The Phoenix P-1

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The Flight of the Phoenix


This extraordinary movie, filmed around Yuma, Arizona, is about a group of men aboard a C-82, precursor to the C-119 Flying Boxcar, that crashes in a sandstorm and is cannibalized to make a single engine plane.  Several non-flying models were used, but a flying plane was used for the air shots.  The pilot, Paul Mantz, misjudged the handling of the plane and it broke when landing.  He was killed instantly, and the stuntman Bobby Rose seriously injured.




The Phoenix P-1.  This thing flew.  Notice the wings are considerable smaller than those of a C-82.  That is a T-6 Texan engine with wings from a Beechcraft.





C-82




The movie set, with multi-engine expert Jimmy Stewart in the foreground.  





Albert Paul Mantz, super-pilot.  Known to drink and fly.  25,000 cockpit hours.








July 8th, 1965.  Buttercup Valley Arizona.  The actual crash.  Bobby Rose, 64, was hurt bad but survived.  Mantz might, maybe, have lived but he was wearing a soft hat to look like James Stewart. 400 people attended his funeral including Stewart and Jimmy Doolittle.





Godspeed, Sir.

(photo from Find A Grave)




Up and Away.




This is still my favorite action flick, barely edging out Sands of the Kalahari, another African plane crash and survival story.
All movies have flaws, and in the case of Flight of the Phoenix I could really do without Jimmy Stewart pissing and moaning about how bad he fucked up.  Deal with it.





Stuart Whitman as the super survivor O'Brien in his best movie role.  Sands of the Kalahari, also filmed in 1965.  Couldn' resist putting this in.



(As a postscript, the most dramatic moment in the movie is the argument between the designer and the pilot on how to use the remaining Kaufman starter cartridges.  Any one who has ever had to deal with the sort of lawn mowers I have owned will be spellbound by this white knuckled sequence)!

https://youtu.be/IACjOvyx5hs






Kaufman starter. Used a sort of shotgun shell to kick over the engine.  You have two left!

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235043312-flight-of-the-phoenix-scratchbuilt-172nd-scale-timmtallmantz-p-1-phoenix/

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