Airplanes rarely seen in movies
04-02-2008, 08:22 AM
#1
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Airplanes rarely seen in movies
Those shots of the airplane graveyard and the B-58 got me thinking about old movies with airplanes. A lot of movies use fake airplane interiors or file photos (film) of generic airplanes. They will show a lear from the outside and then cut to an interior shot of what looks like a 727!
Anyway I was thinking of mostly military aircraft. I remember a movie with the B-58. Wasn't that the plane in Fail Safe? I guess this thread is mostly about aircraft you don't usually see, ie. you don't have to mention Top Gun. Although those were some great real scenes.
There are a few more.
A really cool bomber was featured in a Jame Bond movie. I think it was Thunderball. Was that a Vulcan?
Flight of the Intruder featured the EA-6 prowler, (right?)
Not enough Concorde movies unfortunately.
The Great Santini had some great shots of the F-4
I don't remember the movie but I saw a movie with a large single pilot bomber and the guy had to make a zero zero landing. He was talked down the whole way. Does anyone remember that one?
You guys get the gist. What other rarely seen aircraft are featured in mainstream movies?
Anyway I was thinking of mostly military aircraft. I remember a movie with the B-58. Wasn't that the plane in Fail Safe? I guess this thread is mostly about aircraft you don't usually see, ie. you don't have to mention Top Gun. Although those were some great real scenes.
There are a few more.
A really cool bomber was featured in a Jame Bond movie. I think it was Thunderball. Was that a Vulcan?
Flight of the Intruder featured the EA-6 prowler, (right?)
Not enough Concorde movies unfortunately.
The Great Santini had some great shots of the F-4
I don't remember the movie but I saw a movie with a large single pilot bomber and the guy had to make a zero zero landing. He was talked down the whole way. Does anyone remember that one?
You guys get the gist. What other rarely seen aircraft are featured in mainstream movies?
04-02-2008, 09:00 AM
#2
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One of THE WORST aviation movies ever - IRON EAGLE - and the sequel had plenty of F-16s.
"Flight of the Intruder featured the EA-6 prowler, (right?)"
No...pretty sure it was all about the regular ol' A-6 Intruder.
The movie RULES OF ENGAGEMENT made quite a mistake when they show CH-46s with Marines onboard taking off from the ship and then the movie switches to CH-47s flying inbound. Crazy stuff. I just have to shake my head and wonder who QA'ed it and then accepted it >G<
USMCFLYR
"Flight of the Intruder featured the EA-6 prowler, (right?)"
No...pretty sure it was all about the regular ol' A-6 Intruder.
The movie RULES OF ENGAGEMENT made quite a mistake when they show CH-46s with Marines onboard taking off from the ship and then the movie switches to CH-47s flying inbound. Crazy stuff. I just have to shake my head and wonder who QA'ed it and then accepted it >G<
USMCFLYR
04-02-2008, 09:01 AM
#3
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There was a Pilatus Porter in that James Bond movie "GoldenEye". Didn't Bond sky dive down into it as it fell off that mountain during some weapons deal?
"Fail Safe" had B-58's in it. Speaking of Cold War Era movies, there was a B-52 in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb". I realize that's not too special, but what is is that they didn't get permission to see the inside of the B-52, so they had to pretty much make their own B-52 cockpit, navigator's station, etc. Anyways, when the movie was released I guess they showed it to some B-52 crews and they said the movie cockpit was incredibly close to that of a real B-52, even though they had no idea of what it looked like. It's nice to hear someone in Hollywood actually got something with aviation somewhat accurate.
In the movie "Always" there's two guys fishing on a lake, and then in the distance you see a PBY Catalina touch down on the water headed right at them. One of the guys sees this and starts trying to get the boat's motor started, but it won't start. Then the plane lifts off and flies right over them as they duck out of the way. Here's the link:http://youtube.com/watch?v=JkE24axSBTI
Oh, and then basically any airplane in that Waldo Pepper movie is pretty rare too.
"Fail Safe" had B-58's in it. Speaking of Cold War Era movies, there was a B-52 in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb". I realize that's not too special, but what is is that they didn't get permission to see the inside of the B-52, so they had to pretty much make their own B-52 cockpit, navigator's station, etc. Anyways, when the movie was released I guess they showed it to some B-52 crews and they said the movie cockpit was incredibly close to that of a real B-52, even though they had no idea of what it looked like. It's nice to hear someone in Hollywood actually got something with aviation somewhat accurate.
In the movie "Always" there's two guys fishing on a lake, and then in the distance you see a PBY Catalina touch down on the water headed right at them. One of the guys sees this and starts trying to get the boat's motor started, but it won't start. Then the plane lifts off and flies right over them as they duck out of the way. Here's the link:http://youtube.com/watch?v=JkE24axSBTI
Oh, and then basically any airplane in that Waldo Pepper movie is pretty rare too.
Last edited by HoboPilot; 04-02-2008 at 09:15 AM.
04-02-2008, 09:13 AM
#4
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Originally Posted by USMCFLYR
"Flight of the Intruder featured the EA-6 prowler, (right?)"
No...pretty sure it was all about the regular ol' A-6 Intruder.
No...pretty sure it was all about the regular ol' A-6 Intruder.
04-02-2008, 09:21 AM
#5
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Originally Posted by mike734
Doh! I could have figured that out by.....THE TITLE!
Hey - nothing unusual here - but the flying scenes in 'THE FINAL COUNTDOWN' were motivating. I wanted to fly F-14s with VF-84 for many years afterwards. Never happened and never will (of course) but it still motivated the young aviator in me at the time!
USMCFLYR
04-02-2008, 09:24 AM
#6
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Btw - since you did mention TopGun - do you care to start taking shots at how many things were wrong with the flying in that movie?
Now I'm not knocking TopGun. Actually - I think they did probsasbly one of the best jobs I've seen of TRYINZG to get most stuff right and to make it entertaining at the same time; but there are some things that are SO WORNG with it that it is funny.
E.G. Once Mav gets back into the plane with a new RIO (Sundowner) and the RIO is trying to talk Mav into engaging you can see his callsign right across the top of the visor. LAter - while they are walking along the flight line and have their confrontation - the callsign has disappeared! (maybe not flying relating but funny nonetheless) >G<
Now I'm not knocking TopGun. Actually - I think they did probsasbly one of the best jobs I've seen of TRYINZG to get most stuff right and to make it entertaining at the same time; but there are some things that are SO WORNG with it that it is funny.
E.G. Once Mav gets back into the plane with a new RIO (Sundowner) and the RIO is trying to talk Mav into engaging you can see his callsign right across the top of the visor. LAter - while they are walking along the flight line and have their confrontation - the callsign has disappeared! (maybe not flying relating but funny nonetheless) >G<
04-02-2008, 09:31 AM
#7
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Hollywood Jets
Anyway I was thinking of mostly military aircraft. I remember a movie with the B-58. Wasn't that the plane in Fail Safe?
Yes, Fail Safe, with Henry Fonda, featured B-58s (shown as negatives), but they referred to them as "Vindicators." Ironically, the real Vindicator was a prop airplane in WWII.
I guess this thread is mostly about aircraft you don't usually see, ie. you don't have to mention Top Gun. Although those were some great real scenes.
In Top Gun, they call the F-5s "MiG-28s," but all MiGs end in odd-numbers. (MiG-15, -17, -19, -21, etc).
There are a few more.
A really cool bomber was featured in a Jame Bond movie. I think it was Thunderball. Was that a Vulcan?
Yes, a fake Vulcan in a swimming pool.
Flight of the Intruder featured the EA-6 prowler, (right?)
USMC is Right--it was an A-6E Intruder, hence the name of the movie. A-6Es are two-seaters; the "family model" is the Electronic-combat EA-6B, which has 4 seats, and is called the Prowler.
The Great Santini had some great shots of the F-4.
Yet they never showed that he had a back-seater....
I don't remember the movie but I saw a movie with a large single pilot bomber and the guy had to make a zero zero landing. He was talked down the whole way. Does anyone remember that one?
Maybe you're talking about Jimmy Stewart, flying a B-47. I think it was Strategic Air Command. Stewart actually was a pilot in the Air Force Reserve, retired as either a Full Colonel or 1-star General. However, there is another movie featuring B-52s--it was either called Bombers B-52, or it was Strategic Air Command.
He last flew B-36s, though, not the -47, as in the movie.
Iron Eagle should have been called "Plastic Falcon," as the F-16 is largely composite, and called the Falcon. The F-15 is called the Eagle.
And is one of the worst movies of all time.
There was a crappy Nicholas cage movie (I know that is redundant) where he and Tommy Lee Jones were Army helo drivers, fighting some evil cartel--flying Danish Drakkens. I got a ride in a Drakken in 1988 in Denmark. Not a threat to helos.
My favorite crappy airplane movie though is Interceptor, a piece of clap-trap put together as a cheesy Lockheed marketing film, featuring the supersonic F-117, air-launched out of the back of a C-5, after it was hijacked by guys in a fake KC-10 (really an L-1011) because the hijackers slid down the inside of the air-refuling tube.
(Now, the real tube is maybe 6 inches in diameter, but in this movie, it was 3 feet. And sealed tightly enough that they could bring a circular saw down the pipe, cut a hole in the C-5's skin, and get inside. And seal the hole). C-5 guys, you'll enjoy the scene where they refuel the F-117s in the cargo bay, by using a gas-station-style hose. You have that, right?
This was mandatory viewing in my F-4 squadron while deployed to the desert. Once a month would be Interceptor night.
Our favorite part was them doing BFM using an "air-to-air Maverick Missile." (Mavericks are short-ranged air-to-ground missiles that don't maneuver very well).
Oh yeah--Behind Enemy Lines, with Gene Hackman. What crap!! An SA-9 gets launched at a Super Hornet, goes head-on, misses, turns around, goes past, turns around again, sideswipes the jet, still turns around, and finally gets our heroes.
For those who don't have the background:
1. Missiles don't have that kind of range.
2. Their turn-circles are HUGE. If it misses on the first pass, it isn't coming back (see #1).
3. If you are going beak-to-beak with a missile, as in this movie, then why didn't our hero try to gun the damn thing? (Equally preposterous, but hey, since reality has already been taken leave-of...)
4. SAMs and airplanes are relatively fragile machines. You sideswipe a missile when you are doing 500 kts and it is doing 700, you're going to have a wrecked jet and a dead missile.
Hollywood. Bah!!!
Yes, Fail Safe, with Henry Fonda, featured B-58s (shown as negatives), but they referred to them as "Vindicators." Ironically, the real Vindicator was a prop airplane in WWII.
I guess this thread is mostly about aircraft you don't usually see, ie. you don't have to mention Top Gun. Although those were some great real scenes.
In Top Gun, they call the F-5s "MiG-28s," but all MiGs end in odd-numbers. (MiG-15, -17, -19, -21, etc).
There are a few more.
A really cool bomber was featured in a Jame Bond movie. I think it was Thunderball. Was that a Vulcan?
Yes, a fake Vulcan in a swimming pool.
Flight of the Intruder featured the EA-6 prowler, (right?)
USMC is Right--it was an A-6E Intruder, hence the name of the movie. A-6Es are two-seaters; the "family model" is the Electronic-combat EA-6B, which has 4 seats, and is called the Prowler.
The Great Santini had some great shots of the F-4.
Yet they never showed that he had a back-seater....
I don't remember the movie but I saw a movie with a large single pilot bomber and the guy had to make a zero zero landing. He was talked down the whole way. Does anyone remember that one?
Maybe you're talking about Jimmy Stewart, flying a B-47. I think it was Strategic Air Command. Stewart actually was a pilot in the Air Force Reserve, retired as either a Full Colonel or 1-star General. However, there is another movie featuring B-52s--it was either called Bombers B-52, or it was Strategic Air Command.
He last flew B-36s, though, not the -47, as in the movie.
Iron Eagle should have been called "Plastic Falcon," as the F-16 is largely composite, and called the Falcon. The F-15 is called the Eagle.
And is one of the worst movies of all time.
There was a crappy Nicholas cage movie (I know that is redundant) where he and Tommy Lee Jones were Army helo drivers, fighting some evil cartel--flying Danish Drakkens. I got a ride in a Drakken in 1988 in Denmark. Not a threat to helos.
My favorite crappy airplane movie though is Interceptor, a piece of clap-trap put together as a cheesy Lockheed marketing film, featuring the supersonic F-117, air-launched out of the back of a C-5, after it was hijacked by guys in a fake KC-10 (really an L-1011) because the hijackers slid down the inside of the air-refuling tube.
(Now, the real tube is maybe 6 inches in diameter, but in this movie, it was 3 feet. And sealed tightly enough that they could bring a circular saw down the pipe, cut a hole in the C-5's skin, and get inside. And seal the hole). C-5 guys, you'll enjoy the scene where they refuel the F-117s in the cargo bay, by using a gas-station-style hose. You have that, right?
This was mandatory viewing in my F-4 squadron while deployed to the desert. Once a month would be Interceptor night.
Our favorite part was them doing BFM using an "air-to-air Maverick Missile." (Mavericks are short-ranged air-to-ground missiles that don't maneuver very well).
Oh yeah--Behind Enemy Lines, with Gene Hackman. What crap!! An SA-9 gets launched at a Super Hornet, goes head-on, misses, turns around, goes past, turns around again, sideswipes the jet, still turns around, and finally gets our heroes.
For those who don't have the background:
1. Missiles don't have that kind of range.
2. Their turn-circles are HUGE. If it misses on the first pass, it isn't coming back (see #1).
3. If you are going beak-to-beak with a missile, as in this movie, then why didn't our hero try to gun the damn thing? (Equally preposterous, but hey, since reality has already been taken leave-of...)
4. SAMs and airplanes are relatively fragile machines. You sideswipe a missile when you are doing 500 kts and it is doing 700, you're going to have a wrecked jet and a dead missile.
Hollywood. Bah!!!
04-02-2008, 09:41 AM
#8
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Position: Curator at Static Display
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Final Countdown File-Footage
USMC:
The scenes of "Splash the Zeroes" in Final Countdown were used repeatedly in the TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep. Specifically, the models crashing into the water.
The scenes of "Splash the Zeroes" in Final Countdown were used repeatedly in the TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep. Specifically, the models crashing into the water.
04-02-2008, 10:46 AM
#10
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Position: C-17 bunk/in the kiddie pool
Posts: 216
Originally Posted by USMCFLYR
It is funny - I wasn't sure if you were serious or not
Hey - nothing unusual here - but the flying scenes in 'THE FINAL COUNTDOWN' were motivating. I wanted to fly F-14s with VF-84 for many years afterwards. Never happened and never will (of course) but it still motivated the young aviator in me at the time!
USMCFLYR
Hey - nothing unusual here - but the flying scenes in 'THE FINAL COUNTDOWN' were motivating. I wanted to fly F-14s with VF-84 for many years afterwards. Never happened and never will (of course) but it still motivated the young aviator in me at the time!
USMCFLYR
Nobody mentioned Broken Arrow, starring a B-2 in the first part. The movie sucked. And yeah, Iron Eagle 1-4 or whatever they made really sucked. The AF, IMHO, hasn't had a solid flying movie lately.
Last edited by dannolars; 04-02-2008 at 10:48 AM. Reason: words
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