Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land
Theatrical poster
Genre	Sci-Fi Thriller
Written by	Peter R. Brooke Robert M. Young
Directed by	Jerry Jameson
Starring	Lee Majors Hal Linden Lauren Hutton Ray Milland Gail Strickland George DiCenzo Tess Harper Terry Kiser
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Allan Manings Henry Winkler
Producers	Peter Nelson (associate producer)
Production locations	Laird International Studio - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California
Cinematography	Héctor R. Figueroa (credited as Hector Figueroa)
Editor	John F. Link
Running time	105 min.
Production companies	Orgolini-Nelson Productions Orion Pictures
Distributor	ABC
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	Color
Audio format	Mono
Original release	February 27, 1983 (1983-02-27)

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (also known as Starflight One or Airport 85)^[1] is a 1983 television film (for the ABC Sunday Night Movie) directed by Jerry Jameson and starring Lee Majors, Hal Linden, Lauren Hutton, Ray Milland, Gail Strickland, George DiCenzo, Tess Harper, and Terry Kiser. The film also features an all-star ensemble television cast in supporting roles.

Jameson had become known for his work on "... movie-of-the-week phenomenon and group-jeopardy suspense and terror." His work with Lee Majors had begun with the television series The Six Million Dollar Man in 1973, with the actor starring in three of Jameson's later films.^[2]

Plot[]

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Starflight, the first hypersonic transport, is being prepared for a media-covered inaugural flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, a planned two-hour flight. On board are the pilot, Cody Briggs (Lee Majors), cheating on his wife Janet (Tess Harper) with media-relations representative for Thornwell Aviation, Erica Hansen (Lauren Hutton), Hal Parisi (Phil Coccoioletti), married to another passenger because she won the trip on TV, but only interested in getting his stolen gold out of the country, and Freddie Barrett (Terry Kiser) trying to get his communications satellite launched from Australia to start his business carrying television signals. Starflight's takeoff is delayed a short time so that the body of the deceased Australian ambassador and his wife, Mrs. Winfield, can be taken aboard. Del (Kirk Scott), the first officer, remembers that nothing good happened the last time a corpse came aboard his aircraft. Finally, Josh Gilliam, the designer (Hal Linden), has misgivings, wishing the engines were under ground control.

Bud Culver (Redmond Gleeson), Freddie's partner in Australia, tells Freddie he must scrub that day's launch of the satellite because weather is closing in; Freddie orders an immediate launch, without NASA approval. ^{[Note 1]} Cleared by NASA for liftoff, Starflight climbs to 23 miles using its scramjet engines, then levels off. Freddie's rocket runs into trouble with the second stage, and has to be destroyed. NASA reports that destruction of the rocket produces debris, heading for Starflight. ^{[Note 2]}

Thornwell okays Cody's letting NASA guide them; engineer Chris Lucas (Stephen Keep) recommends Starflight climb out of danger. Cody engages the scramjet engines again, but rocket debris hits the underside of the aircraft. When NASA says they are clear, Cody orders the jets shut off, but they keep firing because debris has severed the engine controls. Waiting until the hydrogen fuel runs out is now their only option, but they risk accelerating out of the atmosphere and into orbit. Gilliam is concerned that if a flaw occurs in the structure, Starflight would break up.

The fuel runs out just as Starflight reaches orbital velocity/altitude. NASA believes their orbit is good for 48–60 hours, but they need to conserve power and other consumables. The Columbia space shuttle is sent up to bring a supply of hydrogen to refuel Starflight, and an airlock is brought to try to bring Josh Gilliam back to Earth to work on the problem. The astronaut who does the fueling looks at the engine control conduit at Cody's request, and she recommends shutting the line down. The power is cut on that line. ^{[Note 3]}

Pete (Michael Sacks), the flight engineer, tests the airlock transfer, but the airlock hatch will not close and it breaks free, sending Pete into the void. Cody is inspired by a reference in an idle, frustrated exchange with his mistress Erica, sending Josh to Columbia inside the ambassador's coffin. Columbia returns to Earth, landing at Thornwell's airfield (which had been upgraded for shuttle use) to be processed at Thornwell (which spent $93 million to build it, only to lose the contract to Culver Aviation due to industrial espionage).

Josh goes to work on the problem, and discovers Thornwell's universal docking tunnel, a flexible conduit that could be attached between Starflight and Columbia. Meanwhile, the stolen gold has begun to escape through a damaged seal. Hal betrays his intentions to his bride, who reports it to the captain through Erica.

Cody has power restored so the news media on board can still report, and that power-up also includes the sparking conduit damaged by rocket debris.

Columbia and six astronauts arrive with the tunnel, intending to rescue 20 passengers. Five passengers, including Hal, are successfully brought through. The next five people, including Freddie Barrett, are lost when the flexible tunnel swings too close to the sparking electric line on the damaged underside of the airliner and ignites. ^{[Note 4]}

This leaves 47 aboard, six rescued, but five passengers, one crewmember, and one astronaut dead. When Columbia lands, Hal Parisi is arrested. Josh is frustrated, thinking he cannot bring them down. He tells his wife Nancy (Gail Strickland) he would need a bus to bring them home. She says, "get them a bus". Josh remembers a tank built by Culver Aviation that may work. CEO Q.T. Thornwell (Ray Milland) will not hear of it, because of how Culver cost Thornwell money, but Q.T.'s son Martin stands up to his father and insists that Culver's container is the only way. Columbia launches a third time, with the container, and takes 38 more of the passengers, leaving only nine aboard Starflight.

Cody sends Joe Pedowski (Pat Corley), the electrical engineer for Thornwell, who worked on Starflight, outside in a space suit to repair the wiring, because Cody hopes to skip the aircraft into the atmosphere. Josh is trying to come up with a solution, then hits upon the way; a shuttle could drop into the atmosphere ahead of Starflight, with Starflight riding the plough-wave; Starflight's wingtips would burn a little, but the shuttle's heat shield should take most of the brunt.

Columbia cannot make another launch in time, but another shuttle, XU-5, is in orbit on a military satellite mission, and comes into position just a minute before Starflight is to hit the atmosphere. ^{[Note 5]} The two craft ride in together, and once into the atmosphere, XU-5 veers off, while Cody manages to land Starflight after a harrowing steep descent through the upper atmosphere.

Cast[]

Production[]

The visual effects in Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land were attributed to noted effects artist John Dykstra and Brick Price Movie Miniatures.

The film's visual effects were supervised by veteran effects guru John Dykstra's Apogee effects house. Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land made use of stock footage of launches by the space shuttle Columbia and an Apollo-era Saturn V on the launch pad. Columbia makes three launches in 24 hours to help Starflight (something completely impossible given turnaround times for shuttle launches). The Saturn V shown at the Kennedy Space Center was depicted as carrying the communications satellite from a fictitious launch site near Sydney. Each time Columbia lands, the touchdown footage is from the early shuttle days when they landed on the dirt runway at Edwards AFB, rather than the concrete runway that Thornwell would be expected to have. Footage of the approach and landing tests with the shuttle prototype Enterprise was used. A chase plane is also visible.^{[Note 6]}

Strong similarities are seen to the novel Orbit by Thomas Block (1982), whose "Star Streak" aircraft was jet-and-rocket powered and intended for high-atmospheric flight, only to end up in space, but important differences also are seen. In Orbit, the failure to shut down engines, requiring entry into space lest it burn up, was deliberate sabotage rather than accident; the aircraft returns without shuttle assistance "ploughing" the way; and the shuttle mission sent to bring the passengers oxygen fails to launch at all.^[3]

Reception[]

The New York Times said Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land was "... still another reworking of the escapist adventure stuff that proved so popular in the film Airport.^[4] A later review by Dave Sindelar noted that the film was a cross between Marooned (1969) and the Airport movies. It also relied heavily on stock NASA footage to its detriment. Also, Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land was "... slow-moving, mired by disaster-movie style cliches, implausible, and has plenty of dead spots."^{[5] [Note 7]}

Notes[]

References[]

Further reading[]

External links[]

• Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land at IMDb
• Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land at AllMovie
• Movie trailer