Lt, Corona's F86 Sabre develops engine trouble on his landing approach. When the aircraft is shown stalling and crashing, the shot is of an F-100 Super Sabre, a different type of aircraft. The crash shown happened at Edwards AFB. The pilot, Lt. Barty Brooks, was killed. The name Sabre Dance originated from this accident but the context of the phrase relates to this accident alone and should not be generally attributed to additional accidents involving the F100.
Dudley Henriques
President Emeritus
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
One scene in the film quite realistically realizes author James Salter's description of Saville's (Connell in the novel) first sight of the fighter pilots in their club at the base in Korea. Salter wrote that "It looked like a lumberjack camp. No two pilots dressed alike." In the film, Saville eventually wears a WWII sheepskin-lined leather cap and a sage green flight jacket over a blue flight suit, while Pell wears a flap-eared winter hat and a blue flight jacket over a green flight suit. Other pilots wear similar mixes of uniform clothing from both the WWII and Korean War eras.
The aircraft playing the role of the North Korean or Mainland Chinese MIG 15's were US F-84F Thunderstreaks.
Robert Mitchum turned down the Tony Curtis role in " The Defiant Ones " to appear in this.
Originally planned for Clark Gable and James Stewart.