Talmantz North American B-25 Mitchell

Additional Information:

In 1961, Frank Gifford Tallman III (April 17, 1919 – April 15, 1978) formed Tallmantz Aviation with fellow stunt pilot Albert Paul Mantz (August 2, 1903 – July 8, 1965). Based at the Orange County Airport (now the John Wayne Airport) in southern California, the company provided pilots, camera planes, and a small fleet of antique and historic aircraft, along with background models of aircraft and ships, for movie and television productions. Paul Mantz was killed in 1965 while flying a specially created aircraft, the Tallmantz Phoenix P-1, designed with the assistance of Otto Timm, to represent the aircraft built by oil explorers salvaged from their crashed Fairchild C-82 Packet that crashed in the North African desert during the production of the film, “The Flight of the Phoenix”.

Tallman injured his leg in a go-cart accident which meant Mantz had to fly the Phoenix P-1. Tallman ended up hospitalized and infection set in resulting in most of his leg being amputated. Tallman then taught himself to fly with one leg, reportedly preferring to fly some planes without the prosthetic leg he used for walking. Tallman, he eventually regained his airman medical certificate and ratings in propeller multi- and single-engine, jet, and rotary aircraft.

Talmantz Aviation provided this B-25, A/C #N-1203, to take aerial photographs and wide angle movies during low level penetration tests by Joint Task Force, Two (JTF-2) on “Porkie II” on Sandia Army Base in Albuquerque in 1966.

This aircraft was already famous for its use in filming Cinerama motion pictures using the double wide-angle lens

GALLERY: