Paul Mantz and Air Mail

 

Paul Mantz, Air Mail:  Although Mantz performed many different stunts over the years, he specialized in flying through buildings. In 1932, he guided a Stearman plane through a 45-foot-wide aircraft hangar with only 5 feet clearance off each wing for this film. Just the year before, Mantz flew the climactic stunt in The Galloping Ghost which required him to fly down a canyon and just miss a prominent sycamore. Misjudging his approach, Mantz crashed into the tree but the film crew got their shot and he got his AMPP card.air-mail

Paul Mantz developed a number of camera and aeronautical innovations to improve aerial photography, and continued as a stunt flyer (he once flew under the Golden Gate Bridge for the movie “This is Cinerama”), a director of aerial photography, and a supplier of aircraft and pilots for the movies for two decades after the war.

Air Mail (1932) was directed by John Ford for Universal Pictures. air-mail-1932

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