Halton welcomes 'Fly Boys'.
RAF Halton's airfield is to play a leading role in the latest WWI blockbuster film "Fly Boys" which features the heroic activities of a group of pilots during the Battle of Verdun. The airfield will be converted into a WWI aerodrome and numerous vintage aircraft will be based there.
This is the latest in a succession of filming ventures that have become commonplace at the base and rarely a week passes without a film crew on site.
Dave Bretherton, Halton's Commercial Business Manager, who co-ordinates the filming, said: "RAF Halton has established a richly-deserved reputation as a first class filming venue, given our rapidly increasing experience of the industry, friendly staff and easy daily travelling to London. These factors have resulted in several recent enquiries, some of which will no doubt result in more filming and raise funds for MOD in the process."
10 May 2005
It's actually about the Lafayette Escadrille. Some of the Shuttleworth Collection aircraft (Avro 504, Bristol Fighter & SE5a) have been taking part in the filming. The Nieuports are apparently 7/8 scale & Old Warden "acquired" a cardboard cutout Nieuport 17 to the same scale which is now parked by the old wooden hut on the airfield. It looks very realistic from a distance. I found some photos taken during the filming here. http://www.jhs.flyer.co.uk/Flyboys%20@%20RAF%20Halton/index.html
Looks like they're using a Jungmann as a WWI aircraft. Seems a shame after going to all that trouble.
PS. I also found this. http://forums.dvdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=216720#post216720
FLYBOYS is about the Lafayette Escadrille; the young American boys
who volunteered to fly for France in WWI, before America entered the
war; the first combat pilots and the first Americans to fight for another
land's freedom. It's not a documentary; it's a $60 million dollar
feature, and I'm trying to get it right. It's being financed completely
independently - no studio, no distributor - a major, if not
unprecedented, accomplishment for our producer, Dean Devlin (INDEPENDENCE DAY, THE
PATRIOT.) It was written by David Ward (THE STING, SLEEPLESS IN
SEATTLE) and it stars James Franco (SPIDERMAN, JAMES DEAN) and Jean Reno
(THE PROFESSIONAL, RONIN). All the other lead actors are relative
unknowns in their 20's....no one's faking their age.
Some aviation information and some data for the technically
inclined:
We've brought a lot of aircraft to our location. Flying aircraft:
we have comissioned construction of 4 Baslee Nieuport 17's, Kermit
Weeks' "real" N 17 and Ken Kellet's Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter; John Day's
"real" N 17. We also have 3 Fokker DR 1 (triplane) reproductions (there
are no more originals; the last having been carelessly discarded in the
early '60's); a Bristol Fighter; a Bleriot; a repro SE 5a. We're
repainting and reconfiguring a Jungmann for real aerobatics with our real
actors in the back seat. Several of our actors are pilots themselves.
Technically, our insurance precludes my jumping in one of these beauties
and flying it myself, even when nobody's looking, but....Howard Hughes
lifted off in the Spruce Goose accidentally and Douglas Corrigan flew
across the Atlantic by mistake, right? These things happen.
Two non-flying, but utterly realistic, N 17's were built for us in
The Czech Republic; 6 more 2-D N 17's; a non-flying 1 1/2 Strutter and
DR 1 are equally perfect reproductions. You see these airplanes on the
ground, walk up to them and want to get in them and fly 'em, they're so
realistic. (They even have electric motors to turn the props and
exhaust smoke, completing the illusion.) This is in addition to several
mockup cockpits and gimbaled aircraft, guns, and other equipment we've
built. We have replicated a WWI aerodrome at R.A.F. Halton outside London,
complete with huge canvas Besseneau hangars, machine shop, canteen,
officers' mess and assorted vehicles, etc.
