John Stringfellow flight achievement was referenced in the movie "The Flight of the Phoenix" (1965). The character Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), a German airplane designer, explains that it was a model airplane that made the first powered flight in 1848 and that though his own experience with airplane design is with building models, the principles are the same. His design for an airplane to be built from the scraps of their crashed plane will fly them out of the desert to safety. John Stringfellow John Stringfellow (1799 – 13 December 1883) was born in Sheffield, England and is known for his work
Lost in the Desert 3) and Chopin's Polonaise no. 6 in A-flat major, op. 53 ("Polonaise héroïque") almost become "de facto" themes for the film. Some of the climactic portions of the Liebestraum form a sweeping sonic backdrop to early scenes in the desert (before the crash landing), showing a lunch stop in the empty desert and then taking off and resuming the flight. There is a striking and emotionally intense scene in which Dirkie's father is practising the Polonaise at home and his worry about Dirkie causes him to have a sudden emotional breakdown, in which he interrupts his playing by hitting the