Editing The Right Stuff (film) (section)

===Film models===
[[File:Kansas Cosmosphere Right Stuff Glamorous Glennis Replica 2013.JPG|thumb|A replica of the ''Glamorous Glennis'' which was used in filming ''The Right Stuff''. Now on display at the [[Cosmosphere]] in Hutchinson, Kansas. The same museum has the flown Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft on display.]]

A large number of film models were assembled for the production; for the more than 80 aircraft appearing in the film, static [[mock-up|mock-ups]] and models were used as well as authentic aircraft of the period.<ref name="Farmer p.49">Farmer 1983, p. 49.</ref> Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Wilmore, USAF (Ret) acted as the [[United States Air Force]] liaison to the production, beginning his role as a technical consultant in 1980 when the pre-production planning had begun. The first draft of the script in 1980 had concentrated only on the Mercury 7, but as subsequent revisions developed to the treatment into more of the original story that Wolfe had envisioned, the aircraft of the late-1940s that would have been seen at Edwards AFB were required. Wilmore gathered World War II era "prop" aircraft such as the following:
* [[Douglas A-26 Invader]]
* [[North American P-51 Mustang]]
* [[North American T-6 Texan]] and
* [[Boeing B-29 Superfortress]]

The first group were mainly "set dressing" on the ramp while the Confederate Air Force (now renamed to the [[Commemorative Air Force]]) B-29 [[FIFI (aircraft)|"Fifi"]] was modified to act as the B-29 "mothership" to carry the [[Bell X-1]] and [[Bell X-1#X-1A|X-1A]] rocket-powered record-breakers.<ref name="Farmer p. 50–51">Farmer 1983, pp. 50–51.</ref>

Other "real" aircraft included the early jet fighters and trainers as well as current USAF and [[United States Navy]] examples. These flying aircraft and helicopters included:
* [[Douglas A-4 Skyhawk]]
* [[LTV A-7 Corsair II]]
* [[North American F-86 Sabre]]
* [[Convair F-106 Delta Dart]]
* [[McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II]]
* [[Sikorsky H-34|Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw]]
* [[Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King]]
* [[Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star]]
* [[Northrop T-38 Talon]]<ref>Farmer 1983, p. 51.</ref>

A number of aircraft significant to the story had to be recreated. The first was an essentially static X-1 that had to at least roll along the ground and realistically "belch flame" by a simulated rocket blast from the exhaust pipes.<ref name="Farmer p.49" /> A series of wooden mock-up X-1s were used to depict interior shots of the cockpit, the mating up of the X-1 to a modified B-29 fuselage and bomb bay and ultimately to recreate flight in a combination of model work and live-action photography. The "follow-up" X-1A was also an all-wooden model.<ref name="Farmer p. 50–51" />

The U.S. Navy's [[Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket]] that Crossfield duelled with Yeager's X-1 and X-1A was recreated from a modified [[Hawker Hunter]] jet fighter. The climactic flight of Yeager in a [[Lockheed NF-104A]] was originally to be made with a modified [[Lockheed F-104 Starfighter]] but ultimately, Wilmore decided that the production had to make do with a repainted Luftwaffe F-104G, which lacks the rocket engine of the NF-104.<ref name="Farmer p. 50–51" />

Wooden mock-ups of the Mercury space capsules also realistically depicted the NASA spacecraft and were built from the original mold.<ref name="Wilford" />

For many of the flying sequences, scale models were produced by USFX Studios and filmed outdoors in natural sunlight against the sky. Even off-the-shelf plastic scale models were used for aerial scenes. The X-1, F-104 and B-29 models were built in large numbers as a number of the more than 40 scale models were destroyed in the process of  filming.<ref>Farmer 1984, pp. 72–73.</ref> The blending together of miniatures, full-scale mock-ups, and actual aircraft was seamlessly integrated into the live-action footage. The addition of original newsreel footage was used sparingly but to effect and provided another layer of authenticity.<ref>Farmer 1984, p. 66.</ref>