The Liberty Gazette
October 12, 2021
Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely
Linda: Last week the new James Bond movie premiered, “No Time to Die.” I’m no movie-goer and have never seen a James Bond flick and don’t plan to. Poking around the internet, I learned this was Daniel Craig’s last stint as Bond. I’d never even heard of Daniel Craig. But I was curious how many aircraft have made an appearance in these films.
There have been 6 lead actors in 27 Bond movies, but it’s hard to tell exactly how many aircraft. It kind of depends on how you count them. Air & Space Magazine ventured a guess in 2015, but they were counting ‘flying machines’ and added them up to 160. They included parachutes, missiles, and apparently there was an ejection seat in an Aston-Martin, which is an English-built sports car. Me, I would only count airplanes, helicopters, blimps, and hot air balloons.
Speaking of Aston-Martin, my father was the man who introduced the British automobile to the United States, which he did before I was born, when he owned a foreign car dealership in Evanston, Illinois. But back to the counting of ‘flying machines.’ They also counted them more than once. For instance, every time a parachute was in a movie, they counted it. Therefore, I won’t agree with there having been over 160 aircraft in Bond films, but there have been many.
One with which I have a distant but fun personal connection was the small, single-seat BD-5J. If you’re a fan, you might remember the scene where Bond escapes the bad guys, and flying this ‘world’s smallest jet,’ guides a heat-seeking missile into their hangar to blow up their research facilities. Then, seeing he’s low on fuel, he lands on a road and coasts to a gas station. That idea came from the stunt pilot, Corkey Fornof. Years ago, when I was introduced to him, he bowed and kissed my hand.
True story: Corkey had once found himself in a pickle when the overcast layer was pushing him lower and lower, just above a pine forest. He decided it would be smartest to land on the interstate. The speed limit was 70. He slowed to about 103 as he approached a semi. He thought about landing atop the truck, but the upcoming overpass nixed that plan. The driver saw him, blew his horn to slow others down, and let Corkey land in front of him. At the next exit, the stunt man coasted his microjet into the Sunoco station and over the “ding-ding” hose. After a half-minute stare-down, it took some work to convince the attendant he wasn’t on “Candid Camera.”
So, there it was, last week, the latest Bond premiering in IMAX theaters around the country. Family friend and US Air Force veteran, Zach, asked my sister if she wanted to go. Decked out in tux and sleek black pantsuit, the pair arrived early for martinis at the pre-show shindig, to which my observant mother quipped, “Perfect! She’s going to a James Bond party with a former U2 spy plane pilot.”
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