Flight of the Phoenix

Continuity mistake: When everyone is getting ready to leave the oil drilling base, Dennis Quaid is standing at the rear hatchway of the plane wearing his leather jacket, the camera view changes to a view of behind him, and he's not wearing it, he's in a yellow shirt, when the view goes back to the front, he has the jacket on again. (00:07:45)

Continuity mistake: When the pilot is trying to make a crash landing during the sandstorm the landing gear wheels are up in one angle and down in another angle.

Disney-Freak

Continuity mistake: What happened to all the camels and horses when they have a shoot-out with the nomads? We only see one nomad charging away on a horse, but there were at least 2 camels and 2 horses at the nomad's camp. The camels in particular would have been very useful when stranded in the desert, and then the survivors wouldn't have had to continue to rebuild the plane.

Continuity mistake: When the C-119 is crashing it loses its rear ramp and the wind howls through the cabin. A moment later when it has crashed it is all quiet inside, despite a storm of supposedly 70 mph winds being able to blow into this gap. Next scene, the aircraft is totally buried in sand but none has entered through the wide open ramp. Next scene after that (and all subsequent ones showing the rear of the aircraft), we are again shown that the ramp is missing.

Continuity mistake: Just as the Phoenix starts to move for take-off, there is a shot showing high dunes in the plane's path. However, in the shot as they are approaching the canyon the terrain in front of the plane is relatively flat (except for the canyon), no dunes in sight; they did not pass them.

Continuity mistake: When the Phoenix just starts to take off at the end of the movie, one of the first shots shows the ground covered in large rocks. The very next shot shows the plane moving along a smooth, pristine dirt runway.

Continuity mistake: Moments before the C-119 crashes, we see a towering sandstorm. After it crashes, Frank Towns looks out a port and says the wind is blowing 70 mph and would cut you to shreds. But during the crash several exterior shots show clear air and no sign of a storm.

Continuity mistake: When Captain Towns has gone looking for Liddel (he ends up at the arch where the plane first hit), he shouts "Liddel.". There is a shot of Liddel looking to the right. In the background over his left shoulder you can see two of the crosses (makeshift gravemarkers) that are back where the plane and crew are, not where they are at. The editing is a little choppy too.

Continuity mistake: When Frank is loading cartridges, during the final takeoff, he uses five cartridges. He uses two right away. Someone in the background notes that there are only two left. He uses one to blow the engine and one to start it. Where did the last cartridge go? There were five to start with and four were used.

Character mistake: It's all very heroic and manly but the effort put into dragging the Phoenix into its takeoff position once the engine is started is totally wasted. Townes and A.J. are both experienced pilots and Elliott is supposedly a genius aeronautical engineer - they must surely be aware that the engine power required to taxi an aircraft is trivial compared to that required to lift it into the air. Even taking into account the drag of the skids and wheels, if that engine cannot propel the aircraft at a few kilometers an hour on the ground it cannot propel it to take off speed, nor keep it up once airborne. They are not there to steer the aircraft - they are taking the strain of the whole weight of the air-frame, dragging it into place, and the energy input of eight exhausted, underfed people would add nothing to the contribution of a 2500 bhp aircraft engine in moving the Phoenix. They are not trying conserve fuel - they had enough fuel for an extended flight with both engines at full throttle, so they have easily enough to run one engine throttled back to reduce stress on the air-frame, which they say they are going to do.

More mistakes in Flight of the Phoenix

Rady: Let me tell you a story. A rabbi and a priest attend a boxing match. They watch as the boxers come into the ring. The rabbi sees one of the boxers cross himself. So the rabbi turns to the priest and asks, "What does that mean?" The priest says, "Not a damn thing if the man can't fight."

More quotes from Flight of the Phoenix

Question: How realistic is Elliot's plan of building a new plane?

Answer: A flying version of the design about 1/2 scale was built and flown for the original 1965 film. It appears in several flying scenes in that movie, but tragically crashed during filming, killing stunt pilot Paul Mantz.

Answer: Completely realistic. As explained correctly in the film, the aerodynamic principles involved are valid. Given that the constructed aircraft would have oversized wing surface area and an excess of power available, it should fly. Disruption of the airflow over the top of the wing due to the passengers would be minimal. In the 1930's airshows featured multiple wing walkers atop much smaller and lower powered aircraft.

Answer: Stupidly unrealistic. The plane simply wouldn't fly with people hanging off its wings for a start.

stiiggy

There's a big difference between a single wing walker on a high lift biplane compared to 10 people hanging off the wings.

stiiggy

Search on "multiple wing walkers" and see a 160 hp biplane carrying 5 walkers. So, for the C-119 there is about 2894 square feet of wing area, call it 2000 after cut down. The PW R-4360 produces 3500 hp, but let's use only 30% of that to protect the cobbled airframe. 10 guys on the wings are going to disrupt airflow over about 12 square feet each leaving about 1880 square feet of unobstructed wing being driven by 1000 hp. 30 people on the wings would not stop it from flying.

More questions & answers from Flight of the Phoenix

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