Chuck Norris comes to FSX

[Chock 17,769]

I was testing the CS FSX 707's repaint kit, and I was wondering what to have a crack at. Nothing too complex since it was only a test, but something that tested how well the texture files matched up with a paint job that crossed over the boundaries of more than one texture file in order to check how easy the paint kit was to use. So I came up with the idea to do the Boeing 707 in the fictional American Travelways Airlines livery which appears in the very gung-ho 1986 action movie, The Delta Force.Here's some trivia about the real aeroplane which appeared in the film. It was a Boeing 707-139 (not the same model as the CS 707 incidentally) serial number 17903, it being the 108th one built. It had been ordered by Cubana, but of course in 1959 the Cuban Revolution occurred, so Boeing lost them as a customer for obvious reasons, and instead the aircraft went to Western Airlines in 1960, but only until 1964 when it was sold to Pan Am, Western preferring the 720 variant instead. Pan Am eventually leased it to several airlines, including British Caledonian and El Al amongst others. In 1986 it was in the hands of Aerocar Aviation, which is actually the livery that appears in the film, with some ATW fictional logos applied over that livery on the fuselage and tail. Keen-eyed plane buffs who have seen the movie will note that it still had a Pan Am registration. Because the movie was a Menahem Golan production (i.e. Israeli), the shots with the 707 were filmed in Israel at Ben Gurion International, Tel Aviv, and you can actually see a lot of El Al aircraft and Hebrew signage in the movie when the aircraft is supposed to be at Beirut, Ben Gurion standing in for the Lebanese airport.The fictional airline ATW is a rather thinly-veiled stand in for TWA, made more apparent by the fact that the plot for the hijacking which features in The Delta Force is more or less a blow-by-blow retelling of the hijack of TWA Flight 847 (actually a Boeing 727). There are numerous similarities between the film and the real event, notably the German stewardess (Uli Derickson) whose heroic actions saved many passenger's lives (this was in fact also made into a film, with Lindsay Wagner playing Derickson), the holding of Jewish hostages in Beirut, the number of terrorists involved, the killing of a Navy Diver who was a passenger, the route the plane was on and the airport it flew to, the pilot holding a press conference at gunpoint out of the cockpit window. All these things occurred in the real hijack, and they are all in the movie too.Of interest is the fact that the plot of The Delta Force was originally going to be a retelling the failed attempt to rescue the Iranian Embassy hostages (Operation Eagle Claw) and not about a plane hijack at all, and there were several genuine Delta Force members on board the production as advisors initially, although they walked off in disgust when the film's producer - who mostly makes unashamedly pro-US flag wavers - wanted to alter the story to make the raid a success, which of course it wasn't. However, the final version of the film does stick to the truth about that operation, its failure being a motivational point for characters played by Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin (whose last film it was). It's also interesting to note that a good few many of the terrorists in the closing scenes of the film are dispatched by Lee Marvin's character at long range with sniper shots, and as many people will be aware, Lee Marvin was in fact a US Marines sniper in WW2.Al

[Silverbird 115]

Cool shots Alan I remember that movie my dad was watching it at the time and that's when I first saw it logo go Delta Force!

[JAT 185]

Love the smoke trail.Nebojsa

[PingPong 60]

When Chuck Norris flies, his plane doesn't go up, the earth moves down...true story.

[Chock 17,769]

Isn't earth one of the four elements? In that case what you say can't be true: Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table of elements, because he only recognises the element of surprise.Al

[Superpilotv2 2]

When Chuck Norris flies, his plane doesn't go up, the earth moves down...true story.

Isn't earth one of the four elements? In that case what you say can't be true: Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table of elements, because he only recognises the element of surprise.Al

Oh man, How I like these Chuck Norris sayings! :(

[TWA302 0]

Back in the days, THAT was a cool movie. Now, eh...not so much.....regardless, THAT is a great paint job!