110 hours of aerial footage was shot for Battle of Britain (1969), of which only 40 minutes appeared in the film. The unused footage still shows up regularly in TV Shows and movies about the period because today it costs more than $10,000 an hour to rent a real Spitfire for a film, so licensing the footage is usually much cheaper. Also, the production had 32 flying German Heinkel 111 bombers to play with (on loan from the Spanish Air Force at the time), but today there are none - The one featured in Dunkirk (2017) was a scale model. Here is a list of films and TV Shows (that I know of) which used some of the footage shot in the summer of '68 for Battle of Britain - but there are probably more!
• 1971- Dad s Army - Film spin off of the popular television series
• 1972 - The Pathfinders - ITV television drama series based on the exploits of Bombers Command’s Pathfinder Force
• 1972 - Our Miss Fred - Film comedy starring Danny la Rue
• 1976 - Carry on England - Film from the long running Carry On series
• 1976 - Battle of Midway - War film dramatising the Japanese attack on Midway Island in 1942
• 1979 - Breakthrough (aka Sergeant Steiner) — War film starring Richard Burton
• 1984 - The Secret War of Jackie s Girls — ITV television drama series
• 1986 - Murrow - Channel 4 television drama based on the life of Ed Murrow, wartime news correspondent
• 1988 - A Piece of Cake - Television drama series based around an RAF fighter squadron in 1940
• 1999 - Finest Hour - BBC Television documentary series chronicling the events of 1940
• 2001 - Dark Blue World - Czech film about Czech pilots in the Battle of Britain
• 2010 - First Light - TV Movie based on biography of WWII Pilot, Geoffrey Willum
Wow that is some list and research there Willarob… You might have noticed it’s been brought up already in the thread already about this but unconfirmed and also Tora Tora Tora! Aerial footage too.
It would be some crazy project to assemble all this footage or outtakes into The Battle of Britain movie… Ridley scott is apparently planning to head up a remake soon.
I will add this to the list thanks for this input!
Seeing a clear trend in aerial footage which is interesting.