The Israel Film Service Collection

Wings Spread Over California

52 Minutes, 1988
Genre:
Documentary

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Directed by: Jonathan Paz
Production:Nathan Ben Ari
Production Company:Israel Film Service
Languages: Hebrew, English
| Subtitles not available

A documentary film produced by the Israel Film Service tells the story of the first secret flight course of the Israeli Air Force in Bakersfield California in 1948. Under the nose of the authorities, thirteen young trainees, known as “the Mexicans” by the locals, were trained by the American pilot Eleanor Rudnick. Their training, conducted in a covert manner akin to piracy, aimed to prepare them for participation in the ongoing War of Independence. Archive clips and interviews with the first pilots in the Israeli Air Force accompany the film.