Howard Hughes intended to show off the latest in aircraft technology in 1950 (when this film was shot). By the time it was released to the public, in 1957, the aircraft featured were already obsolete.
After intercepting the B-36 in a F-94 Starfire, they are shown departing in a F-80 Shooting Star.
Airfield scenes set in Russia were actually filmed on the main flightline at George AFB, outside of Victorville California, which appeared suitably primitive.
Features a night intercept of a B-36B by a Lockheed F-94A Starfire. Although the scene is very dark, the rarely seen retractable 20mm cannon turrets of the B-36B are visible in the extended position.
Filmed between December 8, 1949 and February 8, 1950, this long held-back movie finally debuted on September 25, 1957 in Los Angeles, followed by its Manhattan opening at the Palace Theatre on October 4, 1957.
In 1952, at the height of The Cold War, those "take cover" drills, the Joseph McCarthy Hearings and the aftermath of the Rosenberg Trials, this picture featured John Wayne portraying an American pilot in love with a defecting Russian spy. The film was put on the shelf for five years.
In a later flight, his plane's engine lost a turbine disk during a routine climb, forcing a dead-stick landing.
Russian "Yaks" were portrayed by Lockheed T-33As. Dark paint on the lower fuselage obscured the jet intakes, and the tip of the vertical stabilizer was painted light gray to change its outline.
The film was produced by RKO in 1950 which was owned by Howard Hughes. By the time it was released in 1957, Hughes had sold RKO and the film was released by Universal.
The gloss-black, prototype Northrop XP-89 scorpion appears in some scenes set in Russia.
The last two flights of the first Bell X-1, Glamorous Glennis, were filmed for inclusion in Jet Pilot. It played the part of a Soviet "parasite fighter". The movie shows it being launched from Boeing EB-50A Superfortress, serial 46-0007. The X-1 was repainted for its role. The vertical stabilizer, fairings on the top and bottom of the fuselage, and the left wing and horizontal stabilizer were painted white. It continued to wear the movie makeup while displayed at the National Air and Space Museum until it was restored for installation in the Milestones of Flight Gallery in 1976.
The US Air Force, still taking advantage of Chuck Yeager's 1947 supersonic flight for publicity, offered his services as a stunt pilot. During a stunt involving the inverted dive of an F-86, Yeager misjudged the dive and overstressed the plane's tail, causing the horizontal stabilizer to come apart while he was too low to eject. He barely managed to pull out.