Phoenix rises from desert
QUESTION What happened to the plane from the 1965 film The Flight Of The Phoenix?
In THE movie The Flight Of The Phoenix, after a twin- engine Fairchild cargo aircraft crashes in the Sahara desert, the survivors attempt to build a new plane from the wreckage.
Based on the 1964 novel of the same name by British author Elleston Trevor, it is one of the most intelligent and brilliantly made aviation films.
Tragically, veteran Hollywood stunt pilot Paul Mantz died during filming.
It was directed by Robert Aldrich and the outstanding cast included James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Ronald Fraser and Hardy Kruger. However, I would argue that the Fairchild C-82 Packet cargo transport was the real star.
named in tribute to the packet boats that carried mail, passengers and cargo during the 18th and 19th centuries, it was developed by the Fairchild Aviation Corp in new York as a cargo aircraft.
It first took to the air in 1944. During World War II, as well as carrying cargo, the plane was used for troop transport, parachute drops, medical evacuation and glider towing.
The three C-82s used in the film were provided by Steward- Davis Inc of California, which overhauled military surplus engines for re- sale and had developed a lucrative sideline in renting out aircraft to Hollywood.
The plane used for the aerial shots filmed over Imperial Valley in California was Fairchild C-82A Packet n6887C. It had been retrospectively fitted with a Westinghouse J30-W turbojet booster engine and was re- designated Steward-Davis JetPacket 1600 when rented out to contractors in the U.S. and South America.
After filming, Steward-Davis converted it into a flying repair station, plying its trade up and down the U.S. West Coast.
In 1970, following an illegal flight into Mexico, it was impounded at Hermosillo Airport. Eventually it was handed over to the city and put on display in a children’s park, where it was known as the Plane of Science. It was scrapped in 2005.
The fuselage of Fairchild C-82A Packet n4833V was used as the main outdoor set in sand dunes near Yuma, Arizona. Fairchild C-82A Packet n53228, which had been used as a crop sprayer after the war, was used for indoor filming at 20th Century Fox studios.
After filming, it was stored alongside n4833V at Compton Airport. Both were scrapped in 1970.
Steward- Davis’s other famous contribution to Hollywood history came when it converted ten Vultee BT-13/BT-15 Valiant trainers into Japanese Aichi D3A Val dive-bombers for the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!
Owen Dawson, Barry Island, Glamorgan.
QUESTION Has cloud seeding been attempted to put out Australia’s bushfires?
ClOUD seeding — where chemical particles are dispersed into the sky to encourage the weather conditions that result in rainfall — is controversial.
There have been experiments since the Forties, but there is no proof it works. Even if it did, conditions in Australia during the worst of the fires have been far too dry. There has to be enough moisture in the air to ‘seed’ into rain.
Smoke particles would cause rain if the technique was going to work, which has happened only occasionally.
Furthermore, seeding requires clouds that contain supercooled water — minute droplets colder than zero Celsius that have failed to convert to ice, but are too small to fall as rain. no such clouds are in the affected areas of Australia.
Finally, consider the size of the bushfires. In new South Wales, the worst affected state, an area twice the size of Wales was ablaze.
Australians are sceptical about cloud seeding after previous attempts failed.
Between 2003 and 2008, £10 million was given to the Snowy Hydro Cloud Seeding programme without results. And in 2011, £5 million was pumped into the Australian Rain Corporation by then environment secretary Malcolm Turnbull.
R. A. Black, Oxford.
QUESTION I get upset when Winnie-the-Pooh is stuck in the entrance to Rabbit’s house. Are there other disturbing children’s stories?
FURTHER to earlier answers, the story that gave me nightmares as a child, as well as a terror of public performance that took me years to overcome, was Sparky’s Magic Piano, which was on an lP narrated by Henry Blair.
Sparky discovers his piano is magic and will play anything he wants superbly. He quickly becomes famous and is booked to give a major performance.
When he gets on stage, he discovers his magic piano has been switched for another instrument so, of course, he is unable to play anything.
The horror of being in front of an audience and being incapable of performing still gives me shivers.
P. Bowen, Great Torrington, Devon. In An episode of Trumpton, when someone borrowed the window cleaner’s ladder, leaving him stuck on a roof, my brother got very upset.
‘Get him down, Mum, get him down!’ he beseeched.
Denise Selvey, Cannock, Staffs. I AM haunted by the image of a little girl saying ‘Oh, Falada’ to a talking horse’s head attached to a wall.
This is a scene in The Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm. Poor Falada has his head chopped off by the knacker on the orders of a false princess who doesn’t want the horse to reveal her secret.
It is the disembodied head while apparently still alive that upsets me.
Ann Maconaghie, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim.
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