High Flight

High Flight is a CinemaScope 1957 British coldwar drama film in Technicolor, directed by John Gilling and featuring Ray Milland, Bernard Lee and Leslie Phillips. High Flight was filmed with the cooperation of the Royal Air Force . The title of the film was derived from the poem of the same name by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., an American aviator who flew for the Royal Canadian Air Force and lost his life in 1941 over RAF Cranwell, where much of the film was shot. A group of flight cadets arrive at RAF Cranwell to begin a three-year training course to become RAF pilots. Amongst... the group is Tony Winchester who makes a memorable entrance by landing his civilian Taylorcraft Auster aircraft with his girlfriend aboard on the RAF runway just ahead of a de Havilland Vampire jet trainer piloted by Wing Commander Rudge . During the Second World War, Winchester's father had been Rudge's commanding officer and lost his life protecting Rudge who had disobeyed orders. Winchester is a difficult individual who harbours animosity towards Rudge over his father's wartime death.
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