If Stachel was such a good pilot...
why didn't he recognize the danger of the monoplane's weak struts and land?
shareMy take on it was that Hauptman Otto Heideman was a more experienced pilot than Stachel and was more sensitive to whatever warnings or danger signals the plane gave. Plus, Stachel knew that Heideman flew the plane first, then was ordered by the Field Marshal, "Everything checks out! You can take her up! And let's see some real flying!" (BTW, in the book, Heideman got killed flying the monoplane.)
shareI agree. Stachel was a talented newcomer to flying, but lacked the years of aeronautical seasoning & experience that allowed Heideman to detect the subtle airframe flaws that a relative novice could easily miss - or, with the sense of invulnerability (i.e. recklessness) that often comes with youth, not concern himself with.
shareThanks, jloper, for pointing out that Heideman got killed flying the monoplane in the book. I didn't know that. It explains a lot. I always had a problem with the movie ending, too, even as a 9 year old kid seeing in the theater for the first time. I have a hard time believing Stachel wasn't experienced enough to notice the plane's instability. He was extremely talented, and he was even warned about it when he was invited to examine the model of the monoplane in the designer's wind tunnel.
shareThe point in that scene is that he obviously didn't know enough about aeronautics to make any kind of informed comment on the design - he'd been only flying for less than a year by then, after all. He also wanted to impress the Field Marshal with his enthusiasm anyway. Heidemann would probably have spotted the flaws in the design straight away (as he did when he flew the plane) but he wasn't given the chance. Stachel accepted von Klugermann's answers without question (about the plane's performance and manoeuvrability etc) and merely said what he knew VK (James Mason) would want him to say.
shareSPOILER ALERT:
I was surprised by the ending because the novel on which the movie was based had a sequel, and I believe (I didn't read the first novel or the sequel) Stachel was alive for World War II and (from glancing at the dust jacket) was coming into conflict witth the Nazis.
It's not that Heideman is better or more experienced than Stachel. It's that Heideman is already disgusted with the Field Marshal and in no mood to play along. The feeling I got was that Heideman did the absolute minimum in the air, playing it as safe as possible, as much as a protest over Stachel's being honored as anything else. Stachel himself, on the other hand, feels like he's being honored and elevated to glory and is in no mood to play it safe. In his own mind he's already a god, and there's no need for caution. He's like Icarus, flying too close to the sun!
"We're all gonna die up here, Spock!" James T. Kirk
I don't know that Heidemann was that much more experienced than Stachel. The first plane flew just 11 years before the outbreak of WW1. The war caused their development by leaps and bounds but they were still feeling their way with the very concept of flying aircraft, and pilots were losing their lives testing the limits of what was possible and impossible.
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."