ABOVE:
John Hawke —
sometimes referred
to as ‘Mr Disturb’
— with his five
‘chicks’ together
at St John’s,
Newfoundland.30 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE JULY 2018I
t was nearly dusk at Luton Airport
on Thursday 11 May 1978. The
approach controller spoke into the
mic on his headset; there was no
mistaking his Scottish lilt as he said,
“November 9494 Zulu, the visibility is
not too good. If you have any trouble,
we can give you instrument radar
approach”. An obviously English voice
responded, “No, it’s OK, sir. We’ve
flown 4,000 miles together, we’ll do
a straight run-in”. The English voice
was that of Jersey resident Bernhard
Haddican who was in the co-pilot’s
seat of a North American TB-25N
Mitchell, with three others in its wake.
A few days later a fifth Mitchell would
join them but, for want of a tyre,
that particular aircraft was presently
stranded in Newfoundland.
The medium bombers were required
for a movie entitled Hanover Street.
The production was very much the
brainchild of Peter Hyam who wrote,
directed and filmed it. A young film-
maker, he had established a name for
himself with Capricorn One, and as a
result was given a $5-million budget
with which to make his romantic/
war drama. Filming had been planned
for early spring 1978 but, as the lead
actor Kris Kristofferson pulled out,
the schedule had to be deferred for
two months in order to accommodate
the commitments of Harrison Ford,
who was brought in to fill the void.
The other two leading parts were to
be played by Lesley-Anne Down and
Christopher Plummer.
The task of providing five World
War Two American bombers for
a wartime romance drama was
contracted to John ‘Jeff ’ Hawke and
David Tallichet in December 1977.The requirement was for the aircraft
to be delivered on-set in England for
shooting the following March. Crews
would need to be available for the
filming schedule. Each machine was
to be painted so that together they
would authentically represent a US
Army Air Forces squadron. Although
neither the Eighth nor Ninth Air
Forces which operated from English
bases employed the Mitchell, the
TB-25N was, by far, the best available
option for the film’s budget.
John Hawke had considerable
experience of this type of activity.
Having been trained for the RAF by
the Royal Canadian Air Force in the
1950s, he left the military to pursue a
career flying a broad array of aircraft
types. He did ferry work, having
traversed the Atlantic 150 times, as
well as display flying, but it is for his
connection with filming that he is
best-known. Hawke is credited with
involvement in many of the movies
made during the 1960s and ’70s
which required warbird sequences like
633 Squadron, Battle of Britain and A
Bridge Too Far.Hawke acquired two TB-25N
Mitchells, which he registered to his
company Visionaire Inc. These were
Laden Maiden (N9494Z), located
in San Marcos, Texas, and Doolittle
Raiders (N86427) which was at
Oakland, California.
David Tallichet III was a
businessman who ran restaurants and
the Military Aircraft Restoration
Company. His assets for the film
project were three TB-25Ns, Silver
Plane (N7681C), Toujours au Danger— referred to from now on as Always
Dangerous — (N9115Z) and Tokyo
Express (N9455Z). The first two of
these had previously appeared in the
1970 movie Catch-22. Tallichet’s
preparatory work in getting these
Mitchells fit enough for the Atlantic
crossing was slower than Hawke
would have wished, but as things
turned out, with the film schedule
being put back two months, Tallichet
had more breathing space.
Hawke and co-pilot José Dolhem
flew Doolittle Raiders from California
to Philadelphia in late April, a flight
of 20 hours and a distance of 3,000
miles. There they made rendezvous
with Laden Maiden, which had been
brought in by Erik Lorentzen with co-
pilot Etienne Vigoureux. The next leg
was to Worcester, Massachusetts where
they planned to meet up with the other
three Mitchells. Doolittle Raiders was
now being flown by Don McQuinn
and Lynn Florey, while John Hawke
together with Erik Lorentzen flew
Laden Maiden. Also on board the latter
were documentary film-makers Tony
Howarth and Carolyn Hicks.
The two aircraft arrived safely on
29 April. Doolittle Raiders was not
faring well and the engines, while
being prepared for the next flight,
were refusing to start in protest at the
winter-like weather. Finally, on the
second day at Worcester, they were
coaxed back into life, but Hawke —
always preferring to have the lame
duck — would take this one from now
on, leaving McQuinn (acting as chief
pilot) and Bernhard Haddican to fly
the better-equipped Laden Maiden.
McQuinn earned his daily bread as
an air inspector with the CanadianHANOVER STREET B-25s
28-35_AM_Hanover_July18_cc C.indd 30 04/06/2018 12:24