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P40M Kittyhawk
 
Delays in progressing our Mustang can be blamed on the all out effort to get “Kitty” ready to go on her filming mission to the Czech Republic. During February, March and part of April the team led by Chris Norris our chief engineer, worked flat out to complete her Annual inspection and to refit her prop which had been away for overhaul. These efforts culminated in an aircraft “fit for flight” on 16th April and the start of a great adventure to fly on the set of a new big budget move called “ Red Tails”.
 
George Lucas ( producer of Star Wars) decided to personally fund a movie about the famous Tuskegee Airmen, the coloured flyers based in Tuscany in Italy in 1944. You may recall that they never lost a B17 under their protection on any mission into enemy territory. These squadrons also bred some of the most famous and decorated fighter aces of WW2, such names as Roscoe Brown and Lee Archer, both of whom we had the honour to meet on set. Colonel Lee Archer flew no less that 169 missions on his tour of duty in 1944/45.
 
The location was a deserted cold war Russian base at Milovice 50 kms outside Prague. When operational Milovice housed some 35,000 service personnel and dozens of MIG jets ready for action against the West. Peter flew the Kittyhawk on the 700 mile journey, departing under leaden skies on Thursday 16th April. With just one fuel stop at Frankfurt, and with total flight time of some 3.5 hours they safely touched down at Milovice on a splendid spring evening to start an adventure.
 
Next day the aircraft was cleaned and then over the next 72 hours was painted in washable paint and transformed into a P40 of the 332nd Fighter Group. The set was huge and consisted of a complete WW2 fighter base with hundreds of extras and a big cast of young black actors. The set was detailed to be a perfect representation of the base in Tuscany, complete with imported Cyprus trees and PSP metal sheeting to strengthen the grass areas.This was a big budget movie and there were 3 full sized mock up P40’s together with 3 similar P51 Mustangs.
 
You may recall that our Mustang is an original 332nd Fighter Group veteran, so we had been asked to take her along but Peter was loathed to allow his prized “JJ” to be painted, so he declined. The flying compliment included 3 Mustangs, 2 Kittyhawks and the French B17 “ Pink Lady”. Flying and taxiing duties began for Peter on the following Monday with extensive shooting of the aircraft in back shots taxiing past. All sequences were shot with Peter in full period costume but in addition, a brown ski mask covering his face !!
 
Peter led several missions with the French P40 performing close formation and placing the aircraft in precise locations as requested by the director. This involved many passes at different levels, aerobatic manoeuvres, close positioning at varied heights on camera positions located on cranes and fixed locations in buildings and many hours of accurate flying and thinking on his feet. Peter’s vast experience on the display circuit was decisive as he managed to lead the formations skilfully and successfully. The film company were delighted with the footage, especially a sunset sequence shot late in the afternoon.
 
The flying finished later that week but when then came time for the Mustangs to launch and for the 2 P40’s to be washed and prepared for flight home. The Hangar 11 crew on site decided that the plane looked just great and that we should attempt to nurse the temporary paint scheme for the 2009 season and so she has returned to the UK in film paint on 25th April. There are some photos on the Kittyhawk images page but see her yourself at Abingdon on Sunday 3rd May and later that day at Old Warden Airshow. This paint scheme is really special as the effects of “ageing” perfected by the artistic department are superb.This film will potentially have more real warbird flying than any movie since Battle of Britain in 1969.

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ORIGINAL: DazDaMan

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/DazDaMan/photo.jpg[/image]

Fucking awesome!!

Hmm... I dunno why this bloody link isn't turning into an awesome photo of a B-17G being escorted by two red-nosed Mustangs, but that's what it is, anyway!  Guess you'll have to copy and paste the link...