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THE MAD, MAD WORLD OF THE STUNT FLIER
HE EARNS A LIVING GAMBLING HIS LIFE IN THE AIR.
BY ROGER VAUGHAN 

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In stunt flight, plane's nose makes bulge...

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...then burst through sign at 160 mph, scattering debris and leaving a cutout shape. 

The twin-engine plane was obviously much too low, and when it missed the top of the highway billboard you had to feel relief. But then it pulled up, circled and again headed for the billboard. This time it wasn't going to make it. For an instant it disappeared behind the sign and then with an awful crash it ripped through the center, scattering paper and wood in all directions.

For a moment the cameramen and technicians on the ground seemed frozen. Then, as the plane struggled clear of the debris, a spontaneous cheer went up. Stanley Kramer, producer of the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, for which this scene had just been shot, could feel his heart begin to slow down.

In the cockpit of the Beechcraft, now heading back for Orange County Airport, in Santa Ana, California, stunt pilot Frank Tallman radioed for emergency landing clearance. He had a fleeting second in which to be happy it was over; then he had to concentrate on getting the airplane down. His front windscreen was smashed. Broken glass was everywhere. He shook it off his arms and brushed it away from his goggles. The plane was not responding properly because of dents in the wing edges and the nose. The starboard engine, stuffed with pieces of balsa wood and Styrofoam from the billboard, was dead. For a few minutes Frank Tallman was very busy.

Later photographer John Zimmerman and I visited Tallman at the Orange County Airport, where he and his partner, Paul Mantz, keep their enormous collection of antique airplanes. A lean, good-looking man of 44 whose mustachioed, weather-beaten countenance would fit perfectly

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With Tallman again at the controls, the plane sends restaurant diners fleeing in another wild stunt for movie. 

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Tallman: "Full throttle, no brakes."

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