Chain Lightning is a 1950 American aviation film based on the story "These Many Years" by blacklisted writer Lester Cole (under the pseudonym "J. Redmond Prior"); the screenplay was written by Liam O'Brien and Vincent B. Evans.

[3] Created in the postwar era to reflect progress in aviation and aeronautics, the film is a fictional account of an American company that builds high-speed jet aircraft.

Colonel Matt Brennan, a B-17 bomber pilot in World War II, runs a civilian flying school in peacetime.

In order to prove the new JA-3, capable of speeds up to 1,400 mph (2,300 km/h) , Brennan convinces Willis that a record-breaking, very high altitude, long distance flight from Nome, Alaska, to Washington, D.C., over the North Pole will both impress the government and be a press sensation.

The origins of the film model stemmed from a derelict Bell P-39 Airacobra fuselage that had been reworked by Vince Johnson, an expert "lofter".

[8] A contemporary review in The New York Times stated that the true star of the film was the technology on display: "Like its title, this vehicle moves with exciting speed when it is airborne, but it slows down to a plodding walk... when it hits the ground.

"[7] With the incorporation of highly advanced aviation technology and equipment, including escape pods, braking parachutes, G-suits and mixed jet/rocket power plants, some reviewers considered the film to be in the science fiction genre, given its setting in the year 1949.

[5] Chain Lightning was released in VHS format in 1992 by MGM/UA Home Entertainment, though without the corrected writing credit for Lester Cole.