Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

Hi John,

I actually meant along the lines of who provided them for the movie,
as in Planes of Fame provided for the Pearl Harbor movie. Thanks! Mark

JDupre5762 wrote:

Where'd the planes come from that were shown at the beginning of the
movie? Where are they now?

And for a question not based on reality, why wasn't the desert winds
blowing them around? The aliens didn't leave them tied down or chocked.



Those were Navy TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that were supposed to represent the
famous lost squadron of 5 TBMs that crashed in 1945 in the supposed Bermuda
Triangle. The popular misconception is that the aircraft flew into some kind
of "disturbance" and disappeared. The reality is that the flight leader became
lost and disoriented and the aircraft ran out of gas at night in a storm.

TBMs were used for many years as firebombers in the west and for certain kindes
of crop spraying as well. Many now survive as warbirds and museum pieces.

TBMs easily weigh 10,000 pounds empty and more than 17,000 full so it would
take pretty hefty wind to blow them around.

John Dupre'

#82, the one that was started in the movie came from the CAF. It is IIRC now
with a CAF wing in Colorado.
Matt Gunsch,
A&P,IA,Private Pilot
Riding member of the
2003 world champion drill team
Arizona Precision Motorcycle Drill Team
GWRRA,NRA,GOA