Toward the Unknown

Toward the Unknown movie poster.

Movie (1956)
French title: Je reviens de l'enfer

Starring:
William Holden (Major Lincoln Bond)
Lloyd Nolan (Brigadier General Bill Banner)
Virginia Leith (Connie Mitchell)
Charles McGraw (Colonel R. H. "Mickey" McKee)

At the dawn of supersonic flight in the 1950s a group of Edwards Air Force Base experimental aircraft test pilots push themselves to the limit.

Convair F-102 Delta Dagger

With a F-100 and a F-101 in the background.

Seconds before the crash landing... Please, note the lengthy fuselage.

Convair XF-92

The only public featuring of this single prototype (s/n 46-682). It was too put in the air for Jet Pilot but had been left on the cutting room floor.
Acting as the crashed Convair F-102 Delta Dagger but note the short fuselage. Central air intake has been cover by a pointed nose and false inlet put aside the cockpit.

Note the canopy different of this of a F-102.

Since 1969, the plane is now preserved and exposed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

North American B-45 Tornado

Towed at left.

Convair B-36 Peacemaker

Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket

Just two glimpses about one of the three built.
First we guess it at right.

Then its landing gear (between the F-102 and the X-3).

Douglas X-3 Stiletto

The single one built (s/n 49-2892); intended for Mach 2, it just reach 700 mph (1,125 km/h)!

With a North American F-100 Super Sabre in the background.

McDonnell F-101 Voodoo

Sikorsky H-19B

Sikorsky H-19B s/n 52-7564 taking off in front of a North American F-86 Sabre.

Bell X-1

Throughout the movie, numerous desks models are visible. Most are one of the real aircraft seen on the air or on the ground. The orange Bell X-1 is the only one seen only through a model.

Convair C-131B Samaritan

Convair C-131 B Samaritan s/n 53-7790.

Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star

Martin XB-51 (acting as Gilbert XF-120)

On 25 March 1956, the first XB-51 prototype, 46-0685, crashed in sand dunes near Biggs Air Force Base, El Paso, Texas, killing both crew, while staging to Eglin AFB, Florida, for filming of scenes for the motion picture. The only other airframe, 46-0686, crashed on 9 May 1952 during low-level aerobatics over Edwards AFB, killing the pilot. Its programm was already cancelled (in 1951) in favor of the Martin B-57 Canberra.

Lockheed TV-2 Seastar

When ordered by the U.S. Navy, the T-Bird became the TV-2 Seastar. An handful were used for several tests like ejection process. One test archive footage is used when the XF-120 crashed.

Douglas B-26C Invader

On the left.

Unidentified Aircraft

(at right) A Fairchild C-82 Packet (but the inner wing section doesn't suit) or an unarmed North American B-25 Mitchell with a solid nose?

North American F-86 Sabre

Douglas B-66 Destroyer Ejection Seat Testbed

Douglas B-66 Destroyer & McDonnell F-101 Voodoo & North American F-100 Super Sabre & Boeing YKB-29T Superfortress

Experimental Boeing YKB-29T Superfortress (a former Boeing B-29-90-BW Superfortress) s/n 45-21734 is refuelling the twin engine Douglas B-66 Destroyer with the axial probe, when the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo follows the left probe and the North American F-100 Super Sabre is behind the right one.

Republic F-84E/G Thunderjet

Several Thunderjet were used to test the ZELL concept (ZEro-Length Launch). The first manned flight occured on 5 January 1954 with such aircraft.

North American F-100A-15-NA Super Sabre

s/n 53-1572.

North American F-100C-1-NA Super Sabre

s/n 53-1716.

Boeing B-47 Stratojet

Another hidden by the XF-120.

North American F-86D Sabre

Worn the tactical code FU-462.

Republic F-84 Thunderjet

Lockheed F-94C-1-LO Starfire

s/n 51-5642 and 51-5662.

Bell X-2

s/n 46-674.
Same aircraft in other movies at IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft.

On the trolley which moves it to the loading site.

Action to commemorate the accident of the other Bell X-2 (s/n 46-675) which blew up on 12 May 1953, actually killing the pilot and a mechanic in an inflight explosion during a captive flight intended to check the aircraft's liquid oxygen system

Boeing EB-50D Superfortress

s/n 48-086.

Douglas C-47 Skytrain

How to escape to the Skytrain in an US (army) movie of the fifties?

Flypast

A box of four F-100 leading another one of F-101's and a last one of F-102's (only the first two boxes are visible here).

Republic F-84F Thunderstreak

Footage of the Thunderbirds taken between Spring 1955 and June 1956.

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See also

• Toward the Unknown at IMDb
• Toward the Unknown at Wikipedia
• Toward the Unknown at IMCDb