TV and Film
Services provided
Previous Work
- Documentary on The Aviator for Disney/Channel 4
- Basic Instinct 2
- Zero gravity experience flights for the cast of Sunshine
- Stormbreaker
- 20th Century Fox DVD launch of Danny Boyle’s Sunshine
- Goal II
- The Flood
- 28 Weeks Later
- Harry Potter
- The Big Experiment – Discovery Channel
- Filming of Red Bull promotions for the London Air Races
- BBC - "Zero Gravity" flight marking the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission
- BBC Breakfast feature on James May's "Edge of Space"
Details
Our base at Damyns Hall Aerodrome comprises of around 140 acres of largely undeveloped land providing an unspoiled rural setting less than 10 miles from Central London. It is increasingly being used to provide facilities for film work, both for location shoots and for stunt creation. The Aerodrome is perfect for London based aerial filming and also has the facilities to accommodate long term film sets.
History
Aerobatic Tactics helicopter display pilot Julian Spencer and Tony Richards, Aerobatic Tactics chief pilot, first met at Headcorn Aerodrome in the early 90’s and became good friends.
Julian was working in the film industry as a stunt man, Tony had flown for the TV cameras on a number of occasions, they often met at the airfield and chatted about the way films with aircraft often relied too much on computer generated graphics and unrealistic looking models. They came to the conclusion it may be because production companies didn’t know what could be achieved with the right aircraft, pilots, and maybe more importantly, coordinator to translate the directors ideas into reality.
It was a while until they were able to put their thoughts into action and Julian and Tony worked together for the first time on the set of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (released 2004) with Julian coordinating and Tony flying for the aerial unit. Julian was able to communicate clearly between all involved and the flying shots were achieved in budget and on time.
Since Bridget Jones Tony and Julian have worked on several projects. Together they have built a reputation for getting the job done with the minimum fuss.
As Tony had previously flown Nicholas Lyndhurst (Rodney from Only Fools and Horses) in a Tiger Moth for the making of a WH Smith advert in the late 90’s he was keen to accept the offer of a filming job flying the Tiger Moth for David Jason’s documentary: Battle of Britain. As well as flying in a two seat Spitfire for the documentary David spent a day at Headcorn Aerodrome with Tiger Moth G-AMTF ("The Inheritance"). The programme which aired on ITV during September 2010 features air to air shots of the Tiger flown by Tony as well as ground shots of David Jason goggles in hand climbing aboard.
