Stunt pilot Paul Mantz rips the wings off a Stearman 75 between two trees in John Ford's 1950 comedy, When Willie Comes Marching Home. Mantz purposely weakened the wings to make them come off easily. He said, “Your chances for survival and rescue after a crash landing depends largely on how well you succeed in making the airplane, and not yourself, absorb the shock. I’ve lived to walk away from numerous precision crashes because I’ve made it a point to learn what actually kills an airman when a plane crashes.”
Too bad he had to die flying the experimental plane in making the movie "Flight of the Phoenix ". He
was one of aviation's greatest stunt pilots .
Too bad he had to die flying the experimental plane in making the movie "Flight of the Phoenix ". He
was one of aviation's greatest stunt pilots .