The Right Stuff

The Right Stuff is a 1983 film directed by Phillip Kaufmann and starring Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Quaid, Fred Ward, Scott Glenn, Veronica Cartwright and Donald Moffat as President Lyndon Johnson. The film is based on Tom Wolfe's book of the same title and tells the story of the Mercury Astronaut Program, the earliest American missions launching humans into space.

Bell X-1
First flown by Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) in 1947 to break the sound barrier. Yeager later flies a variant, the X-1A, to set a new speed record in his friendly competition with Scott Crossfield.

B-29 Superfortress
The plane that carries the Bell X-1 into flight. The X-1 was carried into the upper atmosphere to conserve it's liquid nitrogen fuel for its maiden flight.

Douglas Skyrocket
Flown by Scott Crossfield during the friendly competition with Chuck Yeager depicted in the film. A Hawker Hunter fighter plane was used to represent Crossfield's D558-II.

Lockheed NF-104A
Flown by Chuck Yeager near the end of the film when he breaks a new altitude record. The film depicts the flight as an attempt by Yeager to fly to space but he fails and the plane crashes into the desert. Yeager, despite being burned, survives. The plane was actually a modified Luftwaffe F-104G, which looked enough like the original to be used in the film.

A-4 Skyhawk
Flown by Alan Shepard and landed on an aircraft carrier when the government men (Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer) show up to recruit him for the Mercury Program.