Paul Mantz- Chief Pilot.

[05564]

After many years of watching my favorite movie " Air Force" on my VHS tape, ( yes some of us still have a VHS player) I finnally broke down and bought the DVD. Well low an behold while watching the credits , which VHS does not have BTW, I noticed something that really caught my eye. Paul Mantz is listed as " Chief Pilot- Warner Brothers". Scott, any idea what part of this fine film Paul was involved with? I've read quite abit of your Tallmantz Aviation pages, and I don't seem to have read anything about this.

[aerovin2]

Gary,

If you look at the page devoted to this film on my B-17 Movie page (http://www.aerovintage.com/airforce.htm) you'll see a bit of detail about the Mantz involvement. Here is the part of that:

You'll never see the likes of this again: nine B-17Bs, Cs, and Ds in a mixed formation, probably shot offshore near Florida by Paul Mantz and Elmer Dyer. The camera platform used for this show is unknown, but may have been one of Mantz's special camera ships. Bruce Orriss notes that Mantz's Lockheed Orion, Beoing 100, and Stinson were all used for the filming. This scene depicts the flight from California to Hawaii early in the film.

As to him being the chief pilot for Warner Bros, I would think that is probably a contractual little thing to further enhance his Hollywood position.