics that are the most integral elements of the WW I air combat film genre as defined by The Dawn Patrol: 1. Characters:  the men of The Dawn Patrol are a closely-knit set of professionals who perform a difficult task and who adhere to their own carefully defined code of conduct.  2.  Values:  In The Dawn Patrol, the male characters unite into a fraternal organization with a code that stresses stoical adherence to professionalism, honor, and responsibility to oneself and the group. 3.  Actions:  Although very much part of a group, the men of The Dawn Patrol are involved in individualistic combat with chivalric overtones set against a backdrop of impending doom.  4.  Iconography:  Many of the iconographic elements of the air combat film originated in Wings.  The Dawn Patrol, however, contains visual elements that have become trademarks of the genre.  Pilots are costumed in leather coats and helmets, and outfitted with goggles, scarves, and winged insignia.  Aircraft are both authentic WWI-vintage aircraft and 1930s era aircraft made up to look like WWI airplanes (e.g. in The Dawn Patrol, Travel Air 2000/4000s and Standard J-1s). Flight maneuvers, filmed by aerial cinematographers, include spectacular crashes, complete with smoke and flames.  Sound effects are commonplace and consist of aircraft engines, machine guns, and often a dramatic musical score.

Also, because the characterizations are so heavily masculine (a reflection of the male-dominated world of aviation in the interwar years), women in these films tend to be either non-existent or not essential. Aviation is thought of as a man’s work; women need not apply.

Only Angels Have Wings poster

A Columbia Pictures poster from Only Angels Have Wings, directed by Howard Hawks in 1939. The film, which stars Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, deals with a group of unsung pilots who fly mail and dangerous cargo in the fictional town of “Baranca,” set in the Andes Mountains.

The cultural impact of the narrative patterns of the genre on the audience was to mythologize the aviator, romanticizing and dramatizing his persona somewhat out of proportion to actuality, and reinforcing the notion that the pilot-hero could resolve the most severe cultural conflicts concerning the fear of technology and the loss of democratic ideals and values in the twentieth century. Another reason The Dawn Patrol struck a chord with audiences may have to do with the time in which it was made—the first year of the Great Depression. Financial hardship was on everyone’s mind and themes of wartime courage and group solidarity could easily be adapted to times of economic despair. The Dawn Patrol could thus be seen as celebrating values of teamwork, of “sticking together,” of community and sharing, contrary to the values of acquisitive individualism inherent in modern industrial capitalism.

The conventions of the WWI air combat film genre, as represented by The Dawn Patrol, eventually evolved into those common in the aviation genre films of the 1930s, the WWII air combat film, and beyond.  Eventually, however, the genre began to stagnate.  The Western and the combat film genres underwent significant changes during the Cold War, and especially after the Vietnam War, often questioning—and sometimes abandoning—the traditional values they had championed earlier.  The air combat genre, for the most part, maintained its traditional attitudes and values.

Has the aviation genre film become irrelevant? Perhaps. The notion of heroism in the early twenty-first century is much more complex than at any time in American history. If Hollywood were perhaps willing to renegotiate the aviation genre film’s formula to conform to a postmodernist mode of discourse, might it not be revivable?  Hollywood appears unwilling or unable to deviate from the winning formula of the past, and there is no guarantee that drastic changes in the formula would be widely accepted and successful at the box office.

Nevertheless, the formula prevalent in the aviation genre film, which extols without irony, the manly virtues of pilot-heroes, is simply outdated in this post-heroic age. Piloting an airplane may be looked upon as a dangerous but not particularly heroic activity. This is perhaps because aviation has become so all-pervasive and familiar that no one thinks much about it. The exoticism of aviation, so prevalent during the interwar years and extending into the 1960s, is a thing of the past. If the mystery and romance of aviation exist at all, they do so in terms of nostalgia for a bygone era.

Dominick A. Pisano is a curator in the Aeronautics Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

Red Tail Stories

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I would like to think that I’ve always known the inspirational story of the Tuskegee Airmen—the groundbreaking pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group.  (The first African American military aviators in the racially segregated armed forces during World War II, whose bravery both in the air and on the air field lead to Truman signing Executive Order 9981 desegregating the armed forces in 1948).

Sadly, when I started at the National Air and Space Museum almost eight years ago, I did not.  The first family program I produced, African American Pioneers in Aviation, had for many years featured the Tuskegee Airmen.  Since I had limited time to develop a new program, I continued the tradition—and fell in love.

 

tuskegee

The Tuskegee Airmen at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC in 2011 — Standing Room Only

I have invited them to every African American family day since then and have been inspired by their stories. I also have stories about them.  There are too many to tell all, but here are few.  One year, we had NASA astronaut Col. Alvin Drew as a featured speaker.  The Tuskegee Airmen decided that they wanted to hear him speak.  I ran ahead to ask visitors if they minded giving up their seats for the Airmen.  Not only did they give up their seats without question, but one gentleman took off his hat, held it to his heart and said “it gives me chills to see them here listening to the astronaut.”  Another year, a featured speaker was former astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space.  One of the Tuskegee Airman asked if I thought they could meet Dr. Jemison.  Of course I immediately escorted them to her, and I cannot tell you who was more excited about the meeting.

Tuskegee & Jemison

Former NASA astronaut, Dr. Mae Jemison, meeting members of the East Coast Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen.

This last story speaks to what is so good and true about these men.  They did their jobs with bravery and a special type of courage—the will to succeed when so many people assume you will fail just because of the color of your skin.  Yet, they are often modest about their accomplishments; although generous in sharing their time and memories with those who want to hear of them.

I invite you to learn more about the Tuskegee Airmen.  Come visit the Pioneers of Flight exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, or visit the online version.  Here you will learn about the early African American aviators who paved the way for the Tuskegee Airmen, and about the importance of their legacy.  Or, you can try out an online interactive and fly a mission with the Airmen. Want to meet some actual Tuskegee Airmen?  Come to the National Mall Building on Saturday, February 11, 2012 or to the Udvar-Hazy Center, on Saturday, February 24, 2012 for African American Pioneers in Aviation Family Day.

The National Air and Space Museum’s African American Family Days are part of the Heritage Family Day Series, sponsored by Northrop Grumman Corporation.

Mychalene Giampaoli is the family programs coordinator for the National Air and Space Museum’s Washington, DC building.

Blimp!

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The newest arrival in the National Air and Space Museum’s inventory of historic aircraft is the C-49 airship control car. Produced by Goodyear Tire and Rubber, it first took to the air as the pressure airship  Enterprise (NC-16A) on August 23, 1934. The craft operated in the Washington, D.C. and New York metropolitan areas until November 1941, when it was flown back to Wingfoot Lake, Akron, Ohio to serve as a training craft. Early in WW II it patrolled northern Ohio checking on compliance with blackout regulations.

 

good year

The Goodyear blimp Columbia N4A, utilizing the C-49 car launches from the Marine Corps Air Station , Tustin, Ca. circa 1978.

Acquired by the US Navy in 1942, the craft was shipped to Moffett Field, California. Re-designated L-5 it spent most of the war as a training craft but saw some patrol duty. Re-acquired by Goodyear on January 24, 1946, the control car was rebuilt to operate with the new GZ-20 class commercial blimps in 1969 and registered as N4A on May 12, 1970. It was back in the air once again as the airship Columbia IV in July 1975, and remained in service for over a decade, logging thousands of hours of passenger flights, night sign messaging, and corporate service.

Black Sunday

Black Sunday

The control car saw duty over the 1977, 1980, 1983, and 1985 Super Bowls; the 1981 and 1984 World Series; Rose Bowl games and parades; and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. It starred in the Hollywood thriller Black Sunday (1977) and made appearances in several other films. C-49 spans much of the history of the pressure airship in America and represents the wide range of military and commercial roles played by blimps. The car was permanently retired in 1986 and made its final journey to the Smithsonian in November 2011.

The arrival of this historic control car provides an excuse to offer some thoughts on the etymology of the word “blimp.” First, some basic definitions. All Zeppelins are dirigibles, but not all dirigibles are Zeppelins. A dirigible is any powered lighter-than-air craft capable of maneuvering. For the linguistically fastidious, a Zeppelin is a rigid airship manufactured by the Zeppelin Company, or by Goodyear-Zeppelin, the American firm that produced the two great U.S. naval airships,  ZRS-4, USS Akron (1931-1933), and ZRS-5, USS  Macon (1933-1935).

Rigid airships have internal frameworks of metal or wood that gives the craft its shape. The lifting gas, hydrogen or helium, is contained in large gas cells inside the framework. Non-rigid airships, or pressure airships, maintain their shape only because the pressure inside the envelope, or gas bag, is slightly higher than the external air pressure. Let the lifting gas out and the envelope is an empty bag lying on the ground.

Pressure airships are commonly known as blimps. The origin of that term has caused a good many arguments. One story relates to an English officer, Lt. A.D. Cunningham, RN,  who entered a hangar containing a pressure airship in 1915. He was unable to resist plunking his finger on the gas bag, which produced the sound “blimp.” By noon that day his mess mates were applying the word to their gas bags. Another accounts claims that Horace Short, the famous British aircraft builder, took one look at an early Sea Scout airship, with a B.E.2C airplane fuselage hanging beneath a gas bag, and immediately dubbed the thing a blimp, commenting, “What else would you call it?”

Whatever the origin of the name, blimps have been delighting us since the late 19th century. C-49, one of the longest-lived of all Goodyear airships, will proudly represent her kind for generations to come at the Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center.

 

C-49

Goodyear C-49 airship control car

 

Tom D. Crouch is a senior curator of the Aeronautics Division of the National Air and Space Museum.