P-38 Flight Characteristics (1943)
Training film for pilots of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning pursuit aircraft, focusing particularly on flight characteristics during operation on only one engine.
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This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
A typical training film from 1943. If you were to fly the twin-engined P-38, you watched this first.It's narrated by an experienced test pilot who's friendly but sticks to the subject. "There's no need for prolonged inverted flight." And, if you stall below 10,000 feet, "the ground may come up fast and slap you in the face." It isn't really very technical. For the first few minutes you learn which buttons to push and which levers to set in which position but, for the most part, there are pleasant scenes, shot in color, of this queer-looking airplane in flight over snow-topped mountains and castellated clouds.The airplane itself is an ugly looking thing in its own way but sleek too. It was not that maneuverable but fast, well armed, and had more range than most of the fighters of its period. It was in production from the beginning of the war to the end, and it was P-38 pilots who intercepted Admiral Yamamoto's flight that resulted in his death.