B-17 ceash
The B-17 crash at the beginning of the movie seems to have been filmed for the movie and not “combat footage”. I’m sure there were many 17s laying around in ’49 but any comment?
From the Trivia section:
The B-17 bomber crash landing at the airstrip near the beginning of the movie was no special effect. Stunt pilot Paul Mantz was paid $4,500 to crash-land the bomber. Mantz of course walked away from the wreck. Until the 1970s, that was the largest amount ever paid to a stuntman for a single stunt.
NM
IIRC: They jacked it up and rebuilt it after that!! Most of the actual aircraft were contaminated and had to be buried as they were veterans of early A bomb tests. I cannot remember where I saw this, might have been in a aviation magazine years ago..
Dale
"If those sweethearts won't face German bullets--They'll face French ones!"
I don't have any facts that the crash aircraft was rebuilt, but that's something that many civilians don't understand about bombers, fighters, airliners, and even many civilian aircraft. The have reinforcement and sometimes even direct landing skids built into the bottom of the aircraft. Or they have wheels that extend slightly even when retracted (DC-3, A-10, etc.) so when belly landing you still have some wheels under you.
Many aircraft can be put back into service if belly landed properly on a smooth surface. They're built that way! Unless you slam a plane down hard enough to buckle the fuselage, or break the wing spar, you still have the basic structure available.
Guys: I seem to remember that an article, in a long gone aviation magazine, showed them lifting the aircraft and dropping the gear on this one. They did cheat, they had removed the belly turret to reduce damage...This was the one B-17 used in this film that did not belong to the Air Force, and the site was what is now Cairins AAF at Ft Rucker Alabama. In the 60's, when I went to flight school there, one could find most of the areas where this was filmed....Of course now it is all gone!! Built over by newer facilities.
Dale
"If those sweethearts won't face German bullets--They'll face French ones!"
Actually, all the aircraft were fine EXCEPT the one belly-landed. It was the one contaminated plane and no one could be allowed in it for any more than twenty minutes, but that was more than enough for Mantz, who did the take in one shot. Henry King set up several cameras to ensure that he got it, because it would only be the one shot.
If they propped it up on its gear again, it would only be to use it as a static display - a plane in a hardstand, for instance, because they would not fly it again.