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Plane featured in latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ film once owned by Fairfield man
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FAIRFIELD – A plane once owned by a Fairfield man is featured in the most recent “Mission: Impossible” movie.
Fairfield resident Pete Nelson said he was excited to learn that the 1942 Boeing Stearman PT-17 he once owned was later purchased by Paramount Pictures to use in “Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning,” which premiered in May. The plane appears on the movie poster for the film, where actor Tom Cruise, portraying the character Ethan Hunt, is pictured hanging from the plane as it flies upside down.
Nelson said he hasn’t seen the film yet, but he wants to, especially since he’ll recognize someone, or something, in it. He said he co-owned this plane with his nephew Jay Rud and Rud’s friend Brent Bish. Most of the time, the plane was stored near Rud’s home in Sandwich, Illinois, but it made frequent trips to Fairfield. Nelson estimates that he gave rides to perhaps 30-35 Fairfield residents in the plane, including Fairfield Ledger photographer Julie Johnston. In 2010, Johnston photographed Nelson and Rud preparing the plane for a test flight with the help of Nelson’s son-in-law Craig Kaufman and great-nephew Jordan Miller.
Rud said he was just as excited as Nelson to learn the plane would be featured in a major motion picture. Paramount Pictures had repainted the plane yellow and black from its original blue and white color scheme, but Rud was still able to verify it was the same plane when he saw a photo of the plane with its “N” number on the tail, with digits that matched his plane exactly.
Rud has seen the film, and remarked that the plane does more than merely appear in the film, but actually factors into one of the most thrilling action scenes near the end.
“Tom Cruise walks on the wing of the airplane,” Rud said. “For the action scenes, and we verified this, none of it is CGI. [Cruise] did all of his own stunts.”
The three men acquired this plane in 2009 when they purchased it from a widow in Rochelle, Illinois. Rud said the Boeing Stearmans had become military surplus by the late 1940s or early 1950s, and a lot of them were purchased by military aviators who were leaving the military and using them for crop-dusting. This particular plane ended up in the hands of Clarence Staton, who Rud said was a war hero who flew P-47 Thunderbolts over Europe during WWII. Rud and Staton had a mutual friend, and the friend encouraged Rud to purchase the plane after Staton’s passing in 2006.
Nelson is an experienced aviator, having flown for over 50 years. He has piloted 68 different airplanes, landing them in 350 airports in 40 states plus Canada and the Bahamas. Rud, whose mother Patricia (Murphy) Rud is the sister of Pete’s wife Sue, has fond memories of Nelson flying into Sandwich to visit him and his family when he was a boy. Rud was interested in airplanes from a young age, and this led to participating in an aviation program in high school, studying aircraft maintenance in college, and all the way to his current occupation as a pilot for American Airlines, captaining 787s out of Chicago O’Hare Airport.
Rud said these 1940s Boeing Stearman planes played an important role in American history. They were used to train pilots during WWII, and one of the largest aviation training bases was in Ottumwa.
“They taught the greatest generation how to fly,” he said.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
