Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (TV 1983)

The fictional story of the first "hypersonic" commercial passenger plane, which can make the flight from New York to London in a mere four hours. On the maiden flight of this plane, a minor... See full summary »

Director:

Jerry Jameson

Writers:

Robert M. Young (screenplay), Peter R. Brooke (story)

Stars:

Lee Majors, Hal Linden, Lauren Hutton

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lee Majors	...	Captain Cody Briggs
Hal Linden	...	Josh Gilliam
Lauren Hutton	...	Erica Hansen
Ray Milland	...	Q. T. Thornwell
Gail Strickland	...	Nancy Gilliam
George DiCenzo	...	Bowdish (as George Di Cenzo)
Tess Harper	...	Janet Briggs
Terry Kiser	...	Freddie Barrett
Heather McAdam	...	Laurie Hansen (as Heather Mc Adam)
Michael Sacks	...	Pete
Gary Bayer	...	Martin
Pat Corley	...	Joe Pedowski
Robert Webber	...	Felix
Jocelyn Brando	...	Mrs. Harvey
Diane Stilwell	...	Betty

Storyline

The fictional story of the first "hypersonic" commercial passenger plane, which can make the flight from New York to London in a mere four hours. On the maiden flight of this plane, a minor disaster occurs resulting in the plane actually leaving the Earth's atmosphere and orbiting around the globe. A lack of heat-resistant tiling prevents the plane from simply re-entering the atmosphere. With oxygen (and therefore time) running out, the crew of the plane and the crew on the ground must figure out a way to return the plane and it's passengers to safety.

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Plot Keywords:

passenger | oxygen | nasa | disaster | orbit | 

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Taglines:

The first hypersonic flight turns into a terrifying nightmare...in space. [Australia Theatrical]

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Genres:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 February 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Starflight One

Filming Locations:

Laird International Studio - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Orgolini-Nelson Productions, Orion Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie is loosely based on the novel "Orbit" by Thomas H. Block, from 1982. In the novel, a hypersonic plane on a cruise from New York to Sidney excesses its cruise altitude due to sabotage by a revenge-seeking company engineer.

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Goofs

In many scenes, including the escape through the tunnel, there is visible evidence of gravity being present, while the spacecraft is in a zero gravity environment.

User Reviews

Good TV Movie version of an Airport film

The earlier reviewer who said that Starflight (or as my video copy is titled, Starflight One) should have been called Airport '83 hit the nail on the head. This is very much an Airport style disaster movie, albeit one with pretty decent effects (for a TV movie from 1983!) and a very original storyline. Its not great by any stretch of the imagination, but I found it to be a diverting way to spend 2 hours, and that is all I asked from it. I liked Lee Majors, and Hal Linden, but the rest of the cast was lacking. Dykstra's effects are very good for the most part, and I really enjoyed his model work and motion control shots -- very nice especially considering they were crafted for the small screen. If you like Airport and its sequels (as I do), then this hard to find TV movie is worth checking out.