Eaa SKY KING Volume 2 Cessna T-50 310 310B UC-78B New!

Brand New Eaa Video - Never Played

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Sky King is a 1940s and 1950s American radio and television adventure series. The title character was Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler (or Skyler) "Sky" King. The series was likely based on a true-life person, Jack Cones, the Flying Constable of Twentynine Palms during the 1930s.

Although it had strong cowboy show elements, King always captured criminals and even spies and found lost hikers using his plane.

King's personal plane was called the Songbird. Though he changed from one plane to another over the course of the series, the later plane was not given a number (i.e., "Songbird II"), but was simply known as Songbird.

He and his niece, Penny (and sometimes Clipper, his nephew) lived on the Flying Crown Ranch, near the (fictitious) town of Grover, Arizona. Penny and Clipper were also pilots, though still relatively inexperienced and looking to their uncle for guidance and mentoring. Penny was an accomplished air racer and rated multiengine pilot, who Sky trusted to fly the Songbird.

The musical score was largely the work of Herschel Burke Gilbert.

At the beginning of the television series, Sky flew a Cessna T-50 twin-engine "Bamboo Bomber." The plane, a WW II surplus UC-78B, was owned by legendary Hollywood pilot Paul Mantz[4] and flown by employees of his Paul Mantz Aerial Services for filming of the flying sequences.[5] At least two other T-50s are known to have been used for on-ground and in-the-cockpit scenes as well as a Beechcraft in a lost episode.[6]

The best-known Songbird was a twin-engine Cessna 310B. The airplane used was the second production 310B (N5348A), which was provided by Cessna at no cost to the producers and piloted by Cessna's national sales manager for the 310, Bill Fergusson. Fergusson got the job after the motion picture pilot already selected was deemed unqualified to land the airplane at some of the off-airport sites required. Some months after a library of stock footage had been compiled, additional sequences were filmed using a different airplane.[7] The original 310B was eventually destroyed in a 1962 crash at Delano, California, that killed its owner-pilot.[8] Cockpit sequences were filmed using the static test fuselage, also provided by Cessna.[9]

A byproduct of the use of the Cessna 310 as Sky King's "Songbird" was the 310 series becoming known as Songbirds. Cessna has never given the 310 a type name (e.g., the Piper 140 "Cherokee"), but because of its use in Sky King, Cessna 310s are known as "Songbirds" within the aviation community.

A unique introduction featured the triangular Nabisco logo flying across the screen, accompanied by the sound of the Songbird flying past. Nabisco included plastic figures of characters from the show and the Songbird in packages of Wheat Honeys and Rice Honeys breakfast cereals.[10]

Though set in Arizona, the series was filmed in the high desert of California. The ranch house used for exterior shots of the Flying Crown Ranch is an actual home in Apple Valley, California, although it has been extensively remodeled since its use as headquarters of the "Flying Crown Ranch." Other locations were shot in and around Apple Valley and the nearby San Bernardino Mountains, George Air Force Base and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. Interior filming was done at the General Service studio.

While expensive for a kids' show, most of the budget went into aircraft, vehicles and sets. This meant that some standard production methods had to be abandoned, giving the series a more realistic look. For instance, in some shots, pilot Bill Fergusson actually did taxi the 310B rather than the more common (but time-consuming, thus costly) method of simulating movement by towing or dolly shots.

The budget issue also forced the frequent reuse of stock footage, sometimes flipped over to show planes banking the opposite direction, thus sometimes letters and numbers were seen in mirror-image.

The black-and-white film masked the actual paint scheme of the Cessna 310B, which was done in a rich multi-color pattern of Coronado Yellow, Sierra Gold and White, with a gold interior.[11]

The show was filmed and shown during three periods as sponsors changed: 1951-52 (Derby Foods), 1955-56 and 1957-62 (Nabisco, though the copyright notices continued to name Derby Foods). It continued in syndication for years afterward, and was a staple on Saturday morning television into the mid-1960s. There are 72 episodes available for sale on DVD.

The series Sky King ended production in February 1959. There were no additional episodes filmed after that date.

There has long been a rumor that a vault fire destroyed the only prints of 64 other episodes. This is incorrect, though. There were only 72 episodes produced in total.[12][13]

Remarkably, Nabisco sold rights to the series to Grant in 1959. In later years, Grant considered bringing back the series and even a "Sky King" theme park, but nothing ever happened on either of these projects. At least one writer has boilerplated a "Sky King" film, but none has been produced.

Media Type: Video
Media Format: VHS
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: N/A
Edition: EAA
Condition: New

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