Cool video I found.....Airport '75 retouched in HD.
Gotta love the majority use of REAL airplane footage and aerial work, in light of everything being CGI today.
Some interesting tidbits and MikeD observations:
1. The T-37B shown at 1:23 and on, flying off the wing of the 747, is s/n 67-14762 and is now retired to the Tucson boneyard, and about to be scrapped.
'762' served for many years with the 82nd Flying Training Wing/96th Flying Training Squadron at the former Williams AFB (formerly Williams Gateway Airport, now Phoenix/Mesa Gateway Airport) Arizona. In 1974, '762' participated in the filming of the movie "Airport 1975. In the movie, '762' is the USAF "chase plane" that initially intercepts the striken 747 airliner to assess the damage following the mid-air collision with the Beech Baron. A number of UPT IPs at Williams AFB from the 96th got the chance to fly the aerial formation sequences.
Following the closure of Williams AFB in September 1993, '762' was transferred to the 47th Flying Training Wing/85th Flying Training Squadron at Laughlin AFB, Texas.
Yours truly has 18.6 hours logged in 67-14762, and I know I will miss this old bird when it very soon gets sent to be parted out (it's already lost it's engines and other parts). This is the jet I took my last T-37 flight in, and at that time (long time ago), it had about 32,000+ hours in it's logbook.
It also had a faded plaque affixed in the cockpit on the left fuselage wall denoting it as the "Hollywood Tweet" and a brief description of it's movie career that it took part in.
I wonder if that plaque is still there...... and if there's someway I could get it.
I also wonder why a T-37 was picked as chase plane for the movie? Cost? It had to fly up from PHX to SLC to work, when they could've used F-4E Phantoms out of the active duty 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at right there in SLC at Hill AFB, or F-105Bs from the AF Reserve 419th Tactical Fighter Wing, also at Hill. THUDs escorting the 747 would've been cool...
2. The Beech 55 Baron pictured in the movie, N9750Y, was actually lost in a fatal midair collision with a Cessna 180 in August 1989.
3. Charleton Heston piloting the Lear 24 definitely looks cool as a jewel.
4. The 747 cruising through Heber Canyon area of Utah is well done.
5. Of course, the Sikorsky HH-53C Super Jolly Green is just cool as hell, for the movie it was a local....based out of the 1550th Aircrew Test and Training Wing at Hill AFB just north of SLC, training crews in Search and Rescue. Unfortunately, HH-53C 66-14431 was destroyed in 1998 following a crash at MCAS Cherry Point, NC during a post-maintenance Functional Check Flight. This actual HH-53C, in addition to starring in Airport '75, also was credited with 35 persons rescued from the commercial vessel Yarrawonga off the coast of Ireland in Jan 1989; as well as participating as the lead rescue helo in the failed attempt to rescue the downed Corvette 01 F-15E Strike Eagle crew in Desert Storm.
The scenes where the HH-53 is flying formation with the 747 are all real, as well as actually winching a man out the back of the helo and onto the 747 (no real hole in the cockpit, obviously). Outstanding dissimilar formation and aerial stunt work.....and this was definitely dissimilar both aircraft and speeds-wise; what with a 747, a T-37, and an HH-53 all in formation at one point. As well as the 747 in trail behind the -53.
6. As a CFR trained firefighter, the old-skool O-11A crash trucks rolling out of the station at 2:19, is cool
7. Not shown in the video, but in the actual movie, when the 747 is on short final to SLC, there are old-school Utah ANG KC-97s parked on their ramp....prior to that unit getting the KC-135A.
Gotta love the majority use of REAL airplane footage and aerial work, in light of everything being CGI today.
Some interesting tidbits and MikeD observations:
1. The T-37B shown at 1:23 and on, flying off the wing of the 747, is s/n 67-14762 and is now retired to the Tucson boneyard, and about to be scrapped.
'762' served for many years with the 82nd Flying Training Wing/96th Flying Training Squadron at the former Williams AFB (formerly Williams Gateway Airport, now Phoenix/Mesa Gateway Airport) Arizona. In 1974, '762' participated in the filming of the movie "Airport 1975. In the movie, '762' is the USAF "chase plane" that initially intercepts the striken 747 airliner to assess the damage following the mid-air collision with the Beech Baron. A number of UPT IPs at Williams AFB from the 96th got the chance to fly the aerial formation sequences.
Following the closure of Williams AFB in September 1993, '762' was transferred to the 47th Flying Training Wing/85th Flying Training Squadron at Laughlin AFB, Texas.
Yours truly has 18.6 hours logged in 67-14762, and I know I will miss this old bird when it very soon gets sent to be parted out (it's already lost it's engines and other parts). This is the jet I took my last T-37 flight in, and at that time (long time ago), it had about 32,000+ hours in it's logbook.
It also had a faded plaque affixed in the cockpit on the left fuselage wall denoting it as the "Hollywood Tweet" and a brief description of it's movie career that it took part in.
I wonder if that plaque is still there...... and if there's someway I could get it.
I also wonder why a T-37 was picked as chase plane for the movie? Cost? It had to fly up from PHX to SLC to work, when they could've used F-4E Phantoms out of the active duty 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at right there in SLC at Hill AFB, or F-105Bs from the AF Reserve 419th Tactical Fighter Wing, also at Hill. THUDs escorting the 747 would've been cool...
2. The Beech 55 Baron pictured in the movie, N9750Y, was actually lost in a fatal midair collision with a Cessna 180 in August 1989.
3. Charleton Heston piloting the Lear 24 definitely looks cool as a jewel.
4. The 747 cruising through Heber Canyon area of Utah is well done.
5. Of course, the Sikorsky HH-53C Super Jolly Green is just cool as hell, for the movie it was a local....based out of the 1550th Aircrew Test and Training Wing at Hill AFB just north of SLC, training crews in Search and Rescue. Unfortunately, HH-53C 66-14431 was destroyed in 1998 following a crash at MCAS Cherry Point, NC during a post-maintenance Functional Check Flight. This actual HH-53C, in addition to starring in Airport '75, also was credited with 35 persons rescued from the commercial vessel Yarrawonga off the coast of Ireland in Jan 1989; as well as participating as the lead rescue helo in the failed attempt to rescue the downed Corvette 01 F-15E Strike Eagle crew in Desert Storm.
The scenes where the HH-53 is flying formation with the 747 are all real, as well as actually winching a man out the back of the helo and onto the 747 (no real hole in the cockpit, obviously). Outstanding dissimilar formation and aerial stunt work.....and this was definitely dissimilar both aircraft and speeds-wise; what with a 747, a T-37, and an HH-53 all in formation at one point. As well as the 747 in trail behind the -53.
6. As a CFR trained firefighter, the old-skool O-11A crash trucks rolling out of the station at 2:19, is cool
7. Not shown in the video, but in the actual movie, when the 747 is on short final to SLC, there are old-school Utah ANG KC-97s parked on their ramp....prior to that unit getting the KC-135A.
