Photo of the week
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This weekends extra.
And a couple of nice shots of Klemm Kl 35's , known as the SK 15 in Swedish service.
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This midweeks photo.
And a captured A.E.G. C.IV biplane tail number C1103 parked on display in the Place Stanislas in Nancy, France,23rd January 1917
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This weekends photos.
Taken at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, circa 1940-41, a Vought O3U-3 Corsair Floatplane is being launched on a training flight.
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This weekends extra.
And a nice shot of a Swiss Messerschmitt Bf-108 B-1 Taifun.Eighteen were delivered between the 23rd of November 1938 and 4th of August 1939.They remained in service until 1959.
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This midweeks photo.
Taken on the set of the movie "Battle Hymn"
Battle Hymn is a 1957 American war film directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson as Lieutenant Colonel Dean E. Hess, a real-life United States Air Force fighter pilot in the Korean War who helped evacuate several hundred war orphans to safety. The cast also includes Anna Kashfi, Dan Duryea, Don DeFore, Philip Ahn, and Martha Hyer. The film was produced by Ross Hunter and filmed in CinemaScope.
Hess's autobiography of the same name was published concurrently with the release of the film. He donated his profits from the film and the book to a network of orphanages he helped to establish. The film is one of the most well-known American films about the Korean War. In South Korea, it is noted for its depiction of Col. Hess (known as the “Father of the Korean War Orphans”), and is aired annually during Memorial Day.
The real Lt. Col. Hess was a technical advisor to Universal to ensure that the final production did not stray far from his original biography. Nonetheless, the inevitable "Hollywood" screenplay prevailed. Hess had a hand in vetoing the studio's first choice to play him: Robert Mitchum, having reservations about the actor's character. Unable to film in Korea, locations shifted to Nogales, Arizona that provided at least a modicum of similar landscape. On Soon Whang, Director of the Orphans Home of Korea arrived in the U.S. along with 25 orphans who would reprise their own lives on film.
In order to replicate the ROK unit, the 12 F-51D Mustangs of 182nd Fighter Squadron, 149th Fighter Group of the Texas Air National Guard were enlisted by the USAF to provide the necessary authentic aircraft of the period. During filming, an additional surplus F-51 was acquired from USAF stocks to be used in an accident scene where it would be deliberately destroyed.
The gold flying helmet with the United Nations emblem that Rock Hudson wears in the movie was Dean Hess's actual helmet. It was a Navy-issue helmet that Hess scrounged from a Navy pilot who crash-landed at their airfield in Korea (since the Navy pilot was going to be issued a new helmet as a result of the crash-landing). The helmet is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio
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This weekends photos.
A couple of nice shots of a Spitfire Vb, 309th FS,of the 31st FG, 15th AF,High Ercall airbase, August 1942.
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This weekends extra.
Taken at Randolph Field November 1st 1935 some detailed shots of a Boeing F4-3, of the USMC.
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This midweeks photo.
And a wonderful top view of a Lancaster on its bomb run,note the open bay doors.
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This weekends photo.
A nice air to air of a Boeing Y1B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft in flight over farmland near Mount Rainier, Washington, May 22, 1937.
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This weekends extra.
A stunning air to air of a Stearman PT-17 Kaydet model A75N1 USAAF , taken 1941
