David Jason: Planes, Trains & Automobiles (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Episode #1.2 - full transcript

'I'm David Jason,

'and I'm on a journey to
discover the machines

'that made America
and changed the world.'

- You know you're mad.
- All the best people are.

'I'm travelling by plane,
train, and automobile

'in the footsteps
of pioneers and inventors

'down the West Coast of America.'

- And you... Yes!
- Yes!

Oh, I really, really enjoyed that.

'I will take in some of the best
all-American scenery.'

Good Lord, look at that.



That is just wonderful.

'And reveal how this part
of the world

'has led the way
in adventure and enterprise.'

Look where she's going!

'I will discover the stories
behind some of the world's

'most legendary machines.'

You're responsible
for the nation's treasure.

Exactly.

Come along, James! Off we go.

'At last,
Del Boy makes it to Hollywood.'

You don't get much closer than that.

'Join me
on my big American adventure.'

'I'm on a 1,200-mile adventure
from Seattle to Los Angeles.

'It's week two
of my five-week journey,



'and I'm starting from
the Evergreen State of Washington,

'following
the Cascade Mountain Range

'200 miles southwards,

'and travelling up into
the high prairie land of Oregon.

'I'll be burning rubber
along the way.'

Go!

Jesus...

..wept!

TRUCK HORN BLOWING
'Tracking the Oregon Trail.'

What's that? Mount Hood?

COREY: That is Mount Hood.

You don't see that every
day of the week, do you?

COREY: You sure don't.

'And riding high in a World War II
fighter plane.'

- You ready to go?
- Yes.

'First, though,
it's wipers on in Washington.

'You could see where they got
the Evergreen nickname from.

'It's chucking it down.

'And there are more trees here than
you can shake a stick at.

'But deep beneath this beautiful
and awe-inspiring scenery

'lies the eastern edge
of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

'Tectonic plates grind against
each other,

'creating a constant potential
for huge earthquakes

'and devastating volcanic eruptions.

'Sitting atop one of the deepest
fault lines is Mount St Helens.

'I'm on my way there now,
and getting quite excited about

'what's going to be my first
helicopter flight

'of this fantastic journey.'

Heh-heh, looking forward to this.

Yes.

Here he is.

'This morning, there's a friendly,
beardy bloke, Ross Cristiano,

'and he's going to
take me on a tour of the mountain.'

- Hey, Ross.
- Hi, David.

'Despite the blue skies,

'weather on the mountain
can change in seconds,

'so getting to see the summit
is far from guaranteed.'

Listen, I trust you.

Hundreds wouldn't, but I do.
ROSS LAUGHS

But it's got a good
safety record, hasn't it, this?

- One of the best.
- One of the best.

OK, then, sir, you take me
where you want me.

- OK, let's do it.
- Right.

'Now, not a lot of people know this,

'but yours truly is
a fully-qualified helicopter pilot.

'But because I want
to enjoy the ride,

'I'm going to let this
whippersnapper do the driving.

'I wonder how much Ross has flown,

'and whether he can match
my 600 hours in the air.'

How many hours have you done
on this, then, Ross?

Total time,
I have about 1,800 hours.

Oh, well. Yeah.

Not a bad, I suppose, for a learner.

- Yeah!
- Yeah.

All right.
I'm ready to go, if you are.

- Ready to go.
- All right.

'These Bell 206 LongRangers

'are pretty useful
and adaptable bits of kit.

'And when Ross
isn't ferrying me about,

'he's doing far more important stuff
with his whirlybird.'

So, this particular helicopter,

we were fighting fires
during the summertime.

And so it's used for fire
suppression, for tours,

like what we're doing now.

It's used for construction.

The 206 is basically the workhorse
in the industry,

as far as helicopters go.

'But back in 1980,

'there was something far more
devastating than a forest fire here.

'A massive volcanic eruption that
literally reshaped the land.'

Oh, look at that.

ROSS: So this is the sediment
that was, you know,

pushed down with the eruption.

So the brown stuff, like the sand

that we're looking at,
or we're passing over,

is the spoil from the eruption.

Correct. Yeah.

That is soil that came all the way
from Mount St Helens.

We're flying over
about 200 feet of sediment.

My good grief, Penfold.

'Forty years ago,

'Mount St Helens exploded with
a force 1,600 times more powerful

'than the atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima.

'Everything within an eight-mile
radius was destroyed in seconds.

'It was the largest eruption
in US history and, tragically,

'claimed the lives of 57 people.'

MAN: Get off the bridge!

'This was nature at its
most raw and destructive.'

Starting to get into view
of the blast zone.

DAVID: They seem the remnants of it.

There's one or two, look,
trees just there,

lying down all
in the same direction.

Imagine this explosion occurring

and sending
a 1,200-foot wave of water

all the way across up to the cliff,

back down into the water,
destroying everything around it.

Good grief.

Some of these logs are still
here from that explosion.

- What? In the water?
- Yep.

Oh, they're logs, are they?

Yeah.

Wowee, wow, wow!

I wouldn't mind starting
a matchstick firm.

I've got enough wood here.

I'd earn a bloody fortune.

This water temperature rose
so high from the explosion

that it killed everything inside.

Nature can be very cruel as well
as being very beautiful.

I must say, it seems
really impressive country.

Really is impressive.

'The force of the 1980 eruption

'blew out the entire north flank
of this massive peak.

'Here once stood
1,300 feet of solid rock,

'forming a near-perfect cone.

'But now, deep ravines etch
it's broken north face.

'As we were warned,

'there's cloud cover this afternoon

'and the summit
is hidden from view.'

ROSS: We're going to get up
above the cloud layer, Harry.

'Ross decides to take the jet
ranger up to 8,500 feet.'

Good lord, look at that.
That is just wonderful.

Pretty spectacular.

'At this height,

'the magnitude of what happened here
becomes truly apparent.'

It's wonderful.
Very, very impressive.

'A new dome's growing
in the centre of the crater,

'forced up by millions of tonnes
of lava

'still active below the surface.'

You can see some people
along the rim.

- Oh, yeah!
- And on the edge.

Good grief.

That's quite a bit of a hike that,
isn't it?

It sure would be.

'To help protect the volcano's
fragile ecosystem

'descending into the crater
isn't allowed,

'but the view from here
is stunning.'

You can see the glaciers
on each side of the dome.

Yeah.

'Cradled in the crater

'is one of the world's
youngest glaciers,

'already over 600 feet thick.'

DAVID:
The cone in the middle of that

is just a little puff of smoke
coming out.

- A little steam?
- Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

You can just see it.
It looks as thought it's on its way.

'At just 40,000 years old,

'Mount St Helens is considered

'to be a relatively young volcano.

'It's still being regularly
shaken by earthquakes.

'Slightly worrying to think
that this will someday erupt again.'

I think I've just seen
the footprints of the Bigfoot.

- Oh, really?
- Yeah.

'Well, what a trip.

'Seeing all this from the air
is pretty breathtaking,

'and truly quite humbling.'

Oh, blimey!

- Fun trip, right?
- Yeah.

It's beautiful.

What an experience that was.
Really great.

'But there's no rest for the wicked.
Next, I'm on my way to Oregon,

'where I'm going
to be burning some rubber.'

Oh, my God!

Poured bloody kangaroo juice
in that one, didn't he? Cor!

'So, it's goodbye, Washington State,

'over the great
Columbia River we go,

'and hello to Portland, Oregon.

'I'm heading for the city's famous
International Raceway.

'Since the early 1960s,
this track has been home

'to a whole variety of motor races,

'but today is Wednesday and,

'as nearly everyone in Oregon knows,

'Wednesday means drag.

'No, not as in pantomime dame,
but in drag car racing.'

Oh, right.
Now, this is where it all happens.

Just look at it. It's like a runway.

'Now, I don't know much
about this sport,

'and I have a feeling
there is a lot to learn.'

It's so sticky, I can't...

Help! Somebody, help!

PAUL GRUNTS

Oh, that's better, yeah.

'Thankfully, there's a bloke here
who can show me the ropes,

'a kind of drag king, I suppose.'

- Is Corey... Is he about?
- Corey? I'm Corey.

- Corey. David Jason.
- David, nice to meet you.

- And you, sir.
- This is my daughter, Corra.

- Hello, Corra.
- This is David.

Nice to meet you.

I understand
you're a bit of a mad...

..racing madman,
or madwoman, should I say?

She's a little crazy.
She's blown one up this year.

- When did you get involved in it?
- Since I was born.

He almost missed my birth
because he was racing.

HE LAUGHS
That is a true story.

I have been involved in this
since I was born.

I actually started racing cars
when I was 12 years old.

I had been begging him since,
six or seven years old to get a car.

You must be bloody rich or silly.
One of the two.

- I don't know which one.
- It's not rich.

Well, you're silly, then.

- Oh, yes.
- A little silly.

'Back in the day, racers would
often use the main street,

'or main drag, of a town,

'and so the term "drag racing"
was coined.'

I think a lot of it came
after the war.

Guys, they had skills,
where they could

put their skills to use
was into the cars.

They would modify things
and they would use

fuel tanks off of old aeroplanes
for, like, belly tankers,

and they would take old Fords
from the '20s and '30s

and they would modify them
and put different engines in them,

and that's kind of how it evolved,
I think.

While Corra proudly represents
a new generation of racers,

her dad's keen to introduce me
to one of the good ol' boys.

This is Ron Wirostek. David Jason.

How do you do?

- Are you the 78-year-old kid?
- Yeah, that's me.

On the block, yeah.

These young kids don't know
what's going on.

No. You're absolutely right.

'Ron's been building and racing cars
since his teenage days,

'and now, at 80 years young,

'still has the passion
that burns bright.'

- That's the radiator.
- The radiator.

Why is it that configuration

and not standing up
like a proper one?

So it doesn't have
the wind resistance.

'Huh. Well, that makes sense.'

ENGINE RUMBLING DEEPLY

'It's time for Corey to show me just
what one of his cars is capable of.

'I'll be watching
from a safe distance.'

- Come on, David. Get in.
- What?

- Come on. Get in.
- Me, yeah?

'Boy, oh, boy. I'm not sure
this is in my contract.'

I hope you're going to treat me
with respect.

- I will.
- Thank you, sir.

You're spinning.

A bloody stupid thing to do,
isn't it?

- We've cleaned the tyres off.
- We cleaned the tyres. OK.

The tyres are heated up, yeah.
We're pulling to the starting line.

We are getting to the point

where we're gonna
light the first bulb.

Now we are pre-staged.

Now I am going to lean on the car,
get into the torque of her.

We're going to inch forward.
We're in. Brace yourself.

- Yeah.
- Go.

Jesus... wept!

And I was late.

You were late!

- I was late on that one.
- Didn't feel like it.

And we're done. That's it.

That's the end of the finish line
right there.

God, that is... That first takeoff,
that is quite serious.

How did that feel against your body?

It was against my back.
It pushed me...

- It pinned you.
- Yes, it did.

'Now, the thing about
this type of drag racing,

'known as bracket racing,

'is that it's not always
the first past the post that wins.

'Instead, it's all about estimating

'how long it takes your car
to cover a quarter of a mile,

'so you get a first go to judge
how fast your car will run,

'then, in the race,
you try to hit that timing bang-on.

'There's some serious acceleration
in these cars,

'and I must admit,
it's making me somewhat nervous

'not being in the driving seat.'

I've got brakes my side.

At least, I've got holes
where a brake should be.

I was...
COREY LAUGHS

But it didn't work,
and he kept going.

- Come along. Off we go again.
- Let's do it again.

ENGINE RUMBLES

Go!

- 0.86.
- Oh!

- Finish line.
- Good man.

Cor, that was good. That was fast.

- It gets better every time.
- Yes.

- I can see now why people do it.
- Oh, it's fun.

I'll be all right.

Oh. Oh! I really,
really enjoyed that, yeah.

Can we do it again... like,
next year or something?

Oh, Christ!

DAVID EXHALES

Sorry. Just pick that up, will you?

ENGINE REVVING

'Ooh, that's enough for me.

'Time to hand over
to the professionals.

'Dad and daughter are going
to race old-school drag,

'first past the post.'

It's great, isn't it?

'And, to make things
a little more interesting,

'I've put ten bucks on Corra
to beat her old dad.'

ENGINES DROWN SPEECH

Gordon Bennett!

Oh! He was much faster than she was.

Didn't half go, though,
didn't they, eh? Very impressive.

Impressive, but that's
me lunch money gone west.

- I'm sorry.
- What happened to you?

You're not even going
to let her win?

There's no way
I'm going to let her win.

- Never.
- Ever.

There will never be a let win ever.
She is going to have to earn it.

Quite right, too.

And you didn't earn it just earlier
when you lost the race.

I'm sorry, David.

- I let you down
- You did.

I'll settle my debt
when the producer comes

and I'll get the money
out of the kitty.

- That's fine. We're good.
- No, I owe you 10.

- We're fine.
- Oh, God!

'Well, I may have lost,
but I tell you what,

'I feel a great deal richer having
spent some time with those two.

'While they get ready
for an evening of serious racing,

'I take a wander through

'the raceway's
other big summer attraction.'

This is the heyday of American cars.

This is what we, as lads,
used to lust after.

It was so big, so outrageous.

'It's a weekly vintage rally

'featuring over 1,000
very special sets of wheels.

'All this is transporting me back
to my misspent youth.'

There's that American song,

"I took my Chevy to the levee,
but the levee was dry.

"My, my American Pie." Here it is.

Wrap it up and take it...
Look at this.

Is that a bit, you know,
over-the-top or what?

'For the folks here,

'these beautiful cars
are a true labour of love.

'You're looking at decades
of painstaking restoration work

'on almost every vehicle.'

Bloody 'ell! It's low, isn't it?

Blinkin' heck!

'And the result is a big, fat slice
of American automotive history.

'They're a pretty
warm-hearted bunch, too.

'All proceeds from this unique show
go to local charities.'

It just knocks the senses.
It really does.

Overwhelms you.

'Back at the drag track,
the sun's beginning to dip

'and the serious racing
is in full swing.'

Bloody hell!

Poured bloody kangaroo juice
in that one, didn't he? Cor!

'I have to say, I do think
they're all as mad as hatters,

'but what the heck,

'they seem to be having
a grand old time.

'And do you know what?

'I think I may be just beginning
to catch the bug.'

Go!
ENGINES ROAR

Yes!

Go on, my son!

Yes!

'You're joining me
on the journey of a lifetime,

'as I take a 1,200-mile trip
from Seattle to Los Angeles.

'Today, I'm in
Oregon's biggest city, Portland.

'Besides having
a couple of good breweries,

'this place is famous for
its innovation and industry.

'In particular,
they make something here

'I've always been fascinated by,
big, tough trucks.

'There are well over
15 million big rigs on US roads now,

'and today I'm going to find out
a bit more about them.

'I've come to see where they make
what's possibly

'the most classic-looking
heavy-duty truck of them all,

'the Western Star.'

How are you doing? Corey Rose.
Nice to meet you.

- And you.
- Welcome to Western Star.

You'll need these glasses
to go inside the plant.

- Thank you. All right.
- Let's go for a tour.

- This is a huge complex, isn't it?
- Half a million square feet.

- How many people do you employ?
- We have just under 800 employees.

'Each day, 32 trucks roll off
the production line here,

'and it all starts,
as you might imagine,

'with the chassis.'

This is our chassis area.

This is where all the chassis
are built up here.

If you're doing
a repetitive job all the time,

your mind goes
and you become automatic,

and that can be dangerous.

- Do the people change their jobs?
- Absolutely.

People change jobs all the time.
We're constantly working towards

people doing three different jobs
in three different areas.

We move people around
all the time here in the plant.

'Looks like they've even moved in
a few astronauts

'to help out with the painting.'

This is finished cabs.

This is where the cabs
are finished off,

the interior of the cabs.

This is where all the upholstery,
the wiring, the insulation,

all the little things that make
this truck a trucker's home.

'It was back in 1967
when the Western Star company began,

'and today,
in this huge assembly plant,

'they carefully combine
state-of-the-art robotics

'with good old-fashioned
human skill.'

DAVID: Heavy stuff.

How powerful is that engine?

About 700 horsepower.
Between 600 and 700 horsepower.

Quick as that.

Pretty impressive, I must say.

Here, look at this.

'You know, it's a bit like

'a high-class
tailor's shop for trucks.

'They're all carefully custom-built,

'be it for logging, mining,
or long-haul freight shifting.'

Why do you take that much care
about one customer?

Pride. This is a real
family-orientated company.

Honestly, we build the best trucks.

These are the best truck builders
in the world right here.

'Well, I think I have
a pretty good idea

'about how they put
these beautiful beasts together,

'but now I really want to get in one
and put some pedal to the metal,

'as these trucking types
like to say.'

Look at this. It's like
a bloody aeroplane in here.

It's got more switches
and controls and dials

than I have
on my bleeding helicopter.

'David Corey has been trucking
for over 30 years

'and knows this old country
like the back of his hand.

'He offered to take me
down the road,

'making me an honorary trucker
for the day in this bad boy.

Oh, there! Is that Mount Hood?

That is Mount Hood.
Beautiful view today.

This is one of the most beautiful,
scenic drives that I love to do.

This is the original part
of the Old Oregon Trail.

'This afternoon, the sun's shining
and the view is sublime.

'It makes me wonder how
those early Oregon Trail pioneers

'must have felt
when they first saw Mount Hood.

'The legendary trail brought
almost half a million emigrants

'to America's West Coast
during the mid-1800s.

'Surely, they could only
have dreamed of the luxury

'I'm travelling in today.'

- Ooh, look at that for a view, eh?
- Yeah.

You don't see that
every day of the week.

- COREY: You can't beat that view.
- You can't.

How impressive is that?

How deep does the snow get?

It can be very, very dangerous
in the winter here.

It could get upwards
to 10ft, 12ft-plus...

- No!
- ..at the pass.

This road tends to get very icy
and you just have to take it easy.

We've had a lot of rollovers,
a lot of tragic endings

due to inexperienced drivers
not paying attention to the road.

But you can't control Mother Nature.
She's going to roll the dice.

And whatever she throws at you,

you just go ahead
and you just deal with it

and you just, kind of,
go from there.

Do these trucks still use
the old-fashioned CBs?

Yes, we do. Going across country,
very, very helpful,

very informational
with what's going on

as far as traffic,
weather conditions.

My handle, back in the day,
I was known as Cougar.

- Cougar.
- Yes.

HE GROWLS
Yeah, I like that.

I think my handle
would be the Lah-Di.

They used to call me that
when I was working on Frost,

the Lah-Di-Dah.

Rhyming slang. The star.

So, I would say,
"Breaker, breaker, this is Lah-Di.

"Anybody got their ears on?"

- That would work.
- That would work, wouldn't it?

COREY:
You can go a long way on this.

It is very quiet, very insulated.

This is your home away from home.

I can't be in an office cubicle
in a building.

I love being on the road.
I love being in the wide open.

I love being outdoors.

And for me, you can't beat
what we're doing right here.

DAVID: What would you say...

Roughly, how many miles
do you think that you've done

in your career as a driver?

Put just about a million miles
on my record.

So, almost at
that million-miler club.

You what? A million miles?

- Just about almost a million, yeah.
- Have you got a record of that?

HE LAUGHS

HORN BLARES

'Well, today, we may not have added
many miles to David's record,

'but I love the way
the landscape constantly changes

'in front of your eyes,
a bit like a movie.

'And all the time, Mount Hood
can be seen in the distance,

'watching over us.

'Mind you, before I can hang up
my spurs for the night,

'there's just one more stop.'

OK. So, I'm going
to have a go at driving,

and this is Aaron. Hi, Aaron.
- Hi, David.

ENGINE STARTS

Well, that bit's easy.

'Truck tester Aaron has arranged
for me to take the controls

'of the very latest Freightliner.

'If Western Star is
the rugged rascal of the roads,

'this sister truck
is the Starship Enterprise.'

Now, that wasn't me.
That's the road.

AARON LAUGHS

Now, it's changing gear by itself,
isn't it?

- Yes.
- I just heard it.

It's an automated manual,
so it's like a manual,

but the computer
is doing everything for you.

DAVID: OK.

- You're a natural.
- Well, I like it. It's...

It behaves itself, doesn't it?

It's getting used to the width
is a bit of a problem,

and of course,
she's rather sluggish,

she's a bit heavy,

but then you'd expect that
because of the size of it.

Yes, and the weight you're pulling.

'We're on the company's
proving track,

'where the latest innovations
are put to the test.'

We're at 20 mph,

and there's a car parked
right in the middle of our road.

That's the target.
We go straight into the target.

Don't want me
to put my foot on the brake?

No.

'Your instinct wants to take over.'

Want to put my foot
on the brake... Oh!

HORN BEEPS

Bloody hell.

- That was an active brake assist.
- A bit late!

I was just about
to put my foot on the brake

because it didn't...

I didn't think
it was going to come on,

but I should have trusted...

That's the whole purpose
is to wait till the last second

and it knows how much force to apply
to the truck, or that it can apply,

and it'll stop the truck in time.

'Well, I can see now why they let
old muggins here have a go

'of their 150,000 truck,

'it's packed with
all the latest safety gear.'

DAVID: What do you think
of the future of trucking?

- Is it going to be robots?
- That's a tricky question.

Iin the future,
there might be routes

where there's
fully autonomous vehicles

with nobody inside the cab for goods
that are not real expensive,

but I think the safety features
are always necessary.

'Well, it's great to get
a glimpse of the future,

'but today has really made me feel
the span of American history.'

- Thank you so much.
- Yeah, thank you.

That was a real experience.

- Oh, good. I hope you enjoyed it.
- I did.

'For me, the Western Star
and the Freightliner

'represent something
of the spirit and endeavour

'of those early pioneers who,
in their trusty covered wagons,

'travelled thousands of miles
across this land

'in the hope of a better life.

'I'm continuing my odyssey
through Oregon's High Desert.

'There seems to be an airfield every
100 miles or so around here,

'which suits me just fine.

'But I've been told what's inside
this hangar is rather special.

'Blimey! What a wonderful collection
of Second World War aircraft.

'Looks like there are
some pretty rare old crates in here,

'each with a story to tell.

'And what's rather remarkable
is that this spectacular squadron

'is all the work
of one fiendishly clever

'but very modest man.'

That's the man I've come to meet.

'Now, that's what I call
making an entrance.'

- Well, you must be David.
- You must be Jack.

- How nice to meet you.
- Well, thank you.

- Welcome to Madras, Oregon.
- Thank you. Bless you.

What is it you've just arrived in?

- That's a Cessna Mustang.
- A Cessna Mustang.

- Good aeroplane.
- Yeah.

Why don't you ride by car
like the rest of us?

Which is the first one
that you bought, then?

This aeroplane right here, the P-51.

And here it is.

Went out and bought it
and flew it home.

Never flown one in my life.

Really? Really?

'Jack's love of flying machines
is quite infectious,

'and I suspect it's that passion
which prompted him

'to start up this unique collection
back in 1983.'

JACK:
That's probably one of the most

blindest aeroplanes I've ever flown.

You can't see nothing
in front of you on landing.

DAVID LAUGHS

Yeah, now I can see what you're
saying up there in the cockpit.

Horrible. Horrible.

DAVID: How often does anybody
take any of these out?

In the summertime,
probably at least once a week.

Really?

Then they go to air shows
on weekends.

Ah!

And then, in the wintertime,
they're kind of resting.

'Jack's family worked in logging
and, as a young pilot,

'he quickly realised
that choppers could be used

'to harvest timber
in the hard-to-reach locations.

'Back in the '70s,
he saw a new kind of helicopter,

'the Sikorsky Skycrane.

'Jack loved it so much, he later
bought the rights to make it,

'added some improvements of his own,

'and so the mighty
Erickson Skycrane was born.'

JACK:
It's just like flying a helicopter

that has a bunch of power,

unlimited power,
and it's phenomenal.

You can go from sea level
to 10,000 ft in a minute and a half.

Oh, Lord.

- Oh, it's unbelievable.
- It is.

It's got over 9,000 horsepower.

'As we continue our tour,

'there's one plane that,
for me, really stands out.'

- Here's the P-38.
- Oh, this is the P-38, yeah.

'Sixteen months after
Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor,

'a squad of these fighters
was sent on a secret mission

'to eliminate the architect
of the vicious attack,

'Admiral Yamamoto.

'It was one of these planes,

'piloted by a local Oregon farmer,
Rex Barber,

'that shot Yamamoto
out of the sky in 1943.

'Some military historians believe
the killing of the Admiral

'was a tipping point
in the Pacific Campaign.'

At the time, it was a...

- Big deal.
- Yes. Yeah.

Because he was in charge of all
the Imperial Navy of the Japanese.

DAVID: There's not much
you can say about that except

it was a very important aircraft

that did a very important job
at the time.

- Exactly.
- Yeah.

'Because all of these aircraft
are still flown by Jack

'and his team of pilots,
this hangar houses a living history,

'and for me,
these fascinating planes represent

'a defining era
of the American story.'

This is a fantastic collection,
though, isn't it, Jack?

What does it all mean
to you, personally?

I was born in 1935.

World War II was a very big impact
on young kids' lives,

and I think that's why aeroplanes,

these aeroplanes,
because that's what I relate to,

are World War II.

It's something
that sticks in your mind.

They were so important in...

..helping to end the war.
- Exactly.

'And Jack's got
a little surprise waiting.

'He's arranged for me to take a spin
in his pride and joy,

'the P-51 Mustang.'

'My pilot today
is Jack's grandson, Mike.

'Jack taught him to fly
when he was just 17,

'and he's already been lined up to
look after the aircraft collection

'if the old man
ever decides to retire.'

Here you are. Here we are, Mike.
Is it all ready?

- We're ready.
- OK. She all fuelled up?

- She's fuelled up, I think.
- Good. Right.

Well, I can see
you've got your shades on.

- You should probably put yours...
- I'll put my shades on.

If you're ready, I can get started.

- Yes.
- Let me go grab the parachute

and we'll put your parachute on
and we'll get you up on top.

We'll probably put you on top first.

Parachute?

- Put that on there.
- It's quite weighty, isn't it?

Yeah.

In case of a fire, we're going
to bail out and I'll push you out.

Grab this handle and pull.

- Who's doing that?
- You're going to pull.

I could try to pull,
but I might be a long way away.

You'll be gone, won't you? Yeah.

It's every man for himself, innit?

5-5-1-Delta is in position
in hold, Madras.

- Are you ready to go?
- Yes. Yes, sir. Ready when you are.

MAN ON RADIO:
"Stand by for brake release."

'You know, as we lift into the air,

'I get this emotional feeling
of what it must have been like

'if you were a young man
in this aircraft,

'and you were going
to face the enemy.

'That's the ever impressive
Cascade mountain range

'over my shoulder to the west,
and it's quite stunning to look down

'on the appropriately named
Crooked River

'snaking its way across
the wide expanse of the prairie land

'and way, way off into the distance.

'This particular warbird

'is painted in the livery
of the Red Tail Squadron.

'Now, I didn't know this,
but during the Second World War,

'when American society
was still racially segregated,

'the Red Tail pilots
distinguished themselves

'as the first
African-American airmen

'to serve in the US military.

'They played a critical role

'defending American bombers
from enemy attack.

'And I also learned that the P-51
only reached its true potential

'when they decided to stick

'a British Rolls-Royce
Merlin engine in it.

'That same engine powered
the good old Spitfire

'and allowed the American Mustang
to fly much higher and faster

'than ever before.

'It's been a remarkable experience

'to be in this historic aircraft
with Mike,

'one I'll treasure for a long time.'

I'm going to tick his logbook,
but there are a few notes,

- I have to give him.
- That's good.

As long as you sign my logbook,
I don't care.

You don't care!
Well, it's not the way!

Ow! God! Ooh, you're splitting
me difference, love.

All this is going to be cut out
of the film.

- You know that, don't you?
- No.

Thank you very much.
Listen, thank you both.

It was great. It really was lovely.

You're welcome.

'Business calls, and it's time for
Jack and Mike to hit the high road

'in their rather neat Cessna.

'For me, I'll take the low road,
as my journey southwards continues.

'Join me in the next episode

'as I catch a cable car
in San Francisco.'

Blimey! Now we're going up.

'Ride the fast lane
with an American classic biker club,

'and take to the skies
in a legendary US warhorse.'

She's a little bit heavy
to what I'm used to.

- I like them big, though.
- I like them big, too.

THEY LAUGH