Aviation History - USA (2019-09)

(today’s Commemorative Air Force) from Texas

had purchased four Buchóns and agreed to loan

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Given aileron struts, squared wingtips and dummy

guns fitted to the wings and engine cowls (but

retaining the Merlin engines, hence their almost

P-40ish nose scoops), the Buchóns were as close to

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Since the Spanish government was squabbling with

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for the movie were slim until Rolls-Royce threat-

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Fleet Air Arm veteran, aircraft restorer and replica

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Monster” for its garish high-visibility paint scheme,

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shoot” to hang underneath a helicopter while air-

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The rain in Spain, it seemed, fell mainly on the

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of time lost, stripping and then replacing their

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that it was agreed to leave the bombers in Nazi

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limited number of concrete dummy bombs made,

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time General [Francisco] Franco was having one

of his tantrums about the British and Gibraltar,

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pilots were going to drop the concrete bombs on

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September 2019

HONORED GUESTS

Clockwise from above

left: Battle veterans

Douglas Bader (left)

and Townsend (right)

talk with stars Shaw

and Christopher

Plummer; former

RAF air chief marshal

Lord Hugh Dowding

(in wheelchair) visits

with his former pilots

during filming; Adolf

Galland (center) on

location in Spain.

THE RAIN IN

SPAIN, IT

SEEMED, FELL

MAINLY ON

THE PLANES.

ONE AERIAL

SHOOT PER

DAY WAS PAR.