The Flight of Bryan

The Flight of Bryan movie poster.

Movie (2024)
French title: Le vol de Bryan

Starring:
Jordan Renzo (Bryan Allen in his twenties)
Bryan Allen (Himself in the 21th century)
Paul MacCready (Himself (1925-2007) -archive footage-)
Steven O'Neill (Paul MacCready)

1970s: in the USA (and several others countries too), the race for the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled and sustained flight is running. The goal is to win the Kremer prizes, a series of monetary awards, established in 1959 by the industrialist Henry Kremer.
Note: this movie is melting archive amateur footage of the 1970s (and their specific qualities—framing, sharpness, brevity, etc.—) with higher-quality reconstruction sequences, but the essence of IMPDB lies mainly in the former.

Part One: Los Angeles

Boeing 747

Boeing 747 of Pan Am-Pan American World Airways.

Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde

Convair Atlas-Agena B

SpaceX Dragon 1

SpaceX Dragon 1 cargo spacecraft being berthed to the ISS by the Canadarm2 manipulator.

Unidentified Aircraft

Flying Model.

Various Hang Glider (1970s)

Unidentified; any information will be welcome!
Advertising for a home made Hang Glider:

The real one:

View again at 9'33.

A wide range of models...

(on the ground) The red one.

Those in the background.

Unidentified Ornithopter

Aviette (or so...)

This section too needs identification/naming!

Evolution? Variant?

HPA (Hertfordshire Pedal Aeronauts) Toucan

Mark I or Mark II?
Toucan Mk 1 two-seat man-powered aircraft was able to takeoff in 1975.

But the trials were sometimes cruel...

Halton Jupiter(?)

The Jupiter first flew on 9 February 1972, covering approximately 200 yd (180 m).
On 29 May 1972, (Flight Lieutenant John) Potter flew a distance of 1,171 yd (1,071 m), in a flight which lasted 1 minute 47.4 seconds. This flight, which was officially observed, set new distance and duration records for a human-powered aircraft.

North American P-51D Mustang (polished chrome)

Fournier motor glider

Fournier RF-3 or RF-4.

Beechcraft A23 Musketeer II

Reg. N1491L Beechcraft A23 Musketeer II c/n M891. Suffered substantial damage (gear collapse) on 23 October 1966 following a hard landing during an instructional flight (improper recovery from bounced landing).

Piper PA-28

Various Aircraft

Background full of Beechcraft (or Piper), Cessna, a grey twin-engine warbird. Just outside the right frame, a F-86 (just its wingtip is visible).

Aeronca 7KCAB Champion

Reg. N5230X Aeronca Champion 7KCAB c/n 208.

View again at 37'51.

Unidentified Hang Glider

Paul MacCready / Gossamer Condor (Mojave Prototype)

Study model:

Cessna T-37 Tweet

Cessna T-37 in the early day-glow and silver scheme of the USAF's Air Training Command in the mid-1960s.

DFS Weihe

Reg. SE-SCL DFS Weihe c/n 215 built in 1943. To USA in 1962 as N501D and from 1967 as N74082. Registration expired in February 2017.

Scheibe Zugvogel I

Reg. D-1359 Scheibe Zugvogel c/n 1004 built in 1956. Destroy in a fatal crash on 14 June 1968, pilot killed.
Seen here with competition number 49; it was manned by the famous German pilot Hanna Reitsch who finished in 9th place during the World Gliding Championship held in Saint-Yan, France (July 1956).

Breguet 901

Paul MacCready in the cockpit of the Breguet 901 (competition number 34 and reg. F-CCCK, c/n 8) in which he dominated the 1956 World Championships. See the Discussion tab.

Unidentified (Research?) Glider

Launch being hang under a weather balloon.

Douglas C-133 Cargomaster

Two of them in the distance.

ストーク (NM-75 Stork)

Hurel Aviette

Maurice Hurel design; flight trials in June 1974.

Beechcraft 65 Queen Air

Maurice Hurel (1896-1982) in front of the Exhibition Hall (Aéroport de Paris-Le Bourget (LBG/LFPB)) with three Beechcraft Model 65 Queen Air.

British HPA

Two of the Weybridge Man Powered Aircraft Group projects: (left) Halton Jupiter & (right) Mercury (or Dumbo before Potter renamed it).

Mercury rolling...

Gossamer Condor

Validation test flight.

Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six

Reg. N8682N Piper PA-32-300 Cherokee Six c/n 32-7240025 built in 1971.

ストーク (NM-75 Stork)

1977: achieved a flight of 2094 meters in 4 min 28 s.

Champion 7ECA Citabria

Registration N2523F, c/n 143 taxiing in front of Shafter Airport (IATA: MIT, ICAO: KMIT, FAA LID: MIT) hangar.
Airport also known as Minter Field and formerly known as Air Corps Basic Flying School.

Unidentified Aircraft

Maybe the Fournier seen before. If right, this is a RF-4 able to fly aerobatics.

Part Two: England

Gossamer Albatross

Once the first Kremer prize won, another validation flight over the Mojave desert: this time, Bryan must remain airborne for the estimated time of the Channel crossing.

Goodhart Newbury Manflier

Nicholas Goodhart designed the Newbury Manflier for two pilots placed in separate fuselages, spaced 70 feet apart. First flight on November 1979.
By the way: Nicholas Goodhart (1919 – 2011) was an engineer and aviator who invented the mirror-sight deck landing system for aircraft carriers.

Part Three: The Channel

Lockheed C-130 Hercules C1

Lockheed C-130K Hercules c/n 4245 s/n 66-8568. Once in the RAF: Hercules C1 s/n XV218 (02 Dec 1967 - May 2005).
The Gossamer Albatross was transported over the Atlantic ocean by this Hercules.

Gossamer Albatross

12 June 1979.

MacCready Gossamer Penguin

18 May 1979: the Gossamer Penguin is the second crewed solar-powered aircraft.
Seen here with Janice Brown, the official pilot who took off 40 times in the space of a year.

MacCready Solar Challenger

First flight: 6 November 1980.

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See also

• The Flight of Bryan at IMDb
• The Flight of Bryan at IMCDb