Tallmantz Phoenix P-1 - Design and Development

Design and Development

In late 1964 or early 1965 Tallmantz Aviation Inc. of Orange County, California was hired by 20th Century Fox to supervise the aerial sequences for their upcoming film, The Flight of the Phoenix. Paul Mantz and Frank Tallman, the owners of Tallmantz Aviation, were well-known movie stunt pilots but in order to provide a realistic movie "prop", they hired Otto Timm, a highly-respected aeronautical engineer and designer to create a new aircraft.

Timm, following the storyline of the movie, designed a remarkable hybrid using parts cannibalized from a number of aircraft to resemble the Fairchild C-82 Packet that featured prominently as the "crashed" aircraft in the desert.

The "Tallmantz Phoenix P-1" was made up of:

• North American T-6 Texan engine, cowling, propeller, undercarriage wheels and cockpit controls
• Beechcraft C-45 Expeditor wings,
• North American L-17 Navion tail wheel
• Tallmantz-designed and constructed fuselage, wing roots and skids

The Tallmantz workshops near Santa Ana, California, built an open cockpit fuselage consisting of a tubular steel framework surrounded by circular wooden bracing frames with a plywood covering and the tail section was similar in construction. The skids were scratch built from steel parts while wire bracing was added, made from clothesline to intentionally create a "flimsy" look. Although wheels were used, they were camouflaged in the final print of the film in order to make it appear that the aircraft was fitted with skids only.

Construction was completed in June 1965 and the completed "movie model" was submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which issued a Certificate of Airworthiness on 14 June.

A second Phoenix static/ground run model was built up from Fairchild R4Q-1 Flying Boxcar (a USMC version of the C-119C) components and was extensively used for ground shots, even running up its engine. This was a non-flying prop that the Phoenix P-1 very closely resembled.