Flight was a television show from 1958, and this episode is entitled THE DERELICT. It was directed by Jean Yarbrough, written by Arthur Brown, Jr. and features a cast that includes Robert Christopher, Patrick Waltz, Christopher Dark, Ray Montgomery, Ed Perry, William Cassidy, Steve Ihnat. Flight ran from 1958-59 and was hosted by George C. Kenney. In this particular episode a B-47 bomber catches fire in mid-air, and its pilot decides that the 3 men onboard should eject from the crippled B-47. The pilot ejects and the Co Pilots ejection seat fails so he and the observer are left to bail out through a escape hatch but the other crewman who happens to be a pilot who was just catching a ride in the Radar/Navigator position and acting as an observer.tries to bail out his parachute catches on the escape hatch prematurely opening, leaving him no choice but to unbuckle it and stay on board, all alone and with his radio only recieving not transmitting due to the electrical fire,The airmen learns a group of F-89s from a Alaskan ADC base are scrambled to shoot down the crewless bomber. the airmen has to somehow let the incoming jets sent to shoot down the pilotless aircraft he is alive on board before it crashes in mother Russia with its top secret equipment. Badly burned and suffering from the high altitude he must somehow make his way into the cockpit and get control before he is shot down into the Bering Sea just at the last moment the lead F-89 sees the B-47 acting erratic and wagging its wings and the pilot decides to take a closer look and sees our lone airmen in the Co-Pilots seat flying the crippled B-47.A happy ending ensues as our doomed airmen takes control of the B-47 and flies the crippled bomber to the Alaskan AFB with the alert interceptors leading the way home.**There is a goof the F-89 scorpion is a two seat fighter but when the Blue flight leader is shown on closeup he is seen in the cockpit of a F-102/106 not the F-89
This is a great movie and shows the B-47 and also F-89 Scorpion fighter(s) that are scrambled to shoot the derelict B-47 before it can crash in enemy (soviet) territory with its classified equipment on board, Great film im not sure if flight is a series on true stories or just fiction not much info was available. just great cold war period television that has some great footage from those Cold War days at its best so sit back and ignore the commercials and give it a go.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing
