Top 250 Movies Like Warplane

A Century of Fight and Flight

A list of the best movies similar to Warplane. If you liked Warplane then you may also like: 36 Hours, United 93, Victory Through Air Power, Von Richthofen and Brown, The War Lover and many more great movies featured on this list.

TV show

The warplane has evolved over nearly a century to become what it is today, in 2004. This series is the story of how, through life-and-death necessity, invention, ingenuity and sheer hard work that warplane technology evolved. The Warplane series is not a history of every military plane but rather a look at the major stepping stones that advanced military aviation.

36 Hours

Germans kidnap an American major and try to convince him that World War II is over, so that they can get details about the Allied invasion of Europe out of him.

United 93

A real-time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.

Victory Through Air Power

This is a unique film in Disney Production's history. This film is essentially a propaganda film selling Major Alexander de Seversky's theories about the practical uses of long range strategic bombing. Using a combination of animation humorously telling about the development of air warfare, the film switches to the Major illustrating his ideas could win the war for the allies.

Von Richthofen and Brown

Spend time on both sides of World War I, partly with German flying ace Baron Manfred Von Richthofen (John Phillip Law), aka "The Red Baron," and his colorful "flying circus" of Fokker fighter planes, during the time from his arrival at the war front to his death in combat. On the other side is Roy Brown of the Royal Air Force, sometimes credited with shooting Richthofen down.

The War Lover

Buzz Rickson is a dare-devil World War II bomber pilot with a death wish. Failing at everything not involving flying, Rickson lives for the most dangerous missions. His crew lives with this aspect of his personality only because they know he always brings them back alive.

The Way to the Stars

Life on a British bomber base, and the surrounding towns, from the opening days of the Battle of Britain, to the arrival of the Americans, who join in the bomber offensive. The film centres around Pilot Officer Peter Penrose, fresh out of a training unit, who joins the squadron, and quickly discovers about life during war time. He falls for Iris, a young girl who lives at the local hotel, but he becomes disillusioned about marriage, when the squadron commander dies in a raid, and leaves his wife, the hotel manageress, with a young son to bring up. As the war progresses, Penross comes to terms that he has survived, while others have been killed.

Reach for the Sky

The true story of airman Douglas Bader who overcame the loss of both legs in a 1931 flying accident to become a successful fighter pilot and wing leader during World War II.

The Red Baron

Richthofen goes off to war like thousands of other men. As fighter pilots, they become cult heroes for the soldiers on the battlefields. Marked by sportsmanlike conduct, technical exactitude and knightly propriety, they have their own code of honour. Before long he begins to understand that his hero status is deceptive. His love for Kate, a nurse, opens his eyes to the brutality of war.

Red Tails

The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots to fly in a combat squadron during World War II.

Rosies of the North

They raised children, baked cakes... and built world-class fighter planes. Sixty years ago, thousands of women from Thunder Bay and the Prairies donned trousers, packed lunch pails and took up rivet guns to participate in the greatest industrial war effort in Canadian history. Like many other factories across the country from 1939 to 1945, the shop floor at Fort William's Canadian Car and Foundry was transformed from an all-male workforce to one with forty percent female workers.

Running Scared

It's 1961. Two servicemen smuggle a box of military gear to USA. Leroy tries out a military camera and accidentally takes a picture of some military facilities. Army finds one of the pictures and thinks they're communist spies.

Journey Together

Two Englishmen (Richard Attenborough, Jack Watling) train with the Royal Air Force, ending with a bombing raid on Berlin.

Aces High

The first World War is in its third year and aerial combat above the Western Front is consuming the nation's favored children at an appalling rate. By early 1917, the average life-span of a British pilot is less than a fortnight. Such losses place a fearsome strain on Gresham, commanding officer of the squadron. Aces High recreates the early days of the Royal Flying Corps with some magnificently staged aerial battles, and sensitive direction presents a moving portrayal of the futilities of war.

Angels One Five

The year is 1940 and Pilot Officer T.B. Baird arrives straight out of flight school to join a front line RAF squadron at the height of the Battle of Britain. After an unfortunate start and a drumming down from his commanding officer, Baird must balance the struggle to impress his Group Captain, regain his pride, fit in with his fellow pilots, and survive one of the most intense air battles in history.

Bat★21

Lt. Col. Iceal "Ham" Hambleton is a weapons countermeasures expert and when his aircraft is shot over enemy territory the Air Force very much wants to get him back. Hambleton knows the area he's in is going to be carpet-bombed but a temporary shortage of helicopters causes a delay. Working with an Air Force reconnaissance pilot, Capt. Bartholomew Clark, he maps out an escape route.

Battle of Britain

In 1940, the Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle against the might of the Luftwaffe for control of the skies over Britain, thus preventing the Nazi invasion of Britain.

The Blue Max

A young pilot in the German air force of 1918, disliked as lower-class and unchivalrous, tries ambitiously to earn the medal offered for 20 kills.

Broken Arrow

When rogue stealth-fighter pilot Vic Deakins deliberately drops off the radar while on maneuvers, the Air Force ends up with two stolen nuclear warheads -- and Deakins's co-pilot, Riley Hale, is the military's only hope for getting them back. Traversing the deserted canyons of Utah, Hale teams with park ranger Terry Carmichael to put Deakins back in his box.

Catch-22

A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation.

Top Gun

For Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell and his friend and co-pilot Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw, being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete's dreams of becoming an ace pilot.

BlackBerry

Two mismatched entrepreneurs – egghead innovator Mike Lazaridis and cut-throat businessman Jim Balsillie – joined forces in an endeavour that was to become a worldwide hit in little more than a decade. The story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world's first smartphone.

Bridge of Spies

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers' only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan, recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man's freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel, the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court.

Lee

The story of photographer Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller, a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II.

Deal of the Century

Arms dealers from several companies vie to sell the most expensive and highest tech weapons to a South American dictator. There are complications; understanding the exact nature of how 'gifts' are used to grease the wheels of a sale, a religious conversion from one of the salesman and a romance that begins to grow between two competitors.

Mosquito Squadron

While a WW2, RAF squadron leader mourns the death of a comrade, he receives a bombing mission against a secret Nazi V-2 rocket testing facility in France.

Flyboys

The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.

Dark Blue World

Lt. Franta Slama is a top pilot in the Czech Air Force who is assigned to train a promising young flier, Karel Vojtisek, and they soon become friends. When Nazi Germany invades Czechoslovakia in 1939, they both reject the authority of their new leaders and escape to England where they join other Czech exiles in the RAF. While flying a mission over England, Karel crash lands and happens upon the farmhouse of Susan, a young woman whose husband is in the Navy. Karel soon falls head over heels for Susan but, while they enjoy a brief fling, in time Susan decides she prefers the company of the older and more worldly Franta. As Franta and Karel struggle to maintain their friendship despite their romantic rivalry.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! Tora!", named after the code words use by the lead Japanese pilot to indicate they had surprised the Americans, covers the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, which plunged America into the Second World War.

Top Gun: Maverick

After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen.

Midway

The story of the Battle of Midway, and the leaders and soldiers who used their instincts, fortitude and bravery to overcome massive odds.

Memphis Belle

The "Memphis Belle" is a World War II bomber, piloted by a young crew on dangerous bombing raids into Europe. The crew only have to make one more bombing raid before they have finished their duty and can go home. In the briefing before their last flight, the crew discover that the target for the day is Dresden, a heavily-defended city that invariably causes many Allied casualties

Midway

This war drama depicts the U.S. and Japanese forces in the naval Battle of Midway, which became a turning point for Americans during World War II.

Iron Eagle

When Doug's father, an Air Force Pilot, is shot down by MiGs belonging to a radical Middle Eastern state, no one seems able to get him out. Doug finds Chappy, an Air Force Colonel who is intrigued by the idea of sending in two fighters piloted by himself and Doug to rescue Doug's father after bombing the MiG base.

To Hell and Back

The true WWII story of Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in U.S. history. Based on the autobiography of Audie Murphy who stars as himself in the film.

Iron Eagle II

Chappy Sinclair is called to gather together a mixed Soviet/U.S. strike force that will perform a surgical strike on a massively defended nuclear missile site in the Middle East. Chappy finds that getting the Soviet and U.S. Pilots to cooperate is only the most minor of his problems as he discovers someone in the Pentagon is actively sabotaging his mission.

Flight World War II

International Flight 42 is on course, when all of a sudden a massive and weird storm crops up around the plane. This sends the plane back in time to the year 1940- smack dab in the middle of WWII! Now, the crew and passengers must not only find a way back to their time, but fight off the Axis powers.

Desperate Journey

During WWII, when an allied bomber is shot down over Germany, the five surviving crew are captured but cleverly escape detention after learning German secret information and knocking out a Nazi major. With the angry major in hot pursuit, aided by military personnel, Gestapo agents and Hitler-loyal citizens, the five wend their way across perilous Germany, intent on reaching the UK with the secrets they have learned.

Flight of the Intruder

U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Jake Grafton and his bombardier buddy, Lt. Cmdr. Virgil Cole, are two soldiers embedded in the Vietnam War growing frustrated by the military's constraints on their missions. Despite the best efforts of their commanding officer, Cmdr. Frank Camparelli, to re-engage them, this disillusioned pair decide to take the war effort into their own hands with an explosive battle plan that could well get them court-martialed.

Flying Leathernecks

Major Daniel Kirby takes command of a squadron of Marine fliers just before they are about to go into combat. While the men are well meaning, he finds them undisciplined and prone to always finding excuses to do what is easy rather than what is necessary. The root of the problem is the second in command, Capt. Carl 'Griff' Griffin. Griff is the best flier in the group but Kirby finds him a poor commander who is not prepared to make the difficult decision that all commanders have to make - to put men in harm's way knowing that they may be killed.

Flying Tigers

Jim Gordon commands a unit of the famed Flying Tigers, the American Volunteer Group which fought the Japanese in China before America's entry into World War II. Gordon must send his outnumbered band of fighter pilots out against overwhelming odds while juggling the disparate personalities and problems of his fellow flyers.

Fortress

When the commander of the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber is killed in action in a raid over Sicily in 1943, his replacement, a young, naive pilot struggles to be accepted by the plane's already tight-knit Irish American crew.

The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress

This WW2 documentary centers on the crew of the American B-17 Flying Fortress Memphis Belle as it prepares to execute a strategic bombing raid on Nazi submarine pens in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

A Gathering of Eagles

Rock Hudson plays an Air Force Colonel who has just been re-assigned as a cold war B-52 commander who must shape up his men to pass a grueling inspection that the previous commander had failed, and had been fired for. He is also recently married, and as a tough commanding officer doing whatever he has to do to shape his men up, his wife sees a side to him that she hadn't seen before.

Hell's Angels

When World War I breaks out, brothers Roy and Monte Rutledge, each attending Oxford university, enlist with the Royal Flying Corps.

Downfall: The Case Against Boeing

Investigators reveal how Boeing’s alleged priority of profit over safety could have contributed to two catastrophic crashes within months of each other.

Ike: Countdown to D-Day

The story of the senior-level preparations for the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 from the time of Dwight D. Eisenhower's appointment as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, to the establishment of the beachhead in Normandy.

MacArthur

The film portrays MacArthur's life from 1942, before the Battle of Bataan, to 1952, the time after he had been removed from his Korean War command by President Truman for insubordination, and is recounted in flashback as he visits West Point.

The Tuskegee Airmen

During the Second World War, a special project is begun by the US Army Air Corps to integrate African American pilots into the Fighter Pilot Program. Known as the "Tuskegee Airman" for the name of the airbase at which they were trained, these men were forced to constantly endure harassement, prejudice, and much behind the scenes politics until at last they were able to prove themselves in combat.

Sole Survivor

In 1960, the ruins of an American bomber were found in the Libyan desert, but the remains of the crew were never located. In Guerdon Trueblood's teleplay, the ghosts of a bomber crew hang around their derelict plane, awaiting the day that their bones will be recovered and given a decent burial. The sole survivor, navigator Russell Hamner, has in the intervening 25 years become a General. He joins an investigation team that has come across the wreckage, while the ghosts, headed by Major Devlin, plot to expose Hamner as a coward who deserted his post and left his crew mates to die.

The Sound Barrier

Fictionalized story of British aerospace engineers solving the problem of supersonic flight.

The Starfighters

A young Air Force lieutenant falls in love with fighter planes while his father, a Congressman and war hero, yearns for him to fly heavy bombers.

Strategic Air Command

Air Force reservist Lt. Col. Robert "Dutch" Holland is recalled into active duty at the peak of his professional baseball career.

Task Force

After learning the finer points of carrier aviation in the 1920s, career officer Jonathan Scott and his pals spend the next two decades promoting the superiority of naval air power. But military and political "red tape" continually frustrate their efforts, prompting Scott to even consider leaving the Navy for a more lucrative civilian job. Then the world enters a second World War and Scott finally gets the opportunity to prove to Washington the valuable role aircraft carriers could play in winning the conflict. But what will it cost him and his comrades personally?

Theirs Is the Glory

Re-enactment of World War 2 Battle of Arnhem using the survivors from the battle.

Thunderbolt

Documentary about the U.S. Air Force's P-47 Thunderbolt bomber's role in the Italian Campaign.

Flat Top

A rock hard commander trains Navy Carrier Pilots during the Second World War

Lancaster Skies

Douglas, a broken, solitary, Spitfire Ace, must overcome his past to lead a Lancaster bomber crew in the pivotal aerial war over Berlin, in 1944.

The Great Martian War 1913–1917

Documentary-drama recounting the Martian War of 1913–1917. Europe was on tenterhooks in the 2nd decade of the 20th century, everyone was expecting a Great War between the major European powers. But then, in 1913, something crashed into the forests of SW Germany. Troops were sent to investigate but were wiped out. Martian fighting machines began making their way across Western Europe and the countries of Europe combined forces to resist them. With aspects taken from ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells and from WWI itself, this dramatisation presents a documentary style look at events as they unfolded and the effect they had of our world today. Lots of references to real events including the mass attacks and defeats as men were thrown against machines on the Western front, the Christmas truce and the Angel of Mons, America's isolationism and late entry into the conflict, the worldwide Spanish flu epidemic that killed more people than the war, and many other things.

Fifty Years Before Your Eyes

A documentary about the major events of the first fifty years of the Twentieth Century.

Project Alien

In Norway a military plane crashes under mysterious circumstances: in his last message the pilot reported many lights falling from the sky. NATO wants to play down the incident, but the famous TV moderator George Abbot and the no less persistent journalist Milker sense a sensational story about UFOs and start snooping around in the area with help of pilot "Bird" McNamara. Inspired by the suspiciously rigorous isolation of the whole area around the crash point and cases of an unknown disease they have a closer look at the military's activities...

Free Fall

An NTSB investigator (Jaclyn Smith) and her boyfriend (Bruce Boxleitner), who works for the FAA, investigate a series of similar and suspicious plane crashes that seem to be affecting only one airline.

Top Of The World

A team of Air Force servicemen become stranded after setting up a weather station on an island of ice in Alaska.

Sea of Sand

A small British army team is sent deep behind enemy lines to destroy a German petrol dump as part of the preparation for a major attack in the North African campaign. Sea of Sand was distributed in the US in a shortened version, Desert Patrol.

Hurricane

The story of the Polish fliers who found themselves fighting for the freedom of their own country in foreign skies. Seen through the eyes of a Polish fighter ace and adventurer, it tells how the Poles—driven across Europe by the German war machine—finally make their last stand. Flying Hurricanes for the RAF over Britain, they became a key component in the legend of ‘The Few’. Up against the might of the Luftwaffe they hoped that, by saving Great Britain from Nazi invasion, they were keeping the dream of a free Poland alive.

Dauntless: The Battle of Midway

By June 1942, the Japanese Navy has swept across the Pacific. In an effort to change the course of the war, a United States carrier group is positioned off the coast of Midway, tasked with springing a trap on the enemy. During this pivotal battle, the two-man crew of a U.S. Navy dive bomber is forced to ditch in the sea. Set adrift, the men look towards their comrades for rescue; namely, the ragtag crew of a PBY Catalina, who are sent to search for survivors. Amid the vast openness of the Pacific, with days passing and the chance of rescue fading, the men are forced to face their own mortality.

War of the Dead

Captain Martin Stone is leading a finely-trained, elite platoon of Allied soldiers as they attack an enemy bunker. Underestimating their enemy's strength, they are quickly beaten back into the forest. As they try to regroup, they are suddenly attacked by the same soldiers they had just killed a few minutes earlier. Forced to flee deeper into Russian territory, they discover one of war's most terrifying secrets and realize they have woken up a far more deadlier enemy.

Fighter Squadron

During World War II, an insubordinate fighter pilot finds the shoe on the other foot when he's promoted.

Medusa's Child

Fuming over the departure of his wife Vivian and the cutting of his research funding, crazy nuclear scientist Rogers Henry constructs Medusa, a thermonuclear bomb capable of generating a continent-sized electro-magnetic pulse; such EMP could effectively destroy a computer-based society. He dupes Vivian into bringing it to the Pentagon to exact his final revenge on the government, rigging it so it will explode before its count-down if Vivian's pacemaker isn't within fifteen feet of it. Medusa arms itself in the air aboard Scott Nash's 737 cargo plane, and with Hurricane Sigrid about to hit the coast, nobody wants to let them land. Based on the novel by John J. Nance.

Air Strike

Tasked with training a group of untested new recruits, a no-nonsense Navy commander faces a host of challenges as he attempts to transform the greenhorns into a squadron of crackerjack jet pilots. Don Haggerty co-stars as the unit's second-in-command who clashes bitterly with the cocky young upstart of the team after the lad shows off with some reckless aerial acrobatics.

Zeppelin

The outbreak of World War I places Scots officer Geoffrey Richter-Douglas in an uncomfortable position. Although his allegiance is to Britain, his mother was from an aristocratic Bavarian family, and he spent his summers in Germany as a child. When Geoffrey is approached by a German spy who offers him a chance to defect, he reports the incident to his superiors, but instead of arresting the spy they suggest that he accept her offer--and become an Allied agent. In Germany, among old friends, Geoffrey discovers that loyalty is more complicated than he expected, especially when he finds himself aboard the maiden voyage of a powerful new prototype Zeppelin, headed for Scotland on a secret mission that could decide the outcome of the war.

Flight Command

A rookie flyer, Ens. Alan Drake, joins the famous Hellcats Squadron right out of flight school in Pensacola. He doesn't make a great first impression when he is forced to ditch his airplane and parachute to safety when he arrives at the base but is unable to land due to heavy fog. On his first day on the job, his poor shooting skills results in the Hellcats losing an air combat competition. His fellow pilots accept him anyways but they think he's crossed the line when they erroneously conclude that while their CO Billy Gray is away, Drake has an affair with his wife Lorna. Drake is now an outcast and is prepared to resign from the Navy but his extreme heroism in saving Billy Gray's life turns things around.

The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell

A dramatization of the American general and his court martial for publically complaining about High Command's dismissal and neglect of the aerial fighting forces.

Winston Churchill: A Giant in the Century

A new look at the public and private life of one of the most important statesmen in the history of Europe: Winston Churchill (1874-1965), soldier, politician, writer, painter, leader of his country in the darkest hours, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a myth, a giant of the 20th century.

The Private War of Major Benson

A Major noted for advancing with his mouth before thinking is given a choice: to be drummed out of the Army, or take command of and shape up the ROTC program at Sheridan Academy before it fails its next inspection. At Sheridan he encounters three hundred pre-teen cadets who range from rascally to adorable, and a female doctor who has just the right prescription for him.

Angel of the Skies

War is declared and Britain must take action against Nazi Germany if Europe is going to be saved from its ruthless clutches. Determined to beat the enemy Flt. Office Earl Kirk, a young South African pilot, volunteers his services to the Royal Air Force, sacrificing his family, his future and himself in the fight against evil. Whilst in combat, surrounded by bombers and under relentless attack, Kirk must make the decision that could change his and his crew's life forever.

Heroes of the Sky: The Mighty Eighth Air Force

Experience the story of the airmen that seismically shifted the Allies fortunes during World War II, known as the Mighty Eighth Airforce. Featuring never before seen archival footage, ride in the cockpits of the planes that destroyed Hitler's menacing Airforce; The Luftwaffe. They will fly dangerous missions, announcing their arrival into Germany with thousands of white vapor trails and dogfight with Nazi pilots, dropping bombs on the Reich. This is the Real True Story of the Mighty Eighth.

RAF at 100 with Ewan and Colin McGregor

To celebrate the centenary of the Royal Air Force, Ewan and Colin McGregor take to the skies in some of the world's most iconic planes. These are the planes that were involved in aerial combat at every stage of the RAF's story, from the biplanes used in the early days of dogfighting in World War I to the beautiful Spitfire of the Battle of Britain, the plucky Lysander and on to mighty Vulcan nuclear bomber, as well as the Chinook helicopter and supersonic Typhoon that are still in service today. It is a story of amazing machines and epic battles, but above all it is the story of the men and women whose courage and ingenuity have been at the heart of the RAF for 100 years. On their journey Ewan and Colin meet an amazing cast of characters.

For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots

This High Definition, PBS miniseries uses letters, diaries, speeches, journalistic accounts, historical text and military records to document and acknowledge the sacrifices and accomplishments of African-American service men and women since the earliest days of the republic.

The Battle of Britain

Seventy years on, brothers Colin and Ewan McGregor take viewers through the key moments of the Battle of Britain, when 'the few' of the RAF faced the might of the Nazi Luftwaffe. As they fly historic planes, meet the veterans, explore the tactics and technology, Colin and Ewan discover the importance of the Battle and the surviving legacy of the 1940's campaign for the modern RAF.

Stealing a Nation

This tells a story literally 'hidden from history'. In the 1960s and 70s, British governments, conspiring with American officials, tricked into leaving, then expelled the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean. The aim was to give the principal island of this Crown Colony, Diego Garcia, to the Americans who wanted it as a major military base. Indeed, from Diego Garcia US planes have since bombed Afghanistan and Iraq. The story is told by islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and in the words of the British officials who left a 'paper trail' of what the International Criminal Court now describes as 'a crime against humanity'

The Eagle and the Lion: Hitler vs Churchill

Winston Churchill, one of the most revered men of the twentieth century. Adolf Hitler, one of the most hated leaders in contemporary history. Between 1940 and 1945, these two enormously contradictory personalities faced each other in both politics and war. A clash of giants whose story begins in the trenches of the World War I and ends with the debacle of the World War II.

Dam Busters Declassified

Martin Shaw takes a fresh look at one of the most famous war stories of them all. The actor, himself a pilot, takes to the skies to retrace the route of the 1943 raid by 617 Squadron which used bouncing bombs to destroy German dams. He sheds new light on the story as he separates the fact from the myth behind this tale of courage and ingenuity. Using the 1955 movie The Dam Busters as a vehicle to deconstruct the raid, he tries to piece together a picture of perhaps the most daring attack in the history of aviation warfare.

The First World War From Above

The story of the Great War told from a unique new aerial perspective. Featuring two remarkable historical finds, including a piece of archive footage filmed from an airship in summer 1919, capturing the trenches and battlefields in a way that has rarely been seen before. It also features aerial photographs taken by First World War pilots - developed for the first time in over ninety years - that show not only the devastation inflicted during the fighting, but also quirks and human stories visible only from above.

Air Force One

National Geographic takes you on an exclusive tour inside Air Force One, part luxury hotel, part super-secret military command post. From its beginnings with President Roosevelt making a secret wartime flight in 1943 - to the historic flight that returned President Kennedy's body to Washington after his assassination - to the closing months of the Clinton administration, Air Force One takes you through the history of the world's most powerful plane. Features exclusive interviews with Presidents George W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter.

Fighting the Red Baron

Two modern Red Arrows pilots take on the challenges faced by World War I pilots by performing photo reconnaissance, artillery ranging, and bombing missions in period aircraft - culminating in a classic dogfight.

National Geographic: Untold Stories of World War II

Showcases 3 major events during World War 2 involving both the Europeans & Pacific conflicts. The Raids to destroy Nazi Germany's heavy water production based in Norway, plus the final desperate act to deny them what had already been stockpiled. The Japanese midget submarines role and participation in the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. What they achieved plus what was their ultimate fate. The attacks on United States warships in the Pacific late in World War 2 by the Japanese Kamikaze and Okha Squadrons. The Kamikaze attacks were in whatever planes the Japanese forces were able to gather. The Okha attacks were made in specially built flying bombs that were towed by larger and usually slower aircraft that were not suitable for fighter work.

Brace for Impact: The Chesley B. Sullenberger Story

Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger made aviation history on January 15th, 2009 when he successfully landed an Airbus A320 on the Hudson River. 155 people walked off the plane that day. In Brace for Impact, Sully boards a helicopter with our crew and flies the route again to give us his account in chilling detail. We revisit the actual plane, hear from the air traffic controllers who were on watch, meet several passengers from the flight, and board one of the NY Waterway ferries with several of their Captains who share their stories with Sully for the first time.

Little Ships - The Miracle of Dunkirk

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuation, Dan Snow tells the story of the 'little ships' which made the perilous cross-channel voyage, as 50 of them return to France.

Stealing the Superfortress

How the Soviet Union was able to copy the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, and the influence of the resulting Tupolev TU-4 on the Cold War.

The Horror at 37,000 Feet

A commercial-jet captain (Chuck Connors) has ghosts on board from stones of an English abbey being shipped overseas.

Aerial Gunner

Old rivals are pitted against each other in basic training and fight for the same woman.

On the Threshold of Space

In the early stages of the space program, Capt. Jim Hollenbeck undergoes any experiment needed to ensure success in the new Air Force branch -- even though he's not required to be a subject in the tests. Always remaining a constant source of support, his wife, Pat, accepts his unwavering commitment to scientific progress. When Maj. Ward Thomas becomes the new head of the program, Hollenbeck must convince him of the necessity of taking the extra steps.

Battle Taxi

In the Korean war, the commander of an Air Rescue helicopter team must show a hot-shot former jet pilot how important helicopter rescue work is and turn him into a team player.

Young Eagles

Lieut. Robert Banks, an American aviator on leave in Paris, meets Mary Gordon, a young American who lives abroad, but their romance is cut short by his return to the front. In an air battle, Robert brings down and captures the Grey Eagle, Baden, and takes him to American Intelligence in Paris. Mary, ostensibly a spy for the Germans, drugs Robert, who awakens to find that his uniform has been stolen by Baden. Later, in an exciting air conflict, Baden is wounded but shoots down Robert's plane. The German rescues him, however, and takes him to an Allied hospital, assuring him of Mary's love; his faith in her is restored when he learns that she is actually a spy for U. S. Intelligence.

Figures Don't Lie

Figures Don't Lie is a showcase for the physical charms of lovely Esther Ralston, who in one scene proves the accuracy of the title by donning a fetching one-piece bathing suit. The main story concerns wise-guy insurance salesman Richard Arlen, who through a combination of hard work and sheer gall lands a job as sales manager. But he can't land heroine Ralston, who has remained cool to his charms ever since he tried to make a play for her on the street.

The Fighting Lady

Oscar winner William Wyler directed this 1944 "newsdrama," narrated by Lieut. Robert Taylor, USNR (Bataan), and photographed in zones of combat by the U.S. Navy. The film follows one of the many new aircraft carriers built since Pearl Harbor, known as THE FIGHTING LADY in honor of all American carriers, as it goes into action against the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean in 1943. See the ship and its pilots undergo their baptism of fire, attacking the Japanese base on Marcus Island. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation.

The True Glory

A documentary account of the allied invasion of Europe during World War II compiled from the footage shot by nearly 1400 cameramen. It opens as the assembled allied forces plan and train for the D-Day invasion at bases in Great Britain and covers all the major events of the war in Europe from the Normandy landings to the fall of Berlin.

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