Imagination Takes Flight – New Article in Film Stories Magazine

I’m thrilled to present my first byline in Film Stories, the UK’s biggest film magazine. Issue 60, out now with no less than three collectible souvenir covers, includes my 6-page interview with Douglas Scroggins III, owner of Scroggins Aviation, a Las Vegas-based company that supplies all manner of flying machines to the movie industry.

Here’s a brief extract:

I’ve interviewed Doug on a number of occasions, and each time he’s regaled me with stories about how he refurbished a disused aircraft cockpit for use as a film set, or de-rotored a helicopter ready to be mounted on a hydraulic motion platform. Whether it’s an Airbus A320 or a Convair 880, a UH-60 Black Hawk or a CH-47 Chinook, Doug talks about all his ‘birds’ with an affecting combination of deep technical knowledge and, yes, love.

But there’s one question I’ve never asked him. How exactly does a skinny guy from Nevada wind up furnishing blockbuster movies with crashed airliners, camera-friendly jet fighter cockpits, and helicopter body shells designed to be flung around in front of greenscreens on six-axis gimbals?

To discover the answer to this burning question, grab yourself a copy of Film Stories and read the interview in full.