What is so unusual about the main character's jet plane?
A) The plane resembles Snoopy's doghouse
B) It shoots laser beams from the wings of the plane
C) It blinks a bright green
D) There was a smiley face on the nose of the plane
C) It blinks a bright green.
"Suddenly I have a refreshing mint flavour."
Answer:
C) It blinks green and emits a "high frequency howl", and
E) Every time the plane is seen flying from right to left, its tail number (29546) is a mirror image (the negative was flipped in editing). There's also one very quick scene at takeoff in which the tail number becomes ---68.
The plane, a Lockheed T-33A jet fighter, was borrowed from the U.S. Air Force by Universal and was flown to Van Nuys Airport in San Fernando Valley for shooting scenes. If you look closely on the plane at the canopy, you will see "Crew Chief G. H. Eckenboy" stamped on the fuselage with a stencil. He was the real operator of the jet at the time of filming in 1954. Rex Reason merely got in it to appear to fly it, but all other flying scenes were done by this uncredited "stunt pilot".
Dejael
Look, back in 1955, a civilian getting into a (very closeup view) of a 'Shooting Star'.. was whoa..... civilians can now fly those?.. Look how shiny the metal is..
I saw just about all the miliary gear movies with jets.( P-80 Shooting Stars), and this was the closes REAL thing the avg american had ever seen of it.
They were the 1st operational combat jet... just after WWII.. and saw combat in Korean War but were outclassed by the Russian Migs. But we had the F-86 Sabre running just in time.. which gave the migs a run for thir money.
And remember most of the audiences for these movies were kids, just like me.