I saw John Wayne in Jet Pilot today. It reminded me of Strategic Air Command in that they had not only clips of USAF aircraft, but apparently the Air Force let them film aircraft. JP had a B-29 and an X-1.
Was it common for the Air Force to do this in the late 1950’s?
The military still helps in the production of movies - letting them film on ships and around bases, etc. They need to approve the script (understandably, they wouldn’t want to help out the production of a film that showed the military in a bad light).
When they were making Independance Day they wanted to film using Air Force fighter planes and were told they’d need to take out the stuff about the government hiding aliens and flying saucers in Area 51. The producers chose to keep the conspiracy stuff in the film and use models and mock-ups for the military planes instead.
I saw most of Jet Pilot years ago (but fell asleep before the end). I was pretty surprised that they were allowed to use the X-1 rocket plane in the film. I caught the ending the other night and was even more surprised that they used the X-1 in flying scenes - Not just stock footage, but actual staged scenes where they shoot down the F-86 chase planes flying next to the X-1! The planes were doubling for supposed Russian aircraft, so they were badly painted to cover up the US markings.
I guess the miltary went along with it because it depicted the Russians as bad guys and idiots. Well, all except the lovely pilot, Janet Leigh, who is eventually won over to the capitalist ideology thanks to the superiority of our good old steak dinners and the love of Duke Wayne. 