The Wild Blue Yonder (1951 film)
The Wild Blue Yonder (aka The Wild Blue Yonder, The Story of the B-29 Superfortress) is a 1951 war film directed by Allan Dwan. (The film was re-released in 1958.) The film stars Wendell Corey, Vera Ralston, Forrest Tucker and Phil Harris. Wild Blue Yonder deals with the Boeing B-29 Superfortress air raids on Japan during World War II.
Plot
In 1943, Capt. Harold "Cal" Calvert (Wendell Corey) is sent on a course at Smoky Hill, Kansas, to learn to fly a new bomber, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. His instructor is his cousin, Major Tom West (Forrest Tucker), an officer who the other pilots think has shirked his duties by claiming engine trouble on the raid over the Ploesti oil fields. Cal stands up for Tom when a crewman taunts his cousin in front of Helen (Vera Ralston), a nurse that Tom has been seeing.
Cal and the other students learn that the pressurized B-29 can fly higher, faster and farther than any other bomber. On a test flight, when an overconfident Cal pushes a B-29 higher than instructed, a sudden decompression nearly ends in tragedy. One of the crew is sucked out of the aircraft, but is able to use his parachute. Tom is furious and reprimands Cal for endangering the test program, which the Air Force brass is monitoring closely.
