I thought it added an interesting twist to the plot. Somehow, it made me want The Phoenix to fly even more. Too bad they didn't have a huge rubber-band.

Yes, I laughed my a$$ off.

Dorfmann is quite right when he says that the principles-of-flight used in model airplanes are more or less identical to those used in full-scale airplanes.
Where they differ is in (a) the design and complexity of the avionics used to control them, and (b) the tools & methods of manufacture and test . . . . and these it would be ludicrous to assume that a model airplane designer would know.
Engineers are even more specialized than doctors, and not even the best of my peers (I'm an electrical engineer in military radar & electronic warfare) is as conversant in as many different technologies as Herr Dorfmann.
But the average cinema-goer doesn't know any of this, so the movie works beautifully for everyone, except the few engineers who can not muster the requisite amount of "suspension of disbelief".

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I saw this as a kid and also reacted to the laughing while really crying with humour. Thought it was a great scene, it added more drama to their already desperate situation.

It was unfair and somewhat irrational for Stewart and Attenborough to dismiss what Dorfmann designed as "toys". Anyone who's ever watched model airplanes at air shows knows that they're hardly "toys" (ie a child's plaything). The aerodynamic principles are the same. Since Stewart's character was a seat-of-the-pants pilot who obviously knew nothing about aircraft design, he didn't understand that.

Townes is an old-school, seat-of-the-pants pilot and Dorfmann is the new wave of lab-coated pencil pushers.
I like what you've said here. My reaction to "the scene" was pretty different than Stewart and Attenborough and most of you. I'm a modeler. I'm really in to model railroads but I have some experience with RC planes, gliders, cars and helicopters. I was surprised by Dorfmann's revelation that he was a builder of RC models and not full sized aircraft, but I immediately understood that the aeronautic principles of model aircraft and full sized aircraft are the same and that only the scale is different. Stewart and Attenborough immediately lose all faith in the guy, but I know model experience is just as good as full sized aircraft experience. I knew they were in good hands.
I don't have any prejudices against models. All aircraft designs start off as models. RC helicopters take just as much skill to fly as a real helicopter.

always assumed that the models he designed were RC type model airplanes, not scale plastic models. If he designed RC type model airplanes he certainly wouldn't be out of his element building the real thing. They are basically just small versions of their big brothers.
Yes, they are. Dorfmann explains in this scene that the biggest model plane his company sells was not designed by him, because it's a glider. Then he goes on to brag that he designed the radio control in one of the models he personally designed.

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This scene is the edge of madness because by this time in the film we will agree with everything just for them to have one shot at escape.I can feel the claustrophobia of them all cooped up with each other, each gradually going mad in their own way. By this time we don't really know where reality ends and that madness begins. So if Hardy Kruger tells us he can make a real plane in just the same way as a model one, does it matter if he's wrong ? Does it matter if his version of staying sane and trying to develop social graces looks the same as everyone elses lunacy ? The thing is to go on and make the plane and by the time you find out whether it won't fly, you'll be too dehydrated to care anyway.
As for the remakeits always the same Get Carter, The Time Machine, Planet of the Apes. Why remake something if you don't know what the ingredient was that made it popular in the first place. It's just an exercise in futility

he was visiting his brother, who's an engineer with the oil company.
I did not save the boy, God did. I only CARRIED him.

Yes, Fingaroo, he was visiting his brother who was a senior engineer with the company.

I think the fact that Dorfmann is a designer rather than an actual airplane builder or mechanic also sets up the inevitable conflict with Townes. Townesrather bitterlysays something like: "Lou, the little men with the slide rules are going to inherit the earth." Townes is an old-school, seat-of-the-pants pilot and Dorfmann is the new wave of lab-coated pencil pushers. It's a theme that gets explored in-depth a few years later in
The Right Stuff
.

That's a reasonable question. I always assumed that he was an engineer for Arabco Oil, and his model business was just a sideline. Didn't he mention that he built planes with his brother? I'd guess the toy plane business wasn't all that busy and/or profitable. So to make a living he had to take the job in the desert, leaving his brother to run things at home.
I know why, though, the writers went with Dorfmann being a model-maker. It spells things out for the audience in just the precise way they wanted.
If they had gone with one of my suggestions, being an aircraft mechanic or electrical guy or something, most people in the audience probably wouldn't understand the gravity of the situation. But being a model-maker spells things out: He designs toys, not the real thing. Saying if he were a mechanic would still put some belief in his ability in the minds of the audience. Both Towns and Moran would've fully understood the ramifications of him being a technical guy, but their concerns might not have had the same impact on the audience. To most non-technical people, being a car mechanic gives someone credibility for being able to build a car from scratch, and that is not an unreasonable assumption.

What is a model-maker doing out in the Sahara Desert with these guys?
That's a reasonable question. I always assumed that he was an engineer for Arabco Oil, and his model business was just a sideline. Didn't he mention that he built planes with his brother? I'd guess the toy plane business wasn't all that busy and/or profitable. So to make a living he had to take the job in the desert, leaving his brother to run things at home.
Edit: Or didn't he say he was visiting his brother in the oil fields? That would make more sense. I'll have to watch it again.

I am not sure if any of you know the scene to which I am refferring to but its the scene where they find out he makes model airplanes. The reason I am asking is every time my mother sees this movie its always the same way. She sits in front of the tv STONE faced, not one word comes out of her mouth. Then I am in the other room and when it hits the scene where they find out he makes model airplanes its hillarious laughter. I guess my mother looses it every time she sees Jimmy Stewart face. Anyone else loose it over this scene?
I've always had a issue with this scene. Not a problem, necessarily, but it bothered me because it seemed very convenient to believe that Heinrich Dorfmann would be anywhere near the Sahara Desert, let alone to get a flight on this plane. I am given to believing in divine interventions that make things happen in such a way, but when it comes to a film, unless it's part of the plot (like in the film Signs) it bothers me because it's convenient.
Further, it's a bit silly. What is a model-maker doing out in the Sahara Desert with these guys? What, the French Riviera too crowded for holiday? He couldn't go to Monte Carlo? I can see a guy wanting to have some adventure, but this really seems just a bit too unusual to be believed. What I would've accepted is if Dorfmann had said, "I build airplanes," in the beginning, but later it's discovered that he has never designed a single airplane, but is an A&P mechanic or engineer. Or, better yet, he's all about electrical work in aircraft. There would be uses for such skills pretty much anywhere aircraft are needed in the world.
If that had been revealed, that would've made the horrifying doubt casting a pall on the whole venture more palpable and believable. It's one thing to have Dorfmann be a guy that designs model-aircraft that actually fly. It's another to have someone who has only worked on them, but hasn't any actual design experience. It would've been a bit more poignant if he had worked in the Luftwaffe during the war, had a lot of experience with aviation and pilots, but never designed one plane in his life. That would give him a bit more credibility in his criticisms about Mr. Towns.
Does Dorfmann being a model-maker work? Yes. It's a minor issue with me, and I just go with it. It's a bit tough to believe, but I go with it.

Kevdunn22,
The saying goes that while Grant got the girl, Stewart got the Oscar (The Philadelphia Story).

• JKHolman

I thought it's their only real chance of Living so What! if it's Not what Stewart's generation b4 Heinricht's is considered plausible. Real Authority struggle felt in this flick.

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the thing that bothered me is that dorfman wouldnt have the slightest clue on how to put this plane together. A model is one thing, but the vast scale difference ie how to hold a plane of this magnitude together would be almost like apples and oranges. Only thing similar is the flight dynamics which I can believe because he designed a model similar to this.

They were right to kiss his ass. He rescued them.

My reaction was both amusement and sadness. Amusement because it's like the commercial in which a guy is trying to land a plane on an endangered flight, only to inform the other passengers that although he has no flying experience, he did spend a night at a Holiday Inn Express. Sadness because Towns and Moran spent so much time kissing up to this pompous man, only to receive an epic letdown.
P.S. Stewart won Best Actor for The Philadelphia Story, not Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

But I still get my figs, right?

Bad Day at Black Rock.

1. Spencer Tracy 2
2. Walter Brennan 3
3. Lee Marvin 1
4. Dean Jagger 1