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Just watched an old movie last night called "Air Hostess". It was made in the late twenties or early thirties and revolved around a girl named Kitty and two pilots, one a TWA pilot of a Ford Trimotor and the other a hot shot barnstormer/Mercenary who Kitty ends up marrying. As the film goes on Kitty tries to help  her husband realize his dream of flying non-stop from Seattle to Tokyo by finding a backer to fund the construction of his revolutionary airplane which is designed to conserve fuel on the trip by having the outer half of the wings retract into the inner part as the plane goes faster. (Who knows if it would actually work, but the concept model he builds sure looked cool!) You have great supporting characters like "Pop" the nearly blind line chief who can diagnose engine problems just by listening as a plane comes in, the prerequsite Blond Femme Fatale, and a band of line mechanics who are quite protective of Kitty who is the daughter of their old WW1 squadron commander who was killed in action. The film culminates in the two piolots zooming off to stop the train that Kitty is aboard before it reaches a washed out bridge, done with a real train and real airplanes buzzing about it, (In one shot the Trimotor flies the length of the train with one wingtip only a foot or so above the roofs of the passenger cars!) There are also great period shots of assorted classic aircraft and airport operations such as the Trimotor rolling up to the gate in Los Angeles and the ground crew rolling out a canvas canopy, a predecessor of today's Jetways.
I don't know if this movie is available on DVD but I'm going to find out as it is a great film.

I don't know if this movie is available on DVD but I'm going to find out as it is a great film.

$10 to you sir! http://scootermoviesshop.com/cubecart/Drama/Air-Hostess-1933-/prod_251.html

Thanks Hagar, I found it! In the meantime my station ran another classic flying movie called "Reach for the Sky" about Douglas Bader and RAF officer who lost both his legs in a crash prior to World War 2, was given prosthetic ones and went on to be one of the heros of the battle of Britian. Lots of great shots of Spitfires and Hurricaines both on the ground and in dogfights!

In the meantime my station ran another classic flying movie called "Reach for the Sky" about Douglas Bader

"Reach for the Sky" is indeed a classic. I was brought up on films like that in the 1950s.

"Reach for the Sky" is indeed a classic. I was brought up on films like that in the 1950s.

I never knew of this film but I have read some articles mentioning Douglas Bader (to think, my pes planus was used as an excuse :-/); where there's a will...

8-)

There was another RAF pilot with no legs who few people have ever heard of. http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Hoppy-RAF-flying-hero/article-1977445-detail/article.html

I've always thought that Bader became famous with the British public because of the film & Kenneth More's sympathetic portrayal of him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9x3r4VWAyE

One of the great scenes in the film is when Bader, in the midst of a dogfight, collides with a messerschmitt resulting in the tail section of his spitfire getting torn off. Bader pops the canopy and prepares to bail out as his crippled fighter spirals towards the ground.  One of his prosthetic legs gets caught in the rudder pedals and Bader is pinned back by G forces until at last the leg rips free of his body and he's thrown clear. Another German fighter comes streaking up to strafe Bader in his chute, until he sees that the British pilot has only one leg now and spares him.

Earlier in the film there is a comedic scene in which Bader, with only a peg leg, goes for a harrowing ride in a supercharged Bently with two other wounded pilots; (Bader steers and operates the clutch, another man shifts the gears and handles the brakes, and the third, whose car it is and who has a broken arm and leg, hangs on for dear life). 

Interesting new series coming to ABC   :)


http://abc.go.com/shows/pan-am