Tom Hanks -- I Am the Air Captain Now (PHOTO)

Tom Hanks is a dead ringer for Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, right down to the mustache, walking down a NYC sidewalk.

Hanks is in the Big Apple filming the biopic on the retired US Airways pilot who miracuously crash landed on the Hudson ... killing no one. Clint Eastwood is directing.

Good things happen when Hanks plays captain -- in WWII, on hijacked tankers or on shrimp boats.

Brace for Oscar impact ...