- The All American Aviators tells the incredible story about Joe Bok and his gritty team of fabricators, who designed and built 3 flyable Howard Hughes airplanes for Martin Scorsese's Academy Award winning film, The Aviator.
- The All American Aviators is a history-based and character driven nine episode documentary series. It tells the incredible true story about a hard-charging former football player and aerospace entrepreneur Joe Bok, along with his gritty team of fabricators, as they bring to life three Howard Hughes airplanes for one of the greatest Hollywood movies of all time, Martin Scorsese's Academy Award winning film, The Aviator.
The airplanes have to be built on a massive scale so they look realistic in flight and more importantly, they need to be completed within an unbelievable 3 month time frame.
The opportunity of a lifetime for Joe and his team quickly turned into a nightmare of non-stop bitter struggles to overcome sabotage, impossible deadlines, shifting schedules, and technical challenges after a tragic fatal airplane crash takes the life of a pilot and destroys the only remaining full-size airplane that was going to be used for filming.
Now, with an even shorter deadline and a whole other airplane to build, there would be no-room for errors. Defective parts from one negligent company and crooked molds from another, put people's lives in danger and set the team further behind schedule.
To make matters worse, Southern California wildfires were raging around The Aviator outdoor sets and the heat, heavy smoke, and ash from the fires were causing serious delays.
After weeks of round-the-clock work with little or no sleep, tensions run high, personalities clash, and tempers flare as the contentious test flights put everything the team has worked for at risk. Thousands of hours of hard work and millions of dollars in equipment were now on the line. With safety issues as a primary concern, failure was not an option, as it would have likely resulted in death or financial ruin.
Physically exhausted and pushed to their limits, the team made one final, week-long super-human effort and overcame the pressure of impossible deadlines and the never-ending outside adversity to successfully complete one of the most ambitious and extraordinary projects ever attempted.
Joe's team and visual effects Director Rob Legato achieved their monumental goal and provided The Aviator with what is arguably some of the most incredible aerial sequences ever captured in the history of film.
This well-written series also contains informative technical segments, stunning animations, and rare historical footage of Howard Hughes only recently unearthed at the National Archives. These carefully researched and expensive additions to the show help the viewer more easily understand the complex problems, adversity aside, that Joe's team stared down and how those were related to the actual historical events they were trying to recreate for the film cameras.
Shot primarily at Joe's shop in 2003, this never-before-seen footage provides an ultra-unique glimpse of the stark reality that made up the unpredictable, dangerous, risky, intense, high-stakes high-stress world of The All American Aviators.
Three Planes. Three Months. One Goal.
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