Viewed by 400,000 at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in its first year.
The Magic of Flight brings the thrill of flight and jet aircraft technology to the big screen with a film that balances the excitement of a Blue Angels air show with the science and history of flight. The film begins by examining how birds fly and reviews the success of the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903. Steering from earlier flight ventures to modern aviation, audiences are introduced to high-performance jets. The variety and versatility of today’s flying machines are displayed through-out the film. In addition, we see naval aviators, with the ability to fly up to 1,300 mph, precisely land on an aircraft carrier, the most difficult maneuver in all of aviation. More than a story of machines, The Magic of Flight is the story of human potential and the importance of training and performance.
Produced by MacGillivray Freeman Films for the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida
Sponsored by McDonnell Douglas and F/A-18 Industry Partners: Northrop-Grumman Corporation, Hughes Aircraft Company and GE Aircraft Engines
Narrated by Tom Selleck
Runtime: 39 minutes
Format: filmed in 15 perforation/70 mm
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Reviews
“One of the best examples of combining science and nature on the big screen comes in The Magic of Flight…Especially impressive is the cinematography that features pilots traveling at hundreds of miles per hour under tremendous G-force pressure.”
– Times Dispatch, Richmond, VA
“A veteran of such IMAX classics as To Fly!, Flyers, and Speed, MacGillivray knows his way around the sky. Once more he delivers super 70mm images of dizzying beauty, many of them taken from the point of view of the Angels’ pilots, as they fly upside down and close to the ground, grapple with the technology that makes vertical spins survivable, and learn to fly in formation without ‘swapping paint’ with another plane or otherwise slipping our of alignment.”
– The Seattle Times
“…the closest most of us will ever get to an F/A-18 cockpit in rip-the-sky flight, as the Navy’s Blue Angels soar in tight formation above gaping viewers…”
– The Union Tribune, San Diego
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