• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Oops...wrong airport

Share this page

Kind of reminds me of the opening scene in the movie "Strategic Air Command", where an errant DC-3 wants to make an emergency landing at a SAC base. Turns out it is a drill set up by the Curtis LeMay-esque commander and the DC-3 is loaded with theoretical enemy soldiers. Good movie with some great flying scenes, and the typical Jimmy Stewart / June Allyson husband/wife chemistry.
 
Delta used the slogan "Delta Gets You There" several years ago. Perhaps they could bring it back with a slight variation as "Delta, We Get You Close."
 
SaxMan said:
Kind of reminds me of the opening scene in the movie "Strategic Air Command", where an errant DC-3 wants to make an emergency landing at a SAC base. Turns out it is a drill set up by the Curtis LeMay-esque commander and the DC-3 is loaded with theoretical enemy soldiers. Good movie with some great flying scenes, and the typical Jimmy Stewart / June Allyson husband/wife chemistry.
Click to expand...

I love that movie! I own that movie! (I love June Allyson - huge crush on her as a youngster)

PS: I just got inspired and am watching it now!
 
Last edited:
Basil said:
I love that movie! I own that movie! (I love June Allyson - huge crush on her as a youngster)

PS: I just got inspired and am watching it now!
Click to expand...

Agree! Great movie!

One of the best scenes - the "hard landing" of the B-36 during a blizzard in Greenland.

Yes!
Tom M.
 
SaxMan said:
Kind of reminds me of the opening scene in the movie "Strategic Air Command", where an errant DC-3 wants to make an emergency landing at a SAC base. Turns out it is a drill set up by the Curtis LeMay-esque commander and the DC-3 is loaded with theoretical enemy soldiers. Good movie with some great flying scenes, and the typical Jimmy Stewart / June Allyson husband/wife chemistry.
Click to expand...

Most of the filming of aircraft operations were shot pointed west on takeoffs and landings instead of eastward. That part of the filming was done at an actual SAC base, Carswell AFB, just outside of Fort Worth TX and the active SAC base operations would have been shown had they filmed to the east. The buildings that you see in those takeoff and landing shots are of USAF Plant 4 which has been operated over time by Consolidated/Consolidated Vultee/Convair/General Dynamics/Lockheed/Lockheed Martin. The B-36 bombers used in the film were built at that plant which has also built B-24s, B-32s, B58s, F-111s, F-16s, F-22 mid bodies and F-35s, several modification programs and a few "Project Cancelled" efforts since being built.

Attached is an aerial shot of the Convair plant taken in 1953 with part of the Carswell runway and taxi ways in the view. The aircraft in the red box is the XB-50 that was Convair's competitor in the jet engined heavy bomber competition won by Boeing with what went on to become the B-52.
 

Attachments

  • Convair Fort Worth Circa 1953.jpg
    Convair Fort Worth Circa 1953.jpg
    92.4 KB · Views: 63
NutmegCT said:
Agree! Great movie!

One of the best scenes - the "hard landing" of the B-36 during a blizzard in Greenland.

Yes!
Tom M.
Click to expand...

That just happened as I'm watching.

One small editorial boo boo I just noticed. When Col Holland is back home from Thule, Greenland he is talking to his wife and about to meet his new baby. He gives her a present from Thule, which turns out to be a stuffed penguin. Since Penguins are found almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, that present seems a bit out of place as a gift he picked up in Thule.
 
Tybalt said:
Most of the filming of aircraft operations were shot pointed west on takeoffs and landings instead of eastward. That part of the filming was done at an actual SAC base, Carswell AFB, just outside of Fort Worth TX and the active SAC base operations would have been shown had they filmed to the east. The buildings that you see in those takeoff and landing shots are of USAF Plant 4 which has been operated over time by Consolidated/Consolidated Vultee/Convair/General Dynamics/Lockheed/Lockheed Martin. The B-36 bombers used in the film were built at that plant which has also built B-24s, B-32s, B58s, F-111s, F-16s, F-22 mid bodies and F-35s, several modification programs and a few "Project Cancelled" efforts since being built.

Attached is an aerial shot of the Convair plant taken in 1953 with part of the Carswell runway and taxi ways in the view. The aircraft in the red box is the XB-50 that was Convair's competitor in the jet engined heavy bomber competition won by Boeing with what went on to become the B-52.
Click to expand...

Very interesting! Thanks for the info and picture.
 
A few years ago, after a week long road trip, I dropped one of my Corp. VP's off at Greenville/Spartanburg AP to pick up his car.
we drove around the parking lots for an hour looking for it.
finally he called his wife to let her know her Mercedes had been stolen from the GSAP.
........she pointed out he had departed from the Atlanta AP.
 
More airport trivia!

Here's a photo of the Convair plant in the early 1950s. Note all the B-36 Peacemakers on the field - and the two YB-60 prototype bombers. YB-60 was Convair's attempt to use the B-36 design for the Pentagon's requested jet-powered long range bomber. The YB-60 lost out - to the B-52 we still use today.

View attachment 43778

(To the south of that field was a house at 5108 Geddes Avenue - where we lived at the time. Boy do I remember the sound of the Peacemakers as they flew overhead.)
 
Never had the opportunity to see a B-36 in flight, but it was always one of my favorite planes. I remember building a model B-36 as a kid.
 
Tybalt said:
Most of the filming of aircraft operations were shot pointed west on takeoffs and landings instead of eastward. That part of the filming was done at an actual SAC base, Carswell AFB, just outside of Fort Worth TX and the active SAC base operations would have been shown had they filmed to the east. The buildings that you see in those takeoff and landing shots are of USAF Plant 4 which has been operated over time by Consolidated/Consolidated Vultee/Convair/General Dynamics/Lockheed/Lockheed Martin. The B-36 bombers used in the film were built at that plant which has also built B-24s, B-32s, B58s, F-111s, F-16s, F-22 mid bodies and F-35s, several modification programs and a few "Project Cancelled" efforts since being built.

Attached is an aerial shot of the Convair plant taken in 1953 with part of the Carswell runway and taxi ways in the view. The aircraft in the red box is the XB-50 that was Convair's competitor in the jet engined heavy bomber competition won by Boeing with what went on to become the B-52.
Click to expand...

Wow. Any place that can make a B-36 look small has to be absolutely enormous!
 
Being a reserve colonel at the time with a full combat tour over Europe during the war as well as being on Dolittle's 8th AF staff along with being Jimmy Stewart certainly opened the doors to film and use AF assets.

When I was young my home was under the training area for Wright Pat and Rickenbacker AF bases and we'd see aircraft out doing training all the time. One I recall was an f-15 and a group of A-7 attack aircraft which came over and circled for a couple minutes then the A-7s scattered in all directions. The F-15 circled another couple minutes, and then went a hunting..
 
Back
Top