Grownkoski Blog: Holden Sst Concept 2002

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The years between World War I and World War II saw extensive use of the new technology, aircraft, in the new medium, film. In the early 1920s Hollywood studios made dozens of now-obscure 'aerial Westerns' with leads such as Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson, where the role of the horse was taken by aircraft, or used aircraft as nothing more than vehicles for stunts to excite audiences. In 1926 the first 'proper' aviation film was made; Wings is a story of two pilots who sign up to fly and fight in World War I. Made with the co-operation of the then-Department of War (a relationship that continues to this day), it used front-line military aircraft of the day such as the Thomas-Morse MB-3 and Boeing PW-9, flown by military pilots. Future United States Air Force Generals Hap Arnold and Hoyt Vandenberg were among the military officers involved with the production, Arnold as a technical consultant and Vandenberg as one of the pilots. Wings was a box-office hit when it achieved general release in 1929 and went on the win the award for Best Production at the first Academy Awards.

Holden SST Concept (2002) - Rear Angle

Holden SST Concept (2002)
In Fascist Italy in the 1930s, aviation-themed films were used as propaganda tools to complement the massed flights led by Italo Balbo in promoting the regime domestically and abroad. One such film was the most successful Italian film of the pre-World War II era. Luciano Serra pilota (Luciano Serra, pilot) was inextricably linked to the Fascist government via Mussolini's son Vittorio, who was the driving force behind the film's production. The film, set between the year 1921 and the Italo-Abyssinian War, was used to compare the allegedly-moribund state of aviation in pre-Fascist Italy with the purported power of the Regia Aeronautica and Italian aviation in general in the 1930s. However, by the time that Luciano Serra pilota was shown at the 1938 Venice Film Festival, the link between aviation and Fascism had already been firmly established in the minds of the Italian people through widespread depictions of aircraft in a variety of media. For example there was an entire branch of the Futurist Art movement devoted to aviation, known as Aeropittura (Aeropainting). While many of the Aeropittura works were devoted to flight rather than aircraft per se, some did celebrate Italian aviation exploits, such as Alfredo Ambrosi's Il volo su Vienna (The Flight over Vienna) which depicted in Futurist style the World War I exploit of Gabriele d'Annunzio; although the city of Vienna is shown in abstract in accordance with the aims of Aeropittura - namely to show the dynamism and excitement of flight - the Ansaldo SVA aircraft are very carefully and accurately rendered.

Holden SST Concept 2002

Douglas AD-1 Skyraiders fly RESCAP missions over a downed Grumman F9F Panther and Sikorsky HO3S-1 in Korea in the climax of the 1954 release, The Bridges at Toko-Ri.

Holden SST Concept 2002

A flight of US Navy AD-1s stood in for unavailable P-47 Thunderbolts in the 1962 production The Longest Day, based on the Cornelius Ryan book of the same title.

Holden SST Concept 2002

Holden SST Concept (2002)

The A-1 Skyraider made appearances in the 1968 The Green Berets film loosely based on the 1965 book by Robin Moore.

Holden SST Concept - Interior, 2002, 1600x1200, 4 of 9

Holden SST Concept (2002) - 8

Holden SSX Concept (2002) - 5
"Sandy" escort missions were depicted in the 1991 John Milius film Flight of the Intruder based on the Stephen Coonts novel of the same title.

Holden SST Concept (2002) - Interior. next »« previousback

Holden SST Concept (2002)

It was also featured as one of the many aircraft providing close air support during the First Battle of the Ia Drang Valley Campaign in Mel Gibson's 2002 film We Were Soldiers, based on the book We Were Soldiers Once… And Young by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway.