New Aviation Documentary “Above and Beyond” Featured During AirVenture 2015
By Maxine Scheer
Attendees of AirVenture 2015 have a great opportunity to learn about a little known piece of aviation history. While I’m not a movie critic, “Above and Beyond” has great aircraft footage, some rowdy humor, and captures the spirit of aviation.
In 1948, most U.S. pilots and aircraft had returned home from WWII. But, for a few, the war had not ended. Just three years after the liberation of the Nazi death camps by Allied Forces, a group of volunteer aviators answered a call for help.
“Above and Beyond” features interviews with a small group of mostly American, mostly secular Jews, who risked their lives and citizenship to contribute their aviation expertise to protect refugees in the newly established State of Israel. In 1948, Israel had no planes and no arms, and the only viable means of defense from the massive armies of the surrounding five Arab nations, was with air power.
In secret, a network of volunteers smuggled planes, parts, and pilots around world-wide embargos, assembled aircraft and trained behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia. They created an air force that successfully defended Israel in its War of Independence.
The film was created and produced by award winning filmmaker Nancy Spielberg, after she read the obituary of Al Schwimmer, an American credited with founding the Israeli Air Force. “I researched Al and found out all the sneaky stuff he and his volunteers did, setting up bogus offices to recruit pilots and buy old planes and smuggle them into Israel.”
While the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has cache in the military world, the film shows how IAF Squadron 101 was started by a handful of mostly U.S. pilots flying “crappy Messerschmitts” repainted with the Star of David.
The son of one of the U.S. pilots featured in the film is attending AirVenture 2015. ANN talked with Bruce Lichtman, Lt. Col. USAF (Ret.) about his father, Gideon Lichtman, and the importance of the film to the aviation community.
“My father, Gide, flew P-51Ds in the Pacific during WWII and after the war stayed current, flying P-51s in the Army Reserve out of New York,” said Lichtman. “My father attended a lecture by someone who was aboard the ship ‘Exodus’. Dad described his experience as a fighter pilot and soon started getting calls and telegrams. They told him he would be flying P-51s, but the reality was he received 35 minutes of training in a ME-109, went to Israel, and was awakened to fly a combat mission where he scored the first kill of an Egyptian Spitfire.” Bruce hadn’t learned about his father’s service until he was about 10 years old, while watching Frank Sinatra as a pilot dropping soda bottles in the movie “Exodus” and his mother said, “your father did that”.
When asked about why the film is important to the aviation community, Bruce described it as “a unique story with a four-way intersection of American History, World History, Jewish History and Military History.”
“My father and the other volunteers created something from nothing.” Gide Lichtman eventually was able to fly a P-51 built from parts smuggled from the British. “Luckily, my dad brought his P-51 manual; they needed it.” Gide went on to fly F-84s in Korea, continued to fly in the Reserves and currently resides in Florida.
“Above and Beyond” is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22, from 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM at the Skyscape Theater in the EAA Museum, and again on Sunday, July 26 from 11:30 AM – 12:45pm. Nancy Spielberg will be introducing the film and holding Q&As to answer questions.
For those curious, there is a family relation to filmmaker Steven Spielberg. But, Nancy apparently did not get a family discount from DreamWorks.
(Staff Image)
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