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The Millionaires' Unit
America's Pioneer Pilots of the Great War
"The roaring of an airplane motor is jazz music to my ears. I believe that I would rather hold an aviation post than be President of the United States."
– David "Crock" Ingalls
The Millionaires' Unit is a feature-length documentary film about a group of elite Yale students who formed an aero club and were among the very first pilots to serve America in combat over the skies of Europe in World War I. Using all the resources of their privileged backgrounds, they pioneered American aviation while becoming heroes – some making the ultimate sacrifice.
The bravura and fortitude of these young men draw a dramatic story arc – F. Trubee Davison, the founder and energetic visionary who would spectacularly crash; Robert Lovett, the stern, brooding taskmaster who broke character only on bombing raids; gregarious John Vorys who lost his heart to a German spy and his best friend to a German ace; and Kenney MacLeish, the black sheep who finally won the girl and the respect he desired, only to die in a foreign no-man's-land. These young men formed friendships and made alliances at school and in war that would bind them together for their lifetimes of achievement and public service.
At the start of WWI, the airplane was only ten years old. These young aviators took off and landed on water or in fields with engines that nearly vibrated their planes apart, a leak from which covered them in castor oil in their freezing open-air cockpits (hence the need for goggles and a scarf to wipe them). Their engines often stalled or quit over open water or inhospitable land – all of this without a parachute.
The Millionaires' Unit will take us up in these planes – the monstrous Curtiss H-12, the suicidal Italian Caproni bomber, the legendary Sopwith Camel, and the dreaded German Fokker – and historian-pilots will show us what it took to fly these planes and how they handled on missions and in combat. These flying sequences will be captured in exquisite resolution with high-definition cameras. CG animation will recreate the strategies of dog-fighting tactics.
With archival film and photos, we'll follow these privileged pilots as they navigate their way through the secret societies and varsity sports of Yale University, then through hostile waters in the first wave of American troops landing overseas. We'll be with them as they hunt German U-boats, take part in aerial dogfights, and bomb enemy bases through curtains of exploding flak. We'll see them fall in love, compete for glory, and wrestle with their destinies while under fire in the world's most cataclysmic event. We'll learn how some paid the ultimate price.
The triumphs and tragedies of these young aviators during World War I forever altered, not only the course of their lives, but the future of American aviation, warfare, and foreign policy in the 20th century. Together, these friends exemplified the noblest ambitions of a young country struggling to emerge as a leading power in a new and frighteningly dangerous world. With the compelling stories of these high-flyers – told through their correspondence by family members and historians – the film of The Millionaires' Unit will capture the breadth and depth of the personal war experience when America came of age as a world power.
"The earth seemed to split, the sky was alive with 'green onions' and high explosive and 'Archie' [that] made a wall through which we dove for our objective…[It was] the greatest experience of my life." – Robert Lovett, March 26, 1918
Memorial Stone
William H. MacLeish, nephew of Kenneth MacLeish, reads the poem On a Memorial Stone
written by his father, renowned poet Archibald MacLeish.
War Journal
Filmmaker Ron King reads from his grandfather, John M. Vorys’ WWI war journal.
Download War Journal Clip to iPod
Click here
