What astonished me was the aircraft. The Gotha that attacks the town was an amazing machine. With a wing span of about 77 feet, it could cruise 500 miles, yet only flew at 87 mph. Compare that with what we have today, and it's hard to believe it's been less than 100 years since they we used.
Were the scenes with the dogfights all staged, or was some actual archival footage used? Someone out there must know.
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The Handley-Page 0400 was both a bigger[100' span] and bigger payload/range. This British plane was later used for commercial traffic to, and from Germany in the 20's.
Mr. Wellman was an accomlished pilot... which makes his acertion hat hie was flying over the polo field of A.P. Schulberg[head of Paramount] when the plane 'suddenly' had engine trouble so he had to land on the polo field.. natch Mr. Schulberg was there, and the "REST IS HISTORY"
That was pretty awesome. I didn't know such a thing existed. Back then if you saw that come overhead you knew you were in danger. I wonder what they would have thought about a B-17 or a fully loaded F-4.
shareI just looked up the Gotha and it was effective and feared. One bombed London with 167 dead and 432 injured on the first raid.
shareThe movie used a Martin MB-1 bomber. In the ground scene they show an altered tail with a single rudder like the Gotha used. Flying scenes are of an unmodified MB-1. The film was made in Texas and no aircraft were specially made for the film. Thomas-Morse MB-3 fighters are used in place of SPADs. The German planes in combat are Curtiss Hawks. They crashed a real Fokker D.VII in one scene. The U.S. brought almost 150 Fokker D.VIIs to the U.S. at the end of the war so there were a handful around at the time.
I love his movie and the flying scenes!