
Born in Alameda, California, on August 8th, 1903, Paul Mantz first learned to fly when he was 17. After spending several years barnstorming, and washing out of Army Flight School in 1927 for buzzing a railroad car filled with officers, Mantz returned to California and started his own charter air service. He eventually moved into movie stunt flying. He really became noticed by Hollywood were he flew as a stunt pilot for the Howard Hughes war epic, "Hell's Angels". Although Mantz performed many aerial stunts, he specialized in flying through buildings. In the 1932 movie "Air Mail", he guided a Stearman plane through a 45-foot-wide aircraft. He developed a number of camera and aeronautical innovations to improve aerial photography, and continued as a stunt flyer (he once flew under the Golden Gate Bridge for the movie "This is Cinerama"), a director of aerial photography, and a supplier of aircraft and pilots for the movies for two decades after the war. He formed a company, with legendary pilot Frank Tallman, named Tallmantz Aviation in 1961 based at Orange County Airport (now John Wayne Airport) in Southern California. Together, they provided pilots, camera planes, and a small fleet of antique and historic aircraft for movie and television productions. Mantz loved restoring and rebuilding rare aircraft, such as a copy of Lindbergh's "Spirit of Saint Louis". However, Mantz and Tallman's collaboration did not last long. In 1965, the two men were working on the movie "Flight <b>...</b>
Paul
Mantz
Flight
of
the
Phoenix
crash
Bomberguy