The Air Force did not actually become the “Air Force” until July of 1947 so it didn’t have that many wars to take part in. And wars tend to make the best movies (if we are to believe Hollywood SOP).
I’m not sure I understand all your technicalities, but this is a good place to recommend Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. Is that what you’re looking for?
Good Van Johnson vehicle, but I haven’t a clue as to the authenticity of the aircraft.
I don’t suppose we get to count IRON MAN and IRON MAN 2, do we?
That was about the Navy not Air Force.
Army air corps not Air Force. If you don’t follow the rules we will descend into chaos and anarchy!
The USAF features heavily in Independence Day, but the producers weren’t able to get cooperation from the real USAF because of all the reference to Area 51. Most of the main characters in Stargate and on Stargate SG1 were either USAF or civilian contracters. They had alot of cooperation from the USAF, and didn’t loose it when they starting mentioning Area 51 in the later seasons.
Much older and no Century fighters - but the 1938 film Test Pilot is worth a look, just for the authentic footage of the Y1B-17 squadron. Cast is not bad either, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. I recorded it to DVD from TCM where it still shows up from time to time.
How about The Starfighters, starring future congressman B1 Bob Dornan?
I assume Air Force One had some Air Force angle to it.
In a similar vein:
Air Force (1943)
Captains of the Clouds (1942)
Desprate Journey (1942)
Eagle Squadron (1942)
The First of the Few (aka Spitfire) (1942)
The Flemish Farm (1943)
Flying Tigers (1942)
God Is My Co-Pilot (1945)
A Guy Named Joe (1943)
I Live in Grosvenor Square (aka A Yank in London) (1945)
International Squadron (1941)
Joan of Paris (1942)
The Lion Has Wings (1939)
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)
Passage to Marseille (1944)
Pilot #5 (1943)
The Purple Heart (1944)
They Flew Alone (aka Wings and the Woman) (1942)
They Raid by Night (1942)
The Way to the Stars (aka Johnny in the Clouds) (1945)
A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941)
Ahem!
Like almost everything in that movie, they were very authentic. Real B-25s were used in addition to mock-ups.
IIRC, other period aircraft were parked in the background during the outdoor training scenes.
Yes?
This is hard to explain… When I watch an old movie, I try to get into the Zeitgeist. I’m a big fan of air-themed WWII films, and have a decent collection and have seen many others. I’ve seen the Korean War-themed films mentioned here. But what I’m really looking for are films set in the Cold War era of the late-1950s through mid-1960s.
I wasn’t born in the '50s, but growing up watching syndicated reruns and old movies, plus seeing regular-8 home movies my dad shot then, I have a ‘feel’ for the times. I was alive before home computers and video games. I know what it’s like to be in a quiet house, and to miss a phone call because I wasn’t home. I remember the huge (by today’s standards) old cars. (My best friend growing up lived with his grandparents, and his grandfather collected Hudsons.) So when I watch old movies, I think of how less convenient many things were. I think of people having to go to a library to look things up, and having to use a land-line to talk to people. I think of people cooking most nights instead of going through a drive-through or grabbing a bucket of chicken or something. As I said, it’s hard to explain; but imagining how life was back then adds to the movie-watching experience for me.
So to the topic of this thread: In the late-'50s/early-'60s the U.S. was economically and militarily powerful. But we had a powerful adversary in the Soviet Union, and there was real fear of a nuclear war. We had bombers in the air 24/7, and interceptor aircraft ready to counter an attack.
Now think of those Century fighters. In the 1940s and into the '50s, the early jets had centrifugal turbojet engines. In the early-'50s the F-86 had an axial-flow J47 turbojet engine. Things were improving, but aircraft were still old-school in their designs. With the Century fighters, aircraft design was pretty exciting. The F-102 Delta Dagger and the F-106 Delta Dart (and the B-58 Hustler) had delta wings that were a departure from the conventional (to this day) airframe layout. The F-104 Starfighter was the ‘missile with a man in it’ – long and thin and fast. The Century fighters were designed as ‘interceptors’. That is, their primary mission was to intercept incoming enemy aircraft by getting there as fast as possible once the threat was detected. More modern aircraft were better at dogfighting. The Century fighters were designed more for speed, and primarily designed to attack less-maneruverable bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. They were the ‘Minute Men’.
So to set the stage: Two powerful countries stand toe-to-toe, each capable of inflicting collateral damage undreamed of before. The front line – the tip of the spear – against nuclear annihilation brought by long-range enemy bombers was the U.S. Air Force; men trained, primed, and ready to throw themselves into battle. Their mounts were the fastest interceptors of the day. The pilots sit in their ready rooms, knowing that at any moment war might come…
Strategic Air Command in particular did a good job of capturing the spirit of the times and its urgency. Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe took a darker path; the former satirically, and the latter played straight. Maybe those films were enough. Or maybe people do prefer war films – especially ‘safe’ war films set in Korea, where the outcome was already known. Maybe they prefer a lot of action instead of a lot of tension that climaxes in an action scene. It seems to me that there is a dearth of films featuring planes that served the USAF and ANG for decades. (The F-106, introduced in 1959, served in the U.S. until 1988.) Home defense seems a forgotten genre. The Right Stuff took place at home (for me, literally; as I worked at EAFB) and was quite exciting. From The Earth To The Moon also took place ‘at home’ and captured the times quite well.
Being a ‘Navy brat’ and working on an Air Force base, i saw how people lived on bases. Those cinder block houses in The Right Stuff? They’re real. Sure, there are newer houses; but the old ones are still there and occupied. (Or they were when I worked there, until 1985.) I’d like to see more films that focus on life on an Air Force base in the days when we were facing off against the Soviet threat. And I’d like to see more of those planes between the early jets fighters and the ones that came after the Century series. 
Why, oh, why won’t someone release a restored edition of that? The video quality on my DVD is typical for an unrestored '30s movie, but the audio needs work. 
You would probably love this TV series:
There were a few full-length episodes available under “Action/Adventure” at a site called tv4u.com, but I can’t access it from where I am now (hopefully they’re still there). One of them had a five-second walk-on of an 18-year-old Mary Tyler Moore at the end.
Probably just pointing out that the Army Air Corps didn’t exist at the time Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo takes place (at least, not the raid from which the movie takes it’s name). By then they had been reorganized into the Army Air Forces.
Anyhow, for purposes of discussion, I think “Air Force” should include the direct precursor organizations (Army Air Forces, Army Air Corps, etc.) We can draw the line at not including anything before the Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Signal Corps though, in order to maintain some semblance of order. 
In which case, you have 12 O’Clock High, The Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails, Tora Tora Tora, and Pearl Harbor.
…
You know what? It’s best if we pretend Pearl Harbor never happened. Ben Affleck would probably think it best.
Cool story about an F-106.
After the pilot ejected from F-106A S/N 58-0787 in a flat spin, the aircraft recovered itself and flew until it ran out of fuel and landed in a field. Damage was minimal, and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service.
Speaking of old TV series featuring cool jets…
Did you ever see the episode of Sea Hunt where Mike Nelson had to rescue the pilot trapped underwater in the cockpit of this bird?
The show opened with actual footage of the airplane landing (or crashing, maybe) during one of its test flights.