Mad....Mad World Beechcraft 18

[69Mustang]

A friend has gone bonkers over It’s a Mad … World and has drug me into it. He sent me to a web page on Mad World. That had a link to a discussion about the Beechcraft 18 and the stunt of flying through the bill board and where it was at and what ever happened to the plane.

I realize that it is an old post. It is interesting to read some of the banter of the OC vs. Chino Airports for the sign stunt. Anyone who has been to Chino would know that there is no hill like that at or near the end of the runway. It’s flat dairy land all the way to Hwy 91. That would have to be Euclid Ave. to frame left, and that would be looking north. It’s flat dairy land to the north too. I was born in Ontario and I have been banging around Chino since I was a kid. My father worked there since the early 50’s when it was PAC (Pacific Air motive Corp).

His name was Gerry (E.G.) Morrison. He was a partner at Aerosport there at Chino. He told me that he worked on the plane for that movie as well as Flight of The Phoenix and the TV series 12 O’clock High. I remember the big glassed in nose of the B25, too. I helped him swing the compass in that plane one day when I was down there.

This may solve the mystery to the Beechcraft 18 (or add fuel to the fire) It wasn’t a Beech 18 but a Lockheed. I remember my dad telling me that they swapped the tail on the plane to make it look like a Beechcraft. If they swapped the tail it would not take much work to cobble up the other bits to make it look like a Beechcraft D-18, Considering the problems of the wings on the Beechcraft (info gleaned from the web page), maybe Tallmantz opted for the stronger Lockheed. That could also make it harder to sell, though. It might have to be “experimental”. Or maybe they put the tail back on and you should be looking for a Lockheed. Now there's a mind bender!

Regards

Glenn

[aerovin2]

I hate to nip a good story in the bud but there really isn't any doubt that it was the Tallmantz Beech 18 that was used for the shot, if the Tallman account and the FAA registration file and the billing receipts for the film are correct. Primarily, Tallmantz billed the moviemakers a fair amount of money to repair the Beech 18 after the stunt due to unexpected damage. Aside from that, imagine the work that would be required to graft a Lockheed tail onto a Beech 18 fuselage....I would presume the cross-sections are no where identical. The Beech 18 is a pretty strong airframe in its own right. The wing problems were due to internal corrosion to the tubular spars, something that probably was not well known about in 1963. But, all that aside, thanks for posting the additional information about Chino and a good jumping off point for another discussion.

I have gathered a good amount about the Tallmantz Beech 18 and hope to post a page on the Tallmantz sub-site about the airplane that gives greater detail about the history of that airplane and also its specific use for that shot.