[EveningStar]

Top 10:

10. Executive Decision (1996)
9. Air America (1990)
8. United 93 (2006)
7. Hell's Angels (1930)
6. Con Air (1997)
5. Up in the Air (2009)
4. Air Force One (1997)
3. The Aviator (2004)
2. Airplane! (1980)
1. Top Gun (1986)

Honorable mention:

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)
Red Eye (2005)
Battle of Britain (1969)
The Blue Max (1966)

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Let’s start from the start.

Wings (1927) (IMDb rating 7.9)
Hell’s Angels (1930) (7.9)
The Dawn Patrol (1938)(7.7)
Dive Bomber (1941) (6.6)
Twelve O’Clock High (1947) (7.8)
The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) (6.9)
Strategic Air Command (1955) (6.3)
Toward the Unknown (1956) (6.6)

[Renegade]

The Fighting Lady

[FXRP]

The Blue Max belongs in the top 5.
Passenger 57... Always bet on BLACK!
Airplane
Hell's Angels
AND...

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Made for tv movie from 1970...

[Squawk 8888]

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

[John Valentine]

You must include The High and the Mighty with John Wayne. No best airplane movie can be complete without this one.

[1Old Pro]

How about the original flight of the phoenix

[Redleg Duke]

No Highway in the Sky

[Redleg Duke]

A Guy Named Joe

[tophat9000]

This is a list for people that know jack about aircraft....Howard Hawks alone made 8 better airplane movies then this list

[skeptoid]

How could my fellow Freepers leave out this MAJOR OMISSION:

Catch 22

with the large fleet of B-25's, filmed from runway and air to air

Also, the classic Beech 18 sequence in Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World(although not an "aviation" flick.

There was also an obscure film titled Deception which had some exceptionally beautifully filmed flight scenes, including the opening sequence dramatic slip over the trees to land on a lush grass strip.

[CommerceComet]

I wouldn't call it a classic but I have always enjoyed High Road to China with Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong. After watching it a couple of years ago, even my teenaged sons admitted it was a good movie.

[PAR35]

Wings
12 O’clock High
No Highway in the Sky
30 Seconds over Tokyo

[ReformationFan]

Only Angels Have Wings(1939) with Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth and Jean Arthur-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcDy-mb9Coo

[stubernx98]

One of the best is the “622 Squadron” one of the greatest plans the British Mosquito. It is about training to bomb the Nazi heavy water plant in Norway. Also liked “Dam Busters”. they did a test run a few years ago on one of the Ed channels.

[a fool in paradise]

Damn, between 1930 and 1980, they only made one airplane film worth mentioning? Sure glad to see things improved so much from in the last 25 years, they dominate the list! < /sarc >

[eartrumpet]

I’ll take Fight for the Sky. I got a VHS copy from Dillon Precision 25 years ago. Mike Dillon had found a copy of the film on an airbase and saved it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idfMaeAk9z4

[Political Junkie Too]

How about "Five Came Back" from 1939 with a young Lucille Ball?

-PJ

[stylin19a]

Dawn Patrol

Alive

Planes,Trains and Automobiles

The Flight of the Intruder

[Kickass Conservative]

It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World - Honorable Mention.