Cloud Dancer (1980)

Wissenswertes

Cloud Dancer is a 1980 aviation drama film directed by Barry Brown. The film stars David Carradine, Jennifer O'Neill and Joseph Bottoms. Cloud Dancer follows a competition aerobatics pilot throughout his show season.

Production

Director Barry Brown met aerobatic pilot Tom Poberezny in England, during the 1970 FAI World Aerobatic Championships, where he had the idea for the plot. It took several years for him to get financing and resolve the technical problems of filming with cameras that could withstand more than 3 g for actual competition-level maneuvers.

The film had a budget reported as of $3.5 million dollars, crediting the cooperation of organizations like the Experimental Aircraft Association, Piper Aircraft, Goodyear, and Narco Avionics.

Director Barry Brown, who also produced the film, co-wrote the story, and designed the aerial sequences, is a pilot and aeronautic engineer. Therefore, he wanted to ensure a film on aerobatic flying was authentic. Cloud Dancer's stunts were performed in real airplanes by real pilots, without the use of models or the still rare CGI.

Two Pitts biplanes were specially built by Aerotek-Pitts in Afton, Wyoming, to include lightweight built-in cameras, able to resist up to 12 g, invented by Brown. The camera mounts were built into the primary structure of the airplanes: a tripod mount on the top wing, another on the handhold of the top wing of the S-2, wing mounts, side fuselage mounts, a tail mount, and one between the cockpits of the S-2 for close-ups of the rear seat occupant.…

The technical advisor and chief pilot for Cloud Dancer was the former world champion aerobatic pilot, Tom Poberezny, who appears in the film as himself; together with Charlie Hillard, also named in the film, they made most of the flying for the film. The third member of the "Red Devils" Aerobatic Team, Gene Soucy, is also named in the film.

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