‘Always’ airplane

If you watched the movie Always—and if you are an aviator, we bet you have watched the tear-jerker several times—you’ll remember the A–26 Invader that the movie’s hero flew before his reincarnation as an angel. Steven Spielberg’s movie, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, and John Goodman, was authentic from its locations to its fires and its airplanes. N4818E was a working fire bomber, the Yellowstone fires of 1988 were filmed for the 1989 movie, and stunt pilot Steve Hinton flew the fire-fighting scenes in the Invader.

The Missoula, Montana, Museum of Aviation volunteers found N4818E in Brownsville, Texas, and have spent the past year flying south and working to get the airplane back into flying condition so the movie star can return home to Montana. Still with the movie livery “Fire Eaters” on the nose, N4818E is now in the museum continuing to be restored.

“We’ve spent the past nine months traveling back and forth from Montana to Brownsville to resurrect that airplane to fly it home and share it with the Montana community. It is truly a Montana treasure,” said Eric Komberec, president of the museum. “That airplane is special because my dad was a fire-bomber pilot and he flew A–26s. The Always movie was one of my favorite films that I grew up watching.”

“Now we just need to get Spielberg and Dreyfuss to come out and show the movie so we can raise the funds to continue the restoration,” quipped Douglass.

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