The Sound Barrier is a 1952 British aviation drama film directed by David Lean. It is a fictional story about attempts by aircraft designers and test pilots to break the sound barrier. It was David Lean's third and final film with his wife Ann Todd, but it was his first for Alexander Korda's London Films, following the break-up of Cineguild. The Sound Barrier stars Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, John Justin and Nigel Patrick. It was known in the United States as Breaking Through the Sound Barrier and Breaking the Sound Barrier.
The Great Waldo Pepper is a 1975 American drama film directed, produced, and co-written by George Roy Hill. Set during 1926–1931, the film stars Robert Redford as a disaffected World War I veteran pilot who missed the opportunity to fly in combat, and examines his sense of postwar dislocation in 1920s America. The cast includes Margot Kidder, Bo Svenson, Edward Herrmann and Susan Sarandon. The Great Waldo Pepper depicts barnstorming during the 1920s and the accidents that led to aviation regulations by the Air Commerce Act.
The Flight of the Phoenix is a 1965 American survival drama film produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, based on the 1964 novel of the same name by English author Elleston Trevor. The story follows a small group of men struggling to survive their aircraft's emergency landing in the Sahara. It stars an ensemble cast, with James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser, Christian Marquand, Dan Duryea and George Kennedy.
The Islanders is an American adventure drama series which aired on ABC from 1960 to 1961, starring William Reynolds, James Philbrook, and Diane Brewster.
This Man's Navy is a 1945 World War II film about U.S. Navy blimps directed by William A. Wellman and starring Wallace Beery, Tom Drake, Jan Clayton and James Gleason. The supporting cast features Selena Royle and Beery's brother Noah Beery Sr., and presents a rare opportunity to see both Beery brothers work together in their later years. The picture is also one of the very few films, other than training films, to depict U.S. Navy airship operations.
The Tallmantz Phoenix P-1 was an FAA-certified one-off aircraft built for the 1965 film production The Flight of the Phoenix and used in the picture's final aerial sequences. Its pilot Paul Mantz was killed in an accident during a touch-and-go maneuver to simulate a takeoff, after which the plane was replaced by a crudely modified North American O-47A.
Fate Is the Hunter is a 1964 American black-and-white aviation disaster film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Aaron Rosenberg, directed by Ralph Nelson, that stars Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, Suzanne Pleshette and Rod Taylor. Fate Is the Hunter also features Jane Russell, Nehemiah Persoff, Wally Cox, and Mark Stevens. Dorothy Malone also makes an uncredited appearance. The film features an early film score by composer Jerry Goldsmith.
Gallant Journey is a 1946 American historical film written, produced and directed by William A. Wellman and starring Glenn Ford, Janet Blair and Charles Ruggles. The film is a biopic of the early U.S. aviation pioneer John Joseph Montgomery. Gallant Journey depicts his efforts to build and fly gliders, from his childhood through to his death in 1911. The chief stunt pilot for the film was Paul Mantz. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It is also known by the alternative title The Great Highway
Thunder Birds is a 1942 Technicolor film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Gene Tierney, Preston Foster, and John Sutton. It features aerial photography and location filming at an actual Arizona training base of the United States Army Air Forces named Thunderbird Field No. 1 during World War II.
Too Hot to Handle, also known as Let 'Em All Talk, is a 1938 comedy-drama directed by Jack Conway and starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Walter Pidgeon. The plot concerns a newsreel reporter, the female aviator he is attracted to and his fierce competitor. Many of the comedy gags were devised by an uncredited Buster Keaton.
Dragonfly Squadron is a 1954 American war film directed by Lesley Selander and starring John Hodiak, Barbara Britton and Bruce Bennett. The film is set in the period shortly before and during the invasion of South Korea by North Korean troops.
Men with Wings is a 1938 American Technicolor war film, directed by William A. Wellman and starring Fred MacMurray, Ray Milland, and Louise Campbell. Donald O'Connor also has a small part as the younger version of MacMurray's character. The two would soon star in the film Sing You Sinners together along with Bing Crosby.
Flight Angels is a 1940 commercial aviation film from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by Edmund Grainger and directed by Lewis Seiler, from an original story by Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay. The film stars Virginia Bruce, Dennis Morgan, Wayne Morris, and Ralph Bellamy as airline employees, flying Douglas DST airliners.
Air Hostess is a 1933 American Pre-Code aviation-themed melodrama based on a serial published in a 1919 True Story Magazine article called Air Hostess by Grace Perkins, also known as Dora Macy. Director Albert Rogell who had moved from shorts to B-films, had been interested in aviation having already helmed a similar feature, The Flying Marine (1929). In Air Hostess, the studio had attempted to merge flying and romance. Advertising stressed, "A date in the skies ... a rendezvous in the heavens...where love zooms with thrill after thrill ... but finds a happy landing!"
Sky Devils, also known as Ground Hogs, is a 1932 American Pre-Code aviation comedy film starring Spencer Tracy as a draft dodger who blunders into a war zone.
Air Hawks is a 1935 American aviation-themed science fiction film based on Ben Pivar's "Air Fury", an unpublished story. Director Albert Rogell who had moved from shorts to B-films, was interested in aviation and had already helmed The Flying Marine (1929) and Air Hostess (1933). In Air Hawks, the studio was able to add an A-list star, Ralph Bellamy, as well as exploiting the fame of record-setting pilot Wiley Post in his only feature film appearance.
A Hero for a Night is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by William James Craft and produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, cashing in on the "Lindy craze", generated by Charles Lindbergh's famous ocean crossing flight. The film stars Glenn Tryon, Patsy Ruth Miller and Burr McIntosh.
Devil's Squadron is a 1936 American drama film directed by Erle C. Kenton and starring Richard Dix, Karen Morley and Lloyd Nolan. The following written prologue appears after the opening credits: "This picture is dedicated to the test pilots....those men who knowingly face death every time they leave the ground in an untried airplane. We never hear of these men, yet on their courage depends the future of aviation."
Pirates of the Skies is a 1939 American action film directed by Joseph A. McDonough and written by Lester Cole and Ben Grauman Kohn. The film stars Kent Taylor, Rochelle Hudson, Regis Toomey, Marion Martin, Samuel S. Hinds, Ray Walker and Lucien Littlefield. Pirates of the Skies was released on February 3, 1939, by Universal Pictures.
Flying Cadets is a 1941 American adventure film directed by Erle C. Kenton and written by George Waggner, Roy Chanslor and Stanley Rubin. The film stars William Gargan, Edmund Lowe, Peggy Moran, Frank Albertson, Frankie Thomas and Riley Hill. Flying Cadets was released on October 24, 1941, by Universal Pictures.
