My vote goes to...
The Great Waldo Pepper!

There was some FANTASTIC actual footage in real life period aircraft with real life old timer barnstormer pilots flying them. Many of the pilots that did the stunt flying for that movie were authentic real life barnstormers and stunt pilots from the 20's and 30's. The last of the breed.

No BS blue screen scenes here. And very little in cut in fake stuff. I only wish that Hollywood could figure out how much better these films were than the crud they try to pass off in modern pictures.

YouTube - DOGFIGHT WITHOUT AMMO - THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER 1975

Honorable mention goes to "The Blue Max" another film with tons of real life flying in some very well done replica and real period aircraft.

YouTube - THE BLUE MAX(1965) Original Theatrical Trailer

 

Too many to choose from:

Strategic Air Command with Jimmy Stewart.
Squeaky brakes on the B36, shooting a PAR to mins in a B47.

Dr. Strangelove probably does not qualify. (It's only a model, shhhh)

Thirty Seconds over Tokyo.

Bridges at Toko-Ri

Flight of the Intruder

First 10 minutes of "The Great Santini", Actual F4 footage from my hometown, Beaufort, SC.

 

Another great film with tons of actual footage.

The Flying Leathernecks..

YouTube - FLYING LEATHERNECKS TRAILER 1951 JOHN WAYNE

 

The Great Waldo Pepper.
Awesome. Seems like when I was a kid that movie was on TV pretty often.
Watched it every time I could.

I vote for Never Cry Wolf. Not strictly a flying movie, but beautiful scenes of a Beaver in some beautiful country. Not sure but I believe the flying scenes were filmed above Skagway- kind of between Skagway and Whitehorse in the winter. Have a mechanic buddy who helped prepare that Beaver for its film role, can't remember where he said they were specifically filmed-but pretty sure he told me it was in that area. Looks like it too from what I've seen.

He told me that they were stripping the paint to prepare for a different paint job for the movie. Apparently when the producer (director?) saw the plane partially stripped of paint he stopped the process and said it looked perfect.

They also got a waiver to fly it without an engine cowling and scrubbed the sides with used coffee grounds to make it look "oilier".

Anyway, beautiful shots, and great acting by Brian Dennehy as "Rosie" the bush pilot.

 

Scratch Flight of the Intruder, I watched that with an A-6 Vietnam guy and it was like (paraphrasing) "why would you fly into a combat zone with your spoilers out?"

I'm still going with Steven Speilbergs Always and Airplane! and the Right Stuff.

Always Trailer
Always Opening Scene- PBY and fisherman

 

don't forget hot shots
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/592660/hot_shots_trailer/

 

Airport '75 Some great up close shots of the whale !





Crabby ole Cpt.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain_(film)

 

Second that...great book...lousy movie.

Add The Great Santini, with honorable mention to The Bridges at Toko Ri and Dr. Strangelove (OK, it's not really about flying, but Slim Pickins as the aircraft commander is hilarious, especially when he's going through the contents of their survival kits).

 

Captains of the Clouds (1942) with Cagney, among others.

Bush pilots in northern Ontario compete for jobs and women in the 1930s. Then they step forward and volunteer during WW2.

I thought this was a really good film--has some of the melodrama you see in older movies, but it also has great character development, which is rare in newer movies.

Billy Bishop has a role in this flick as well.

WW