Watch: Trailer For THE MILLIONAIRES' UNIT

By: Jan. 26, 2018
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Watch: Trailer For THE MILLIONAIRES' UNIT

The Millionaires' Unit is the story of a privileged group of college students from Yale who formed a private air militia in preparation for America's entry into World War One. Known as the First Yale Unit, and dubbed 'the millionaires' unit' by the New York press, they became the founding squadron of the U.S. Naval Air Reserve and were the first to fly for the United States in the Great War.

Using the words of these pioneer aviators from their letters and diaries, the documentary tells the story of young men coming of age as America was coming of age as a world power. Their service and sacrifice is the great untold story of American aviation in World War One.

The documentary was inspired by the book The Millionaires' Unit by Marc Wortman. After seven years of development and production, with filming on three continents, The Millionaires' Unit is completed, and plans are underway for a multi-format release to help commemorate the centennial of World War One.

The award-winning film's VOD release date of February 15, 2018 was chosen to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of First Yale Unit member Albert D. Sturtevant, the first U.S. Naval Aviator killed in combat, when his plane went down in the North Sea on February 15, 1918.
Narrated by Academy Award®-nominated actor Bruce Dern, grandnephew of one of the aviators, the feature-length documentary charts the romantic, little-known story of the origins of American airpower and features very rare archival footage and thrilling dogfighting sequences filmed air-to-air with replica WW1 planes, some with original engines.
Inspired by Marc Wortman's book The Millionaires' Unit, the film has been developed and produced by DESCENDANTS of the First Yale Unit, including filmmaker Ron King, producers HARRY Davison and Mike Davison, and narrator Bruce Dern who are all grand nephews and grandsons of FYU members.
Watch the trailer here:


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