MOVIE NEWS: Legends of Flight

Editor’s note: we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming for a word from former OWL associate editor — and current editor of chickaDEE — Mandy Ng. (Craig will be back next week.) Enjoy!

Raise your hands if you love airplanes! Okay, so I can’t actually see if your hand is up, but I’m sure you would raise it after you saw the movie I’m here to talk about.

This week, I had the opportunity to see Legends of Flight at the Ontario Science Centre. Legends of Flight is about the making of a new airplane — the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The movie follows Captain Mike Carriker through the journey of making and testing the Dreamliner. So what’s the big deal about this plane? Well, apparently it’s supposed to change the way airplanes will be designed in the future. It’s going to be big, light, and fuel-efficient. Whoa!

Here are a few observations I had about the movie:

1) Nature is an inspiration. It’s easy to forget that a lot of the technology we use today is inspired by the animal kingdom. The film did a great job of showing how engineers were inspired by bumblebees, monarch butterflies, ducks and albatrosses. What do they all have in common? They’re all efficient flyers. And when you’re trying to design a fuel-efficient airplane, studying these animals is a great place to start!

2) Airplanes are so cool. Okay, that is a pretty obvious observation when I’m talking about a movie about airplanes, but seriously, airplanes are awesome machines. Captain Carriker showed off his piloting skills in everything from a glider to a fighter jet. The film really showed how beautiful planes can be and not just big hunks of aluminum — or in the case of the Dreamliner, lightweight carbon composites.

3) Dream[liner]s can come true! As Capt. Mike Carriker said, “Big ideas can start with just a few squiggly lines.” This plane has been in the works for several years, and it started as just a sketch. The filmmakers even used a cool way of animating drawings so we could imagine a sketch coming to life. See the following YouTube clip for an example:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnToukNYXE]

Imagine one of your sketches being turned into a plane of the future! It’s true — once this plane takes off, most airplanes will probably be modeled after this design.

4) Even though Legends of Flight is documentary, that doesn’t mean there isn’t drama. The folks at Boeing have been working on this plane for several years and they still haven’t finished testing the planes yet. Part of the drama was seeing if they could finish the plane on time… and if it would even fly.

If you’re into airplanes, you’ll love this movie. If you’re not into airplanes, like I said at the beginning — you just might get into them after you see this movie. It’ll give you a new appreciation for what goes into making these high-flying machines!

Click here to see if it is playing at an IMAX theatre near you.

Mandy, owlblog@owlkids.com