One of the best movie aviation scenes EVER

[MWalsh]

I love watching this scene.

[Bob Hudson]

No CGI there - all real B-25's -

 

"In the winter of 1969, eighteen B-25s were gathered on a custom-built airstrip located near the town of Guaymas on the Gulf of California (also called the Sea of Cortez) coast in the Mexican state of Sonora. Over the span of several months and over 1,500 hours of flight time, those airplanes participated in bringing Joseph Heller's slightly-bizarre 1961 novel, Catch-22, to life."

[MattS]

Here's a great article on the filming of that movie: http://www.aerovintage.com/catch22.htm

[MWalsh]

That's a great story Matt, I had not read that before. Makes watching the video that much more interesting knowing that!

[38Driver]

Interesting to see them all fighting the obvious crosswind on take off. Great stuff

[JDK]

I agree. It's a beautiful sight to see all those 25's together. Great plane!

 

JD

[bobgee]

Great flick! How about a B-25 for $5,000 to $10,000 ? In 1970 I was making about $10,000 a year so, remember everything is relative! LOL Bobgee

[fstop61]

On a sidenote: During aerial filming of Catch 22, the second unit director John Jordan fell several thousand feet to his death from the camera plane. Jordan had refused to wear a safety harness while photographing the bomber sequence.

[B-17Guy]

Always a great scene to watch.

 

It is by the way, one of the reasons there are so many flyable B-25's today.

 

Most all were sold to individuals after filming was completed and continue to fly today.

 

The B-25 "Executive Sweet" was in the film as "Vestal Virgin", spotted by a large 6K on the tail.

It was purchased by Ed Schnepf (I think for $5000) and has gone on to a colorful history.

 

I actually met the co-pilot of "Vestal Virgin" a number of years ago just by chance in an airport restaurant in

Santa Barbara. He approached me and asked if I was the pilot of the B25 parked outside. I said yes and he then

mentioned that as a young kid, he signed on as a co-pilot in the film Catch 22 to get experience and build flight time.(He is a retired airline captain now).

After some discussion, we soon figured out that the B25 parked outside was the one he was a co-pilot on in the film! He was the one

that helped us figure out which airplane Executive Sweet was in the film. Also, he actually had a small cameo appearance in the film.

He told me the scene and when I got home I watched it, and there he was sitting in a B25 at 18, no doubt the same guy!

 

Talk about a small world!

 

He mentioned to me that the takeoff scene was the craziest thing he had ever taken part in, completely dangerous and something that would never

have been done during the war. There was a massive amount of wake turbulence and aircraft were going in all directions from it. He said that was all the idea

of the film markers and of course never done during the war, as we know.

 

Sure looks spectacular though, and is now a classic scene.

 

Here is a link to our website's photo section that has a number of great photos of Vestal Virgin (now Executive Sweet) and other B-25's from the filming of Catch 22.

 

http://www.aafgroup.org/galleries/movie-photos/index.html

 

Also, if you are interested in going for a flight on Executive Sweet, here is the main address for our website to see when the aircraft may be in your area-

 

http://www.aafgroup.org/

 

 

 

Best, John

[doinworkinvans]

Goodness, can you imagine seeing all those beauties in one place. What a sight!

[MWalsh]

The take off scene video never gets old.

 

Back to the top.

[gwb123]

Jeez... you can see one of the aircraft slip to the left side of the screen in about the third group... hard to tell if it was intentional or if it was a cross wind.

 

That would have been wild enough back in the day with pilots with hundreds of hours of flight time and aircraft that were relatively new. I would have hated to be the safety officer on this one!