This is an instructional film made for pilots being checked out on the B-26 Martin Marauder. It's chock full of details about manifold pressure, tachometers, wind indicators, and pfoofnik pins. But it is presented as a fictional short movie. The actor playing the pilot is Don Porter, who may be recognized as Senator Crocker Jarman in Robert Redford's "The Candidate." The Lieutenant who is on the learning end is Craig Stevens, probably best remembers as TV's "Peter Gunn." There were many actors doing these training films. Collectively they were know as the Culver City Commandoes.
There is another member of the simulated flight crew, an uncredited corporal who has no lines but acts as a kind of comic relief. He makes an error in the air and is demoted to a private who will be doing KP. It's treated as something of a joke, the mere enlisted man being a schlub after all.
The technical stuff comes quickly enough so that no one could possibly remember all of the pre-flight check, let alone anything that comes afterward, including the failure of one engine.
The B-26 was rather a special medium bomber. We needed it so badly at the beginning of the war that it was not even test flown, just manufactured from a design on paper and rolled out onto the field. It was sleek, fast, and dangerous to fly. Everything about it looked made for power and speed, from the four-bladed propellers to its torpedo-shaped fuselage. A relative of mine was a crew member and said it was known as "the flying cigar".
There is another member of the simulated flight crew, an uncredited corporal who has no lines but acts as a kind of comic relief. He makes an error in the air and is demoted to a private who will be doing KP. It's treated as something of a joke, the mere enlisted man being a schlub after all.
The technical stuff comes quickly enough so that no one could possibly remember all of the pre-flight check, let alone anything that comes afterward, including the failure of one engine.
The B-26 was rather a special medium bomber. We needed it so badly at the beginning of the war that it was not even test flown, just manufactured from a design on paper and rolled out onto the field. It was sleek, fast, and dangerous to fly. Everything about it looked made for power and speed, from the four-bladed propellers to its torpedo-shaped fuselage. A relative of mine was a crew member and said it was known as "the flying cigar".
