A vintage Fairchild C-119 (N15501, c/n 10955) of Hawkins & Powers Aviation, Greybull, WY will be featured in a remake of the motion picture: "Flight of the Phoenix."

H&P captain Bob West, along with co-pilot Steve Dunn and flight engineer Jim Hederman ferried the former military propliner across the pond to Africa.

Filming of the movie is expected to begin in February, and will probably conclude in the spring.

The original film, "Flight of the Phoenix," (1965) starred James "jimmy" Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine, Peter Finch etc. The story is about a C-82 Packet that was dispatched to pick up an oil rig crew and deliver a replacement crew. The plane goes down in the African desert, before the flight crew manages to patch it back together and fly it to safety.

The C-119 is the successor of the C-82 and looks similar, with twin engines, high wings and typical twin booms.
The H&P C-119 was used for firefighting and even fish hauling and made its last commercial flight in 1989. Hawkins & Powers as owned the aircraft since the 1970s. It was grounded from firefighting duties in the late eighties. This Flying Boxcar was a former RCAF plane, although several other air forces used it.

This new 20th Century Fox movie, will stars Dennis Quaid

Hawkins & Powers' planes have appeared in other motion pictures. An H&P C-119 was in the Spielberg firefighting film, "Always," starring Richard Dreyfus and Holly Hunter.

Dear photo hunters any pictures yet of this Boxcar in Africa? Photos taken at Tenerife/Los Rodeos are available on www.airliners.net

Fernand
"jets are for kids"

[This message was edited by Fernand Van de Plas on December 30, 2003 at 07:07 AM.]

[This message was edited by Fernand Van de Plas on December 30, 2003 at 07:49 AM.]

Nice shot of the silver H&P C-119 in Spain. I will look forward to seeing it in the re-make of "The Flight of the Phoenix." I assume Dennis Quaid will reprise the role of Jimmy Stewart in the 1966 film. I hope they do a good job with it.

Jim C.

Jim

On Page 34 of the March 2004 issue of "Air Classics" magazine there is a nice articele about the flight of the H&P C-119 from Wyoming over to Africa. Entitled "By Box to Darkest Africa," by Michael O'Leary, the article has a very nice collection of photos. I am looking forward to seeing the movie.

On page 10 of the same issue there is a short piece entitled "Packets at Greybull," which summarizes information about the surviving
C-82 Packets (aircraft used in the original 1966 "Flight of the Phoenix" movie) which are in Wyoming.

Jim

Ok...so now it's almost fall...and still no sign of "The Flight of the Phoenix".

I saw the original movie in 1966...and it was good! No phony special effect via digitizing...just good acting, good drama and just plain good film making.

I just took a look at some still shots capturing scenes from "The Flight of the Phoenix". I see nothing much different from the original film. Shouldn't have spent the money.