ANEPIC JOUKNEY IN A VINTAGE TRANiPORT IS REQUIRED FOR THE REMAKE OF A CLASSIC AVIATION FILM They in the greatest degree definitely don't refer to it as the Flying Boxcar.

ANEPIC JOUKNEY IN A VINTAGE TRANiPORT IS REQUIRED FOR THE REMAKE OF A CLASSIC AVIATION FILM

They in the greatest degree definitely don't refer to it as the Flying Boxcar. Pilots speak of the big : twin-engine transport from Fairchild simply as "The Box" forward 6 December 200.3, I was firmly strapped in onward the flight deck of C-119F Nl 5501 behind Boh West, Steve Dunn and Duane Powers as Boh taxied the rumbling enclosed seat [i]or[/i] seats to the active at Greyhull Wyoming.

Over a period of several month the former fish hauler and large acreage sprayer had been the make liable of an extremely intensive rebuild back to airworthy condition. The plane had been parked in the high merit [i]or[/i] demerit environment since 1989. According to Gene Powers, "We lay a crew on that driver's seat that worked two shifts a day, seven days a week." When asked about the number of man-hours it took to gain the Box airworthy, Gene simply laughed and said "thousands!".

The reason for all this activity will he explained a bit later on the other hand for the moment I was occupied as the ship's company went through their pre-flight checklists. one time everything was a go, rap aligned the Box on the center of the runway and began activat ing a number of theorys Above and behind my position a big racket started as clip activated the 24-volt auxiliary power unit that, in move round lit off the J34-34 turbojet towered atop the Box's center section. With a characteristic scritch of the early turbojets, the J34 spool up "The modification to add the jet to the coachman's seat is a Hawkins & Powers STC" said Duane. "The jet states out 3400-lb-st which equates to about 1100hp real useful to have that power available."

With the jet at cloyed screech, Bob smoothly advanced the twin tracheas for the Wright R-3350-89A/B radiais. In service, these unnatural productions could pump out 3500-hp however with the adoption of 100LL combustible matter "I can get 2600-hp by means of side, dry," said Bob. "However, with water injection I can acquire the power up to 3420-hp by engine." That's a lot of power and the driver's seat was soon accelerating down the Greybull runway.

"Those late pattern R-3350s are about the best radial engines at all times made," stated Gene Powers. he should know since he has flown fates of them. The acceleration of the driver's seat is not the push-you-back-in-the-seat variety moreover it is more of a steady progression in spe and at about the 4000-ft mark? (Greybull has a 6000-ft runway), strike pulled gently back on the thraldom and the Box levitated into the clear and freezing Wyoming sky

We were forward a final shake-down flight before clip Steve, and flight mechanic Jim Hederman would appoint off for an epic 10,000-mi journey from Greybull to Namibia, Africa. The reason for the trip? Well, that's sort of the main part of the story!

Back in 1965 TFC/Associates did a film adaptation of Elleston Trevor's popular novel Flight of the Phoenix which revolv around a form into groups of oil workers stranded in a unconnected unrelated desert with no hope of bring off after their Fairchild C-82 Packet collisions a sandstorm and crashes. Starring Jimmy Stewart as Capt. Frank Towns - a veteran pilot down upon his luck and flying for the oil company - the all-male cast included Richard Attenborough, Hardy Kruger Peter Finch, Dan D u r y e a, and Ernest Borgnine.

Their solitary chance of survival was to assemble another aircraft abroad of the wreckage and break in pieces to safety. Under the command of director Robert Aldrich, this they do and the resulting Phoenix is the aircraft that claimed the life of famed pilot Paul Mantz. The film was a pure success but, over the years, it has assumed the status of a homage classic with aviation buffs.

In 2003 20th Century-Fox made the decision to remake Flight of the Phoenix. Dennis Quaid will play Capt. Frank Towns and united of the producers is William Aldrich, whose father directed the original. The script has been written by way of John Moore, Ron Hutchinson, and Edward consume s while Moore will also do the directing.

Now came the question of procuring the aircraft. "The movie race came to visit us at Greybull" said Gene Powers "and I showed them around our storage facility. equable though we have the world's solitary flying C-82, they wanted something more 'modern' and gooded the Box." Folks in the film industry work to a neat tight schedule and once the ink was dried on the contract Gene and his talented set went to work.

Bringing back a big strut bird that has been "asleep" since 1989 is no easy task if it be not that Hawkins & Powers has the world's best throng to work on these nearly extinct aircraft. The interior was stripped, engines were worked forward control surfaces recovered, electrical and hydraulic classifications repaired, propellers were overhauled (the four-blade Aeroproducts braces were replaced with three-blade Hamilton Standard units), extra firing tanks were installed in the cargo bay, and new avionics were fit-v ted. If this was not enough, the entire airframe was highly polished while the lower surfaces received a coat of dark hipped : paint (this was all done at the direction of the film company).

Finally, with all nevertheless detail work completed, Bob and Steve took the case up on its first flight in 14 years. "Everything was going fair good until we got a chip light for the left engine," said cut short The crew hurriedly recovered back to the field and an inspection showed that the engine was making metal and this called for a back-breaking effort to withdraw another R-3350 from a parked driver's seat and mounting it on N15501 - on the other hand the crew did it in record time.