The Defender (1989)

The Defender is a 54-minute Canadian documentary film, made in 1988 by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and directed by Stephen Low. The film depicts the building of a strike fighter aircraft by Bob Diemert, an eccentric Canadian aviation engineer. His dream of building the next Canadian fighter aircraft to challenge the might of the Soviet Union was dependent on selling a restored warbird.

Synopsis

At Friendship Field, Carman, Manitoba, aircraft restorer and self-taught engineer Bob Diemert and his friend Chris Ball are working on an unusual project which had its origins in the late 1970s. Taking shape in one of the airfield hangars is a new type of close air support or COIN aircraft designed to take on Soviet Union tanks. Christened the "Defender", the unusual design is a throwback to the heavily armoured Junkers Ju 87 Stuka and Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik close air support aircraft of the Second World War.