© BrunoPress

'Wings' (1927) -

This romantic action-war picture stars Clara Bow as Mary Preston, a combat pilot in the Army Air Service, the forerunner of the United States Air Force. A silent film, 'Wings' became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured, mainly because of its realistic air-combat sequences.

© BrunoPress

'Top Gun' (1986) -

Tom Cruise is Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a US Navy pilot prone to disobedience and bravado but who eventually becomes a Top Gun aviator. The aerial sequences featuring F-14 Tomcats set new standards in aviation cinematography.

© BrunoPress

'Sully' (2016) -

Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) is forced to land his plane, US Airways Flight 1549, on the Hudson River after a bird strike disables both engines. Real-life drama at its best.

© BrunoPress

'Airplane!' (1980) -

Still the funniest parody of the disaster film genre, 'Airplane!' is known for its use of surreal humor and fast-paced slapstick comedy, including visual and verbal puns, gags, and obscure humor.

© NL Beeld

'The Spirit of St. Louis' (1957) -

James Stewart stars as Charles Lindbergh, who made the first solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927, piloting a purpose-built, single-engine Ryan monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Sadly, in 1932, Lindberg's infant son was kidnapped and murdered in what the American media called the "Crime of the Century." The FBI has published online a full case history of the event.

© Getty Images 

'The Aviator' (2004) -

Martin Scorsese's epic biographical film about Howard Hughes is full of aerial action. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the aviation pioneer and director of the film 'Hell's Angels' (1930).  

© BrunoPress

'Hell's Angels' (1930) -

The Howard Hughes-directed 'Hell's Angels' is set during the First World War and features several incredible aerial stunts during the dogfighting scenes. 

© Getty Images 

'Apocalypse Now' (1979) -

The helicopter squadron playing 'Ride of the Valkyries' on loudspeakers as it attacks a Viet Cong village is one of the  audio-visual highlights of Francis Ford Coppola's epic psychological war film.

© BrunoPress

'Amelia' (2009) -

On or around July 2, 1937, pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island while attempting a circumnavigational flight of the globe. This film starring Hilary Swank tells the story of her life leading up to the mysterious disappearance.

© BrunoPress

'Flight' (2012) -

Inebriated commercial airline pilot Whip Whitacker (Denzel Washington) is forced to fly inverted as his plane goes into a steep dive. He regains control but crash-lands the aircraft in a field, along with his career.

© BrunoPress

'The High and the Mighty' (1954) -

A DC-4 airliner develops engine problems on a trans-Pacific flight. Unfortunately the captain, John Sullivan (Robert Stack), loses his nerve and it's up to first officer Dan Roman (John Wayne) to avert disaster and land the plane safely.

© Getty Images

'The Right Stuff' (1983) -

'The Right Stuff' follows the exploits of Navy, Marine, and Air Force test pilots who spearheaded the way to the stars. Seven of them became the Mercury Seven, pilots who were selected to be the astronauts for Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight by the United States. Sam Shepard stars as legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager. The cast also includes Scott Glenn (pictured) as Alan Shepard, who in 1971 walked on the Moon. NASA has a detailed account of the project on its website.

© BrunoPress

'Apollo 13' (1995) -

The disaster that was nearly Apollo 13 after an onboard explosion crippled the spacecraft is masterfully retold in this film about the aborted 1970 mission to the Moon. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton star as the hapless astronauts.

© BrunoPress

'Capricorn One' (1978) -

Journalist Robert Caulfield (Elliot Gould) hires a crop-dusting pilot named Albain (Telly Savalas) to search the desert for missing astronaut Colonel Charles Brubaker (James Brolin) in this scene from the false-Mars-landing thriller 'Capricorn One.'

© BrunoPress

'Flight of the Phoenix' (1965) -

A small crew of men survive their aircraft's crash-landing in the desert. They decide to rebuild the plane, which they name "Phoenix," using ingenuity and cannibalized spare parts.

© Getty Images 

'Battle of Britain' (1969) -

This Second World War drama documents the events of the Battle of Britain, when in the summer and autumn of 1940 the British RAF inflicted a strategic defeat on the Luftwaffe. Genuine period aircraft were used in many of the aerial sequences, including this Supermarine Spitfire IIa P7350 (foreground) and Hawker Hurricane IIc LF363.

© Getty Images 

'The Blue Max' (1966) -

George Peppard stars as First Wold War German fighter plane ace Bruno Stachel, who sets his sights on winning Germany's highest medal for valor, the Blue Max, for which he must shoot down 20 aircraft.

© Getty Images

'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines' (1965) -

Set in 1910, a madcap ensemble of pilots enter a London to Paris air race, with the winner collecting £10,000 (equivalent to a little over £1 million, or US$1.3 million, in 2020). 

© BrunoPress

'Con Air' (1997) -

The climax of this action thriller sees the Jailbird, a Fairchild C-123 Provider converted into a flying prison transport, crash-land on the Las Vegas Strip, causing mass destruction and killing most of the convicts on board. However, hero Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) survives to be reunited with his wife and daughter.

© BrunoPress

'Independence Day' (1996) -

The US Air Force launches squadrons of fighter jets to intercept vastly superior alien aircraft that are being disgorged from a huge mother ship. Captain Steven Hiller (Will Smith) leads the charge, but ends up being blasted out of the sky.

© BrunoPress

'The Dam Busters' (1955) -

Wing Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd) leads a special squadron of Lancaster bombers tasked with breaching Nazi Germany's dams by releasing a bouncing bomb, developed by Barnes Wallis, that skips over the water and the protective torpedo nets to find its target.

© Getty Images

'Memphis Belle' (1990) -

This fictionalization of the last mission of an American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, the Memphis Belle, based in England during the Second World War, stars Matthew Modine as Captain Dennis Dearborn who, along with his crew, nurses the stricken aircraft back home after it's severely damaged during a bombing raid.

© BrunoPress

'Twelve O'Clock High' (1949) -

Set during the early days of America's involvement in the Second World War, this movie chronicles the daring and dangerous daylight bombing missions undertaken by aircrews over Nazi Germany and occupied France. Gregory Peck stars as Brigadier General Frank Savage.

© Getty Images 

'The Hindenburg' (1975) -

Was the destruction of the German airship Hindenburg on May 6, 1937 a terrible accident, or the result of sabotage? This speculative thriller errs towards the latter. George C. Scott heads the cast as Col. Franz Ritter, a character based on Fritz Erdmann, a Luftwaffe officer who was on board the final flight and who might have been investigating a bomb threat. The disaster marked the end of airship travel.

© BrunoPress

'Pearl Harbor' (2001) -

Most of the planes flying in this movie are obviously the long-range fighter aircraft known as "zeros," launched by the Imperial Japanese Navy during its attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

© BrunoPress

'Sky Fighters' (2005) -

Also known as 'Les Chevaliers du Ciel,' this French film is about two air force pilots that take to the skies to prevent a terrorist attack on the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris. The Mirage jets steal the show.

© BrunoPress

'Snakes on a Plane' (2006) -

Honestly, hundreds of snakes being released on a passenger plane in an attempt to kill a trial witness? Samuel L. Jackson stars as FBI agent Neville Flynn, assigned to protect Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) from criminal reprisals... and thousands of fanged teeth.

© BrunoPress

'Strategic Air Command' (1955) -

James Stewart stars as Robert "Dutch" Holland, a bomber pilot during the Second World War who takes to the skies again at the controls of a B-47 in this, the first Hollywood film to depict the role of the Strategic Air Command in the Cold War era.

© Getty Images 

'Firefox' (1982) -

Major Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood) goes ahead and steals a highly advanced Soviet fighter aircraft, code-named by NATO as "Firefox," from under the noses of the KGB. Great fun, and filmed long before the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

© BrunoPress

'Flightplan' (2005) -

Recently-widowed Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is on a flight back to the United States with her husband's body and their six-year-old daughter, Julia. Mid-flight however, the little girl disappears. But where to? As Kyle finds out, there are lots of places on a jumbo jet where a child can be hidden.

Sources: (FBI) (NASA) (Live Science)

See also: Celebrities who are afraid of flying.

© BrunoPress