Bridges at Toko-Ri photo mission take off in HQ

HQ extract from the film 'The Bridges at Toko-Ri' which was based on the best selling novel of the same name by James A. Michener. Here we see two Grumman F9F Panther jets take off on a photographic mission to photograph the enemy bridges in preparation for the main raid to follow.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Korean
• War
• Grumman
• F9F
• Panther
• jet
• US
• Navy
• aircraft
• carrier

[Cool2BCeltic]

These Grumman Panthers were state of the art in 1952 but look incredibly primitive now. This is a much better aviation film than Top Gun.

[JetMechMA]

@Cool2BCeltic I don't think the Panther looks primitive. It looks pretty agile to me. It was a great looking aircraft. Like all old fighters, powerplant technology trailed airframe technology. Now we're seeing the pinnacle of manned flight. Next gen is going pilotless. The end of glory. I don't give a damn about pilotless aircraft.

[KayakMike1963]

@zloyobar Wrong. Watch "Carrier Operations 1953-54". Open canopy launches were quite common, as the ejection seats weren't powerful enough to clear a pilot to chute opening height when at deck level.

[KayakMike1963]

@Dubblegum19 if you watch the video entitled "Carrier Operations 1953-54", you'll see actual takeoff operations with open canopies. These aren't Hollywood film clips, but home movies taken over several years during the Korean War.

[westlock]

@usafvet100 That is the Oriskany. She did not get her angled deck until 1959, and is now an artificial reef near Pensacola.

[CRsBeem]

@Dubblegum19 It was. There were no zero-zero ejection seats then, so the pilots would prepare to exit the aircraft if they had to ditch in the water.

[Dubblegum19]

The first Panther takes off with open cockpit canopy at 1:28!!!!??? Somebody knows if that was a normal procedure in 1950 jets?

[usafvet100]

Grumman had been doing a great job supplying the Navy with carrier aircraft, and continued the tradition with the Panther. Any idea which carrier this was? It has catapults and early-model blast deflectors, but lacks an angled flight deck, making "touch and gos" impossible without crashing into the deck-spotted aircraft.

[fredfungalspore]

one great movie i found it interesting how they brought the aircraft carrier into dock using the power of the aircraft on the deck. So much for wind power

[zloyobar]

This movie inspired me as a young boy to one day join the USN.....they got me I was indoctrinated......just an impresionable young boy with a fragile egg shell mind.... jeeeeeeezzzz I was born a militant ha,ha,ha,ha,

The open canopies at launch is totally Hollywierd

[00Billy]

@Cool2BCeltic

believe they got the first mig kill.