Masters of the Air started today

[USAFsparkchaser]

Am watching the first episode, freaking awesome. 

[andyf117]

Both the primary and secondary sites which I use for 'next day' streaming have Episodes 1 & 2 showing - they'll be my late evening's viewing tomorrow... 🤞

[Murph]

I think they would have been better served by starting with an episode focusing on their training in the States, especially considering the number of fatalities the USAAF suffered during training.  I suspect the show creators felt that was too much of a cliche though, due to Band of Brothers. 

 

LINK

 

Quote

World War II was immense. So many numbers boggle the mind. Every day from Sept. 1, 1939-Aug. 14, 1945, 27,000 people were killed. That’s nine 9/11s every day for six years. Nearly 14 million Americans served during the war, the U.S. manufactured 300,000 airplanes. Even narrowing the focus, the numbers still amaze.  Three of every four German submariners died. The Soviets killed more of their own soldiers than total U.S. combat deaths. Even those who have studied the war for years cannot help but be stunned by such figures and many, many more.

But even more than 70 years on, there are still relatively unexplored areas of the war whose numbers are also quite astonishing. So it is with the number of Americans killed during aircrew training. The number of pilots and crew that died in training accidents in the U.S. during the war is 10 times the number of American deaths on D-Day. The heroism of those that stormed the Normandy beaches has been celebrated in countless books and movies.  Yet the fact that 15,000 young men died in aircrew training in the U.S. is virtually unknown. Aviation was still in its infancy during the 1930s. Only a tiny fraction of Americans had ever been on a plane. Even civil aviation was far from safe, military aviation even less so. In 1930, the accident rate for military aviation was 144 accidents per 100,000 flying hours. By 1940, the rate had been reduced to 51 accidents per 100,000 hours, a reduction of more than two thirds. But even this improved rate would be considered intolerably unsafe today.

As war loomed, the U.S. dramatically ramped up aircraft production and aircrew training. Many new aircraft designs were rushed into production. Even though there were dozens of aircraft manufacturers in the U.S., to meet the numbers demanded by the military, only large scale producers could hope to get contracts. So companies such as GM and Packard that had never produced planes or aircraft engines before were given huge contracts because they had the manufacturing capacity. The resulting retooling and production achievements were indeed impressive, but came at a cost. Many planes were put into use without proper testing, and in many cases even when design flaws were known, there was no time to investigate and take corrective action. Engine failures and on-board fires were common.

The crews knew what they were dealing with. The B-24 bomber was nicknamed the “flying coffin” due to its many problems. Not surprisingly, more trainees died in B-24s than any other plane. But the war took precedence over safety. The planes continued to fly. With the massive increase in aircraft production came a commensurate increase in aircrew training. From mid 1939-August 1945, the U.S. trained hundreds of thousands of new pilots. In 1939, fewer than 1,000 pilots graduated basic flight training, and in 1943 that figure had grown to 165,000. Over the course of the war 200,000 trainees flunked out or died in training accidents.  The huge increase in pilot training numbers (including many who just didn’t have what it took), coupled with the operation of tens of thousands of complex aircraft that had been hurriedly designed and produced, spelled disaster. A comparison of two years tells the story:

 

Year         Number of Accidents    Aircraft Wrecked    Fatalities

 

1941        1304                                  228                            199

 

1944        20,883                              5,387                          5,616

 And this was just in the continental U.S. There were many thousands more wrecks and deaths overseas. Looking at totals for the entire war is even more sobering. The U.S. suffered 52,173 aircrew combat losses. But another 25,844 died in accidents. More than half of these died in the continental U.S. The U.S. lost 65,164 planes during the war, but only 22,948 in combat. There were 21,583 lost due to accidents in the U.S., and another 20,633 lost in accidents overseas.  Many more planes were lost due to pilot error or mechanical failure than were shot down by the enemy. More than 1,000 were lost while being delivered to their duty stations from the U.S. So the danger of non-combat flying did not end with the conclusion of training. The planes continued to be unreliable, and to make things worse, once overseas, many green pilots were given the controls of planes in which they had little to no flying experience.

As the figures show, non-combat flying continued to be extremely hazardous whether in training in the U.S. or after arrival overseas. The courage displayed by aircrews in combat over Germany and Japan, and the losses they sustained, is one of the most memorable stories of World War II. But it should not be forgotten that nearly 15,000 young men died in training accidents without ever leaving the United States. Although they never faced flak or Messerschmitts, their sacrifice was as real and memorable as those shot down over Germany.

 

[andyf117]

Just streamed the first two episodes, and first impressions are that it's certainly on a par with Band of Brothers, which I've watched a few times - unlike The Pacific (also based on a Miller book), which I never had any hankering to re-visit...

....so am looking forward to the forthcoming instalments, and fully expect to recognise more events and further names - of both personnel and planes...

[Drifterdon]

I just finished watching the sixth episode last night and all I can say is "Holy Crap!"   What those guys went through is unbelievable.   While the first two episodes I thought were a little slow, the last four and the flying scenes blew me away.   I know it's a ton of CGI but I thought it was very well done.   Looking forward to the final episodes.    I'll be grabbing this one when they box it up on Blu ray.

[Geoff M]

I have been watching too and am humbled by the prospect of death and tragedy that those men faced every time they flew a mission.  Truly a remarkable generation.  It is only the fact that all those lost lives truly made a difference to the outcome that balance out the tragedy.  

Edited February 24 by Geoff M

[breadneck]

While i`m not paying for any such tv services, i have seen some YT clips and will certainly consider grabbing the series when it hits the pancake format. 

[ESzczesniak]

4 hours ago, breadneck said:

While i`m not paying for any such tv services, i have seen some YT clips and will certainly consider grabbing the series when it hits the pancake format. 

Hopefully it does! I like the permanency of owning some landmark series and movies like these works. But my reading has suggested that Apple TV very well may not ever release to DVD. It’s not a definite no, but it’s not the normal process. 

[Drifterdon]

So Masters of the Air wrapped up this week.   I really hope they release it on Blu Ray.   This was a great mini-series.   I'll probably start it over in a week or so.

[toadwbg]

Damn fine series.   Final episode stuck the landing.

 

I’ve been reading discussions on REDDIT and of course there’s the usual nipickers and trollers.   

[southwestforests]

17 hours ago, toadwbg said:

and of course there’s the usual nipickers and trollers

They are in other places too, and the funny thing is I've not seen a one of them document how they offered their time, their time-dilation equipment, and their infinite money, to the production in order to make it perfect in every detail but the production refused their offer.
What I have seen is someone refer to an interview where a MOTA staffer told about having only a finite amount of time and only a finite amount of money, and they did what they could afford in the timetable they had.

[southwestforests]

Perhaps of interest?

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/commercial/curator-consultancy/masters-of-the-air

 

Quote

Playtone and Apple TV+ looked to IWM to advise on their mini-series Masters of the Air  released in January 2024. Having provided historical consultation across a range of areas for Band of Brothers in 2001, IWM were a natural choice of collaborator.

Following the men of the 100th Bomb Group throughout America's bombing campaign during Second World War, the B-17 Flying Fortress plays a central role in the series. IWM advised on the production from the outset, by helping scriptwriters John Orloff and Graham Yost to understand the perilous conditions of the US strategic bombing campaign. They and other key members of the production team were led on tours of IWM's B-17 Flying Fortress by American Air Museum Curator Emily Charles between 2017 and 2019.