Flights of Fancy [NOT 26/2/22]

Saturdays Are Right For Flying

I’m free as a bird?

As a kid, I wanted to be a astronaut/fighter pilot that is till reality in the form of lousy eyesight grounded that dream in a hurry. Still though, I love aviation, aviation models, aviation movies and youtube videos (the camera eye view of drones dogfighting or racing are part of my current youtube jam.) I was thinking of using another movie, but I figured Top Gun was overused.

The one plane that will always grab my attention is the alleged 120 day wonder that was designed by a German Edgar Schmued, originally built for the Brits, but ended up being the main fighter of the US Army Air Force in World War 2, the P-51D Mustang. I like jets, but I’ll always be a fan of the Merlin powered pony of WW2. It is one of the planes that I would like to fly in (as a passenger because I’d probably die if I were the pilot-the Mustang or any other agile plane is not forgiving to the novice) that is on my personal bucket list.

But flight isn’t always about warplanes (really? Especially considering what is going on in the Ukraine…) or other powered flight and often involves nature.

What flying thing/person/event/of fancy/anything else captured your attention?

What movie about flight or somewhat related to flight do you enjoy?

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29 Comments

  1. I was just watching a documentary on Kareem Abdul Jabbar and along the way they talked about Airplane! and how it helped soften his reputation as aloof and humorless.

    My wife and I will always quote it and refer to it while flying, starting with parking the car and referring to no parking in the red zone….

  2. aces high was a good one

    im scared of heights tho…………so dogfights up high will never be my thing

    but hey if you need someone to lie their way past security

    gifted liar me….

  3. My dad was a Marine F4 Phantom squadron leader in Vietnam.  He flew in the end of Korea too.  He told me about meeting Pappy Boyington so I was very into Baa Baa Blacksheep as a kid.  He went to Top Gun school but didn’t think too much of that movie.  I’ve sat in the cockpit of most warplanes & helicopters of the 70s-80s but only flew on the big cargo ones.  He was once asked to be in the Blue Angels but had no interest.  I miss him sooooo much.  He was an amazing man.

  4. Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk is still one of my favourite books. I recommend.

    I loved the movie Top Gun but I was 6 or 7 when it came out and I am not ok with warmonger movies.

     

  5. The V.I.P.s is one of my favorite movies:

    So retro, much glamour. Unfortunately when it came out it was overshadowed by the Elizabeth Taylor extravaganza “Cleopatra” (long-delayed, so it was still in theaters by the time “The V.I.P.s” came out) but it still did well.

    Another great movie is “Julie.”

    Here, Doris Day is trying to get away from her mad husband, Louis Jourdan, whereas in “The V.I.P.s” Elizabeth Taylor is fleeing with Louis Jourdan from her mad husband, Richard Burton. The climax takes place on a flight from San Francisco to Sacramento and it must be seen to be believed. No spoilers.

    • Having grown up on Westerns & War Movies, and the daughter of someone who served in the Navy (in the Mediterranean on the Forrestal during the Vietnam era), I grew up hearing stories of The Tuskegee Airmen, and knowing both how heroic they were, and how horribly they were treated before they became “heroes” and then again after the war.

      Red Tails was one of the many films I meant to catch in theaters, but still haven’t caught.💖

      General McGee, one of the few remaining airmen passed away just a little over a month ago;

      https://www.nbcnews.com/news/obituaries/one-last-tuskegee-airmen-dies-rcna12432

       

  6. I used to want to be an astronaut when i was a kid. But bad eyesight (plus not wanting to join the military) kept that from being a reality. Movies like The Martian, Apollo 13, & Gravity, plus Scott Kelly’s book, made me think i am absolutely not cut out for that.

  7. One that I remember from high school, which was pretty universally liked** was Memphis Belle.

    The movie was completely inaccurate to the story of the real airplane & her crew, but to a bunch of high schoolers, that loaded cast made for a movie that was watched at multiple gatherings & sleepovers, because everyone seemed to like something about it.

    **the guys liked it because it was a War Movie, and the girls did, because “ZOMG ALLLLLLL the Cute Guys in the cast!!!!”

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