Trapped outside the boundaries of time and space...

I usually create/schedule all the lesson plans and educational experiences, but sometimes the mechanic surprises me (like how my new vacuum cleaner can lead to a discussion about turbine engines).  After a long hot bath with my kindle I found my future pilot watching a movie instead of headed for bed.  My mechanic informed me that this was an educational movie and I needed to watch too.  After the movie intro and accompanying pop quiz on aircraft make and models I settled in to see what I could learn from The Final Countdown.  One hundred three minutes and a little google later, here's what I've got:

• Nets can be used to catch an airplane on the deck of an aircraft carrier during adverse conditions (i.e. sailing into a giant electric blue swirly thing)
• The Navy had a liberal policy on facial hair during the '80s.
• Someone was intelligent enough to invent a "helmet dispenser." Not sure if this is an actual device, but it looked nifty in the movie.
•  The photo said to have just been taken by the recon plane was an actual photo taken by the Japanese during their attack on Pearl Harbor.
• The board game the sailors are playing is Squad Leader.  You can still find it on ebay and it's been turned into a computer game.
• "Uncommon valor was a common virtue." Statement after the battle of Iwo Jima by Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (whom the aircraft carrier is named after)
• The black and white attack footage was reused from Tora, Tora, Tora!

It's not one that I had heard of before and overall it was a good movie. Lots of flight scenes and a variety of aircraft (great views of in flight refueling).  If watched with an aircraft enthusiast or two there is definitely educational potential.  We talked about nuclear powered ships, aircraft carrier launches and landings, and the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Seeing Japanese Zeros (actually AT-6 Texans) interact with F-14s showed the drastic leap technology made from the 1940s to the 1980s.  The theory of time travel and the evolution of special effects could also be good topic spin-offs from this film.  I just have to remember learning opportunities are everywhere, even in slightly corny sci-fi movies watched past bed time.

 




***A little foul language and some fake blood give it a PG rating.

Comments

[Dad]

So the liberal facial hair in the 80's was something that i lived, mustache. longer sideburns and there were even those that wore short hair wigs so that their hair could be long, hmmmm now who would of thought of that...