Crash and burn with new Imax flick

By Ryan Bachman
The Metropolitan

The science, history and thrills of flight are the subject of a new IMAX film opening up this week. The Magic of Flight looks at humanityâs attempts to take to the air, all the way from the earliest planes to today.

The film, showing at the Denver Museum of Natural History through March 12, begins with early flight attempts and the eventual successful flight of the Wright Brothers in 1903. The film then steers to more modern aviation, including the high-performance jets of the military.

A highlight of The Magic of Flight is the footage of the Navyâs Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron. It shows a Blue Angels practice session where pilots repeat and redefine technical maneuvers of their F/A-18 aircraft.

For a pilot, an error of even one-eighth of an inch might prove to be the difference between flight and freefall.

ãEverything has to be very precise and very deliberate because there is no room for mistakes,ä said Blue Angels pilot Scott Anderson. ãItâs not just sitting in a seat pushing buttons and moving a stick around. Itâs a very high-speed, unforgiving environment.ä

ãWhile our Blue Jets (F/A-18 Hornets) can reach speeds of almost 1,400 mph, we keep it below the sound barrier,ä said Blue Angel pilot John Kirby. ãThe fastest we go is 700 mph and the slowest is about 150 mph.ä

The Magic of Flight also features interviews with champion aerobatics pilots Sean Tucker and Patty Wagstaff, the first winner of the aerobatics award for excellence.

ãWhen I was 10 years old, I told my parents I wanted to be an airline pilot,ä Wagstaff said. ãAnd they patted me on the back and smiled and said, ÎPatty, girls donât become pilots.â ä

Tucker is purely driven by the thrill of flight.

ãIf I could take every one in the audience up with me to experience the crushing power of an eight G-force pull-up, the heady feel of weightlessness and the intoxicating pressure of negative G-forces that tug at all corners of consciousness, Iâd do it in an instant,ä she said in the film.

The maneuvers demonstrated by both the Blue Angels, and Tucker and Wagstaff are physically challenging. Viewers get a good look at how they train their bodies to adapt to gravitational stress.

ãI donât wear a G-suit because, unlike combat flying, I know precisely when and how each G-force experience will occur,ä Kirby said.

ãBy anticipating, I can combat the effects of ÎGâ by doing the ÎHook Maneuverâ ÷ contracting the muscles of my stomach and neck.ä

The IMAX is particularly appropriate for this film, because the four-story-high screen makes the flight footage even more dramatic. The viewer gets to see flight, weather, spinning, landing, gliding up close, as well as a simulated, out-of-control nose dive.