Hi All: The film “The Dam Busters” (1954, or 1955) is to be remade at Weta Workshops, Wellington New Zealand, for $US 50 million, where it is planned to build ten full-scale non-flying replicas of the Lancaster bomber. The film is to be produced by Peter Jackson, and directed by Christian Rivers of Weta (who got a visual effects Oscar for the remake of King Kong). Jackson & Rivers recently visited Scampton air base in England where the raid left from, and in Canada flew in one of the three Lancasters still flying. Jackson is an aviation buff, rumoured recently to be planning an aviation film set in WWI. The film is backed by Universal & StudioCanal of Europe. See: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3783717a11,00.html http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3783992a11,00.html The RAF 617 “Dambusters” Squadron included American, Canadian & New Zealand personnel. Les Munro, now 87, of Tauranga New Zealand is the only surviving pilot of the 19 who flew on the 1943 Dam mission (though his Lanc was hit en route and had to abort). He was told off by the Air Force in 1955 for revealing some technical mistakes in the earlier film (eg the true shape of the bomb), and hopes the new film will include some of the antics they got up to during training, ie low level flying and dogfights. Rivers expects to cast actors in their twenties “to capture how young the pilots really were”; Wing Commander Gibson was only 24. See on the new film: On the 1954 film, see: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0046889/ The Dambuster’s raid destroyed two dams, depriving German industry of water & power. Barnes Wallis invented the special “Upkeep” dam bomb. He advocated effective precision bombing rather than “area bombing”, used then because of the inability to bomb accurately. Later he designed the deep penetration earthquake bombs also dropped by Lancasters and used to bomb thick concrete structures like U-Boat pens, the 12,000 lb Tallboy & the 22,000 lb Grand Slam (=5440 & 9980 kg). His main job was as an aircraft designer, the (successful) R 100 airship and the Wellesley & Wellington bombers. On Wallis, see: http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/staff/irmurray/wallis.asp Yours, John Wilson (New Zealand)

Yes, Barnes Wallace used a new concept in the design of his aircraft, Geodetics, which is a system of triangles in the structure covered with fabric. I saw the R100 over Leicester in 1930. The Headmaster at school had seen it and rang the fire bells so we all went into the playground and watched it pass over, I also saw the R101 just before it crashed in France >Hi All: >The film �The Dam Busters� (1954, or 1955) is to be remade at Weta >Workshops, Wellington New Zealand, for $US 50 million, where it is >planned to build ten full-scale non-flying replicas of the Lancaster >bomber. The film is to be produced by Peter Jackson, and directed by >Christian Rivers of Weta (who got a visual effects Oscar for the remake >of King Kong). Jackson & Rivers recently visited Scampton air base in >England where the raid left from, and in Canada flew in one of the three >Lancasters still flying. Jackson is an aviation buff, rumoured recently to >be planning an aviation film set in WWI. The film is backed by >Universal & StudioCanal of Europe. See: >http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3783717a11,00.html >http://www.stu ff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3783992a11,00.html > >The RAF 617 �Dambusters� Squadron included American, Canadian & >New Zealand personnel. Les Munro, now 87, of Tauranga New Zealand >is the only surviving pilot of the 19 who flew on the 1943 Dam mission >(though his Lanc was hit en route and had to abort). He was told off by >the Air Force in 1955 for revealing some technical mistakes in the earlier >film (eg the true shape of the bomb), and hopes the new film will include >some of the antics they got up to during training, ie low level flying and >dogfights. Rivers expects to cast actors in their twenties �to capture how >young the pilots really were�; Wing Commander Gibson was only 24. >See on the new film: On the 1954 film, see: >http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0046889/ > >The Dambuster�s raid destroyed two dams, depriving German industry >of water & power. Barnes Wallis invented the special �Upkeep� dam >bomb. He advocated effective precision bombing rather than �area >bombing�, used then because of the inability to bomb accurately. Later >he designed the deep penetration earthquake bombs also dropped by >Lancasters and used to bomb thick concrete structures like U-Boat pens, >the 12,000 lb Tallboy & the 22,000 lb Grand Slam (=5440 & 9980 kg). >His main job was as an aircraft designer, the (successful) R 100 airship >and the Wellesley & Wellington bombers. On Wallis, see: >http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/staff/irmurray/wallis.asp > >Yours, John Wilson (New Zealand) > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to WORLDWAR2-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message Regards George. George Smith <airforce@localdial.com> Home Page: http://web.localdial.com/users/airforce LRFHS Page: http://www.lrfhs.org.uk Jersey Island Page: http://www.jerseyvirtual.net Jersey Insight http://www.jerseyinsight.com Jersey Centenary Battle of Flowers: http://www.localdial.com/users/airforce/battle.html