Nova visits Russia for Nova: Top Gun Over Moscow, a thorough look at the sleekest and most powerful Russian jets. In a word, they are tough. These jets are engineered quite differently from their American counterparts. They function well in adverse conditions, able to take off from open dirt fields, and their continuous operation doesn't depend on regular maintenance. The U.S. jet is finely tuned, requiring more frequent upkeep, but definitely having a high-tech edge, particularly in the areas of radar and missile guidance. Interviews with pilots reveal a very different outlook between the two countries on training goals.
Jeff Ethell
Nova visits Russia for Nova: Top Gun Over Moscow, a thorough look at the sleekest and most powerful Russian jets. In a word, they are tough. These jets are engineered quite differently from their American counterparts. They function well in adverse conditions, able to take off from open dirt fields, and their continuous operation doesn't depend on regular maintenance. The U.S. jet is finely tuned, requiring more frequent upkeep, but definitely having a high-tech edge, particularly in the areas of radar and missile guidance. Interviews with pilots reveal a very different outlook between the two countries on training goals.
2006-10-23
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A close up look at the Russian Air Force's heart stopping aerial maneuvers.
Explorer Robert Ballard sets out to solve the mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance as he and a team of experts travel to the remote Pacific atoll named Nikumaroro in search of her final resting place.
The compelling story of the multi-billion-pound gamble to build the world's biggest airliner, the Airbus A380. Provides insight into the unique challenges of building an airliner on such a large scale, and includes footage of its grand unveiling and its maiden voyage.
Documentary film about the then longest range bombing mission in history, which changed the outcome of the Falklands War.
A young man decides to join the army. He becomes the drummer in the military band, and his everyday life is now a combination of military training and music. What does the Argentine Army do these days, more than thirty years after the dictatorship? What does it mean to be a soldier in a country without wars?
Five women veterans who have endured unimaginable trauma in service create a shared sisterhood to help the rising number of stranded homeless women veterans by entering a competition that unexpectedly catalyzes moving events in their own lives.
Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag follows American F-15 Eagle pilot John Stratton as he trains with some of the world’s best pilots. The movie depicts Stratton’s progression through the challenging and dangerous exercises of Operation Red Flag, the international training program for air forces of allied countries.
The 2022 film "Top Gun: Maverick" continues the adventures of the ace fighter pilot made famous by Tom Cruise. But how true to life is the fictional story to the real Naval Fighter Weapons School? TOPGUN flight instructors take us inside the most famous and prestigious training program in the sky, where only the top 5% of U.S. naval aviators are accepted. We reveal the tactics and techniques taught in the classroom and in the air. We also examine how the real Navy TOPGUN came to be, an origin story that is truly stranger than fiction.
Bob Hoover tells his own story and shares, with his trademark charm, the hard earned wisdom of a life spent pushing the edge of the envelope while contributing to aviation’s many developments.
On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Within hours 11 ordinary police officers were called to duty to face the formidable Mount Erebus. As the police recovered the victims, an investigation team tried to uncover the mystery of how a jet could fly into a mountain in broad daylight. Did the airline have a secret it wanted to bury? This film tells the story of four New Zealand police officers who went to Antarctica as part of the police operation to recover the victims of the crash. Set in the beautiful yet hostile environment of Antarctica, this is the emotional and compelling true story of an extraordinary police operation.
As they undergo 12 weeks of intensive training, a group of young civilians is gradually moulded into soldiers. The Basic Training, a prerequisite for joining the Canadian Armed Forces, becomes the gateway to exploring the inner workings of a world governed by its own rules and values.
This intriguing and beautifully-shot newsreel features sea-faring heroes, feisty females and a generous lick of paint for a Mississippi steamship.
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots who saw combat during the Second World War. The 332nd Fighter Group stands apart from any other air force fighter groups in the Second World War: all personnel, from pilots to ground crew to surgeons, were black. They confounded expectations and prejudices existing in America in the thirties and forties about the abilities of black Americans. They excelled as pilots and became a crack unit, showing great courage and skill and achieving where other fighter groups had failed. Despite this, they were segregated on the ground and in the air from the white flyers whose lives they protected. (Alexander Street)
A documentary on how British double-dealing during the First World War ignited the conflict between Arab and Jew in the Middle East. The bitter struggle between Arab and Jew for control of the Holy Land has caused untold suffering in the Middle East for generations. It is often claimed that the crisis originated with Jewish emigration to Palestine and the foundation of the state of Israel. Yet the roots of the conflict are to be found much earlier – in British double-dealing during the First World War. This is a story of intrigue among rival empires; of misguided strategies; and of how conflicting promises to Arab and Jew created a legacy of bloodshed which determined the fate of the Middle East.
This film explores what life was like for LGBTQ+ Royal Navy personnel serving under the ban on homosexuality in the military and how things have changed since the ban was lifted in 2000. We speak to Duncan who led the fight to overturn the ban; Ann who served during and after the ban was lifted; and Danny and Cole who both served after the ban was lifted. This collaboration was between filmmaker David Graham, the National Museum of the Royal Navy and the Royal Navy LGBTQ+ Network. The National Museum of the Royal Navy commissioned the film.
Adolf Hitler's Nazi megalomania knew no limits. The most daring of his plans World War II involved German fighter planes crashing into Manhattan's skyscrapers as living bombs, like the Japanese kamikazes. Hitler understood the huge symbolic power of Manhattan's skyscrapers. He believed suicide bombing would have a devastating psychological impact on the American people and the U.S. war effort.
In 1916, while France was bogged down in trench wars, a young engineer named Marcel Bloch was inventing a revolutionary propeller, the Eclair propeller. It would prove very effective in air combat. Today, Dassault Aviation, named after the moniker its founder took on after the war, is among the jewels of the worldwide aeronautics industry. From astonishing growth to unexpected crises, the Dassault group's destiny is closely linked to the history of France and the saga of modern aviation. As it marks its first century of existence, the company continues to fly in civil and military aviation, still following the path of its founder's visionary spirit, Marcel Dassault.
Built in the United States in the early 1940s by Sikorsky Aircraft, the VS-44 was a large four-engine flying boat designed primarily for the transatlantic passenger market, with a capacity of 40+ passengers. Three units were produced: Excalibur, Exeter - and Excambian, "The Queen of the Sky" to its final owners Charlie Blair and his wife, actress Maureen O'Hara. The film explores aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky and the eleven-year restoration of Excambian by volunteers at Sikorsky's Stratford plant.
It is the epic of the heroes of the first century of aviation, since the flight of the first plane on December 17, 1903 until today. A striking collection of portraits of outstanding men and women like Louis Blériot, the first to cross the Channel, to Lindbergh who crossed the Atlantic and Amelia Earhart and many more...