Flying Inspiration from the Silver Screen by Michael Beazel
The inspiration to fly comes in many shapes and forms. It can be a friend or relative who flies, a trip to the airport to pick up “Uncle Bob”, or seeing (or hearing) a plane fly overhead. However, for a lot of people, it comes to us as a motion picture on the big (or small) screen.
Looking back at my life, there seemed to be several influences on my love of aviation. My father was a career Air Force NCO, so I grew up on Air Force bases watching really cool airplanes fly overhead.
This was just one influence. There had to be something else. After careful examination, I realized that my desire to be an aviator was directly related to the movies I loved. As a child in the Seventies and Eighties. I loved George Lucas' STAR WARS (1977-1983) films. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) were cooler than cool and everyone's idea of hero pilots. I wanted to be just like them.
As a teen, I was inspired by Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Goose (Anthony Edwards) in TOP GUN (1986) as well as Chappy Sinclair (Louis Gossett Jr.)and Doug Masters (Jason Gedrick) in IRON EAGLE (1986). Don't laugh at me yet! I have a very good excuse. At that time, I was very much like Doug Masters. My Dad was in the Air Force, I wanted to fly fighter jets, I flew a Cessna similar to his, and MacDill Air Force Base was very near to our house and was home to an F-16 training Wing. I was like a real Doug Masters, except that I didn't have to fly to a foreign country to rescue my Father.
In addition to movie pilots, there were also many television shows that incorporated airplanes and helicopters into their stories. Shows like, The A-TEAM, AIRWOLF, THE FALL GUY, MAGNUM P.I., BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP, TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY, and the sitcom WINGS, among others.
Hollywood has a rich history of making films that excite and impress us. Dashing heroes who risk everything to save all of us small folk from the evil that invades this world. Some of these movies incorporate some aspect of aviation to tell the story of the Hero on his or her quest. Fighter pilots, airline pilots, helicopter pilots and even General Aviation pilots in small airplanes have all been portrayed as heroic figures in motion pictures. Hollywood usually shows movie aviators in a good light. This is because screenwriters understand that a pilot is a classical hero. He (or she) does a dangerous job. That job takes him(or her) into the wild blue yonder. Up into the heavens where most people do not go and quite possibly, a little closer to God. The job of flying aircraft requires a high level of skill and bravery, especially when things go wrong. That is when the courage and bravery of a pilot is tested. Airline Captain Sullenberger is a perfect example of this. A true hero in real life as well as on the big screen in SULLY (2016). That is what makes pilots attractive as heroic figures.
Hollywood has always had a great relationship with aviation. Both enjoyed great success in their early days in Los Angeles. Many famous actors and producers were flyers and some, like Cecil B. DeMille and Charlie Chaplin had their own airfields in the “City of Angels”.
The common thread for all of those stories were aircraft to admire and aviators to emulate. Now, we all know that movies and television shows can get a little crazy when it comes to accuracy. (I’m talking to you JAMES BOND movies!) But that’s a whole other article for another day.
Regardless, the adventure of aviation is what ultimately inspires us to fly among the clouds. To be above the everyday, ordinary world is something only super heroes can do. But with an airplane or helicopter, we can do that too.
Learning to fly was one of the most exciting and adventurous things I have ever done and I had a blast in flight school. It was challenging and rewarding in a most unique way.
So, if you find yourself yearning for inspiring aviation stories, sign in to your local streaming service and enter words like; FLY, SKY, JET, AIRPORT, or AIRPLANE, and see what comes up! Check out some old John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart movies (FYI, Stewart was an actual WWII Bomber pilot) or Google “Aviation Movies” to get a curated list.
Movie pilots can be military aviators from World War I, II, Korea or Vietnam. They can also be civilian pilots in any time period or location on Earth. They can also be pilots flying to protect the galaxy from an evil Empire in the far reaches of outer space! There's a lot of inspiration to be had out there in Streaming Land!
In addition to actors playing highly skilled and courageous pilot characters, there are several movie and television actors who are also rated pilots. Take it from me, celebrity pilots love to talk about airplanes. Some famous Hollywood aviators are Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Michael Dorn, Angelina Jolie, and Dennis Quaid, to name a few.
The adventure that is aviation inspires many people to become aviators all by itself, but movies and television can bring that adventure right to the viewer in a way like no other. There are tons of films/television shows in the Aviation genre. The content is out there to light the spark for you, it's up to you to accept the Call to Adventure and make your inspiration your life!
Michael Beazel is an aviation media consultant. Aviation Historian with decades of experience in Aviation as well as Motion Picture Development Executive. He is the Senior Manager of Development at Gallagher Literary Management.