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And the world's greatest engineering movie is . . .

April 30, 2014

Apollo 13 took top honors in our competition to see which movies our readers/viewers thought was the best engineering film. The film about the real-life space-based disaster trounced The Right Stuff, which apparently did not have the right stuff this time.
Here's how it chewed through the movies it went up against:
It beat the The Core by 92% to 8%.
Then it beat Iron Man, 72% to 28%.
Then it got past Flight of the Phoenix, 75% to 25%.
Next, it whipped Bridge on the River Kwai by 76% to 24%.
And finally went on to take down The Right Stuff, 76% to 24%.

For a full rundown of how all 32 of the movies fared throughout the competition, go to our WGEM website.

And congratulations to Helen O. who scored 54 points over the course of the contest to grab First Place. She squeaked by John M. in Second Place with 53 points and Thomas S. in Third Place with 52 points.

Let us know what you think of the results. Was it a gross miscarriage of justice or did the best film rise to the top? And are there any “great” engineering movies we overlooked?

And here's an interesting piece on how the Apolla 12 mission differed from the movie.

About the Author

Stephen Mraz Blog | Senior Editor

Steve serves as Senior Editor of Machine Design.  He has 23 years of service and has a B.S. Biomedical Engineering from CWRU. Steve was a E-2C Hawkeye Naval Flight Officer in the U.S. Navy. He is currently responsible for areas such as aerospace, defense, and medical.

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