Aircraft in fiction

This article is about real-world aircraft appearing in works of fiction. For fictional aircraft, see list of fictional aircraft or fictional military aircraft.

Numerous real-world aircraft have appeared in fiction over the decades. These appearances spotlight the popularity of different models of aircraft, and showcase the different models for the general public.

The years between World War I and World War II saw extensive use of the new technology, aircraft, in the new medium, film. In the early 1920s Hollywood studios made dozens of now-obscure 'aerial Westerns' with leads such as Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson, where the role of the horse was taken by aircraft, or used aircraft as nothing more than vehicles for stunts to excite audiences. In 1926 the first 'proper' aviation film was made; Wings is a story of two pilots who sign up to fly and fight in World War I. Made with the co-operation of the then-Department of War (a relationship that continues to this day), it used front-line military aircraft of the day such as the Thomas-Morse MB-3 and Boeing PW-9, flown by military pilots. Future United States Air Force generals Hap Arnold and Hoyt Vandenberg were among the military officers involved with the production, Arnold as a technical consultant and Vandenberg as one of the pilots. Wings was a box-office hit when it achieved general release in 1929 and went on the win the award for Best Production at the first Academy Awards.

In Fascist Italy in the 1930s, aviation-themed films were used as propaganda tools to complement the massed flights led by Italo Balbo in promoting the regime domestically and abroad. One such film was the most successful Italian film of the pre-World War II era. Luciano Serra pilota (Luciano Serra, pilot) was inextricably linked to the Fascist government via Mussolini's son Vittorio, who was the driving force behind the film's production. The film, set between the year 1921 and the Italo-Abyssinian War, was used to compare the allegedly-moribund state of aviation in pre-Fascist Italy with the purported power of the Regia Aeronautica and Italian aviation in general in the 1930s. However, by the time that Luciano Serra pilota was shown at the 1938 Venice Film Festival, the link between aviation and Fascism had already been firmly established in the minds of the Italian people through widespread depictions of aircraft in a variety of media. For example there was an entire branch of the Futurist Art movement devoted to aviation, known as Aeropittura (Aeropainting). While many of the Aeropittura works were devoted to flight rather than aircraft per se, some did celebrate Italian aviation exploits, such as Alfredo Ambrosi's Il volo su Vienna (The Flight over Vienna) which depicted in Futurist style the World War I exploit of Gabriele d'Annunzio; although the city of Vienna is shown in abstract in accordance with the aims of Aeropittura - namely to show the dynamism and excitement of flight - the Ansaldo SVA aircraft are very carefully and accurately rendered.

A-4 Skyhawk

The A-4 Skyhawk was featured as an aggressor aircraft in the film Top Gun. Producers reimbursed the US Navy $8,600 an hour for flight time used in the movie.

A Skyhawk from the Israeli Air Force is featured the opening scene of the film The Sum of All Fears and on the cover of the first and second editions of the novel the movie was based on.

A-6 Intruder

The 1991 film Flight of the Intruder centered around two naval aviators during the Vietnam War that take their A-6 Intruder on an unauthorized bombing raid on Hanoi.

A-10 Thunderbolt II

File:Wingblade-movie.jpg

The Transformers toy character of Wingblade as a robot and A-10 Thunderbolt II by Hasbro

The evil Gobots character Bad Boy and the heroic Transformers character Powerglide both disguise themselves as A-10 Thunderbolt IIs.

The popularity of the A-10s in the 2007 Transformers film led to the toy company releasing a minor character named Wingblade and another called Powerglide, that turned into A-10s.

A-10s were featured as the aircraft used by the human resistance to the machines of Skynet in the 2009 film Terminator Salvation.

A-26/B-26 Invader

Two B-26 airtankers were prominently featured in the 1989 Steven Spielberg film, Always. The flying for the movie was performed by well-known movie pilot Steve Hinton and Dennis Lynch, the owner of the A-26s.

A6M Zero

The A6M Zero was featured in the movies The Final Countdown, Pearl Harbor, and Tora! Tora! Tora!. The Zero was also depicted in the 1976 film Midway; however real Zeros were not used. Instead F4F Wildcats were painted as Japanese aircraft and used instead.

Adam A500

The Adam A500 was featured in the 2006 film Miami Vice and was intended to be the drug runners aircraft of choice.

Adam Aircraft CEO Rick Adam stated at the time the aircraft was cast in the film, in a self-promotional press release:

The Adam Aircraft A500 is the ideal airplane for 'Miami Vice'. The A500 signature twin-boom profile reaches the level of high style and high performance necessary to meet the standards of a Michael Mann production, and the footage we've seen shows off the airplane's extraordinary look, along with its superior speed and maneuverability.

AH-64 Apache

The AH-64 Apache had a major role in the movie Fire Birds (or Wings of the Apache).

The Transformers character Spinister disguises himself as an Apache helicopter.

Airspeed Horsa

Ten mock-up Airspeed Horsa gliders were fabricated for the filming of A Bridge Too Far, but they were non-flyable.

Antonov An-124

An Antonov An-124 appears in the film Die Another Day,

Antonov An-225

For the fictional An-500 aircraft seen in the film 2012 see List of fictional aircraft

The Decepticon character Jetstorm from the 2007 Transformers movie line is based on the Antonov An-225. This toy shares its body design with Cybertron Jetfire, Classics Fireflight and Universe Air Raid.

Auster

An Auster III depicted an Auster V in A Bridge Too Far.

Avro Ashton

An Avro Ashton, in its six-engined, Olympus testbed form appeared as the fictitious Phoenix airliner in Cone of Silence (1960), based on the novel of the same name by David Beaty, a former BOAC pilot. This concerned the take-off problems of the Phoenix, and the subsequent accident investigation; it was based on two take off accidents to the de Havilland Comet.

Avro Canada CF-100

The Tintin comic book character drawn by Albert Weinberg, Major Dan Cooper, was a RCAF test pilot, predominately flying the CF-100.

Avro Lancaster

Len Deighton's novel Bomber describes an attack by Royal Air Force Avro Lancasters on Krefeld, Germany during which a series of unplanned incidents leads to the carpet bombing of a small town nearby.

The Lancaster was central to the second half of the British film The Dam Busters. This film is a dramatisation of the real-life Operation Chastise, which included the forming of the real-life RAF 617 Squadron commanded by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who was awarded the VC, and the real-life bombing of the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany to interrupt water and hydro-electric power supplies to Nazi munitions factories. The film is based upon the books The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill and Enemy Coast Ahead by Guy Gibson.

Avro Vulcan

The Avro Vulcan figures in Anthony Gray's 1965 novel The Penetrators, in which an RAF officer attempts to demonstrate a weakness in the North American strategic defense system NORAD by launching a mock attack involving nine Vulcans and some Vickers Valiant tankers for inflight refuelling.

The Avro Vulcan is also used in the Bond film Thunderball.

B-1 Lancer

The 1983 James Bond film Never Say Never Again features a cruise missile launch from a B-1 Lancer (although a sequence in which cruise missiles are loaded onto the B-1 was filmed with a Concorde SST substituting for the B-1's undercarriage).

The Tranformers Decepticon named Windsweeper disguises himself as a B-1 Lancer. A B-1 drops numerous bombs during the climactic battle scene in the 2009 film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

B-2 Spirit

The B-2 Spirit appeared in the films The Sum of All Fears and Independence Day.

B-17 Flying Fortress

The B-17 Flying Fortress was the subject of the movie Memphis Belle.

The self-explanatory 1942 Warner Bros. film Flying Fortress showed Royal Air Force Fortress Is, singly, and in formation.

The 1943 Warner Bros. film Air Force used at least nine B-17B, C and D model Flying Fortresses to depict the early year of World War II, including the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In William Wyler's 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives, B-17s are prominently featured. The primary male characters hitch a cross country ride in a B-17E Flying Fortress early in the story, and at the conclusion the scrapyard at Chino, California is shown full of disposal B-17s.

B-17s also figured prominently in the Oscar-winning 1949 film Twelve O'Clock High starring Gregory Peck. The film focuses on aviation leadership and the human toll in the USAAF strategy of daylight precision bombing. The US Air Force cooperated in the production of the film, loaning aircraft to the producers and allowing filming at Eglin Air Force Base and at Ozark Field. The film featured an actual crash landing of a B-17, piloted by veteran stunt pilot Paul Mantz. The film led to a TV series of the same name, again featuring the B-17.

The other post-war (1948) film about early 8th Air Force bomber operations, MGM's Command Decision, with Clark Gable and Walter Pidgeon, relied primarily on combat footage of Flying Fortresses, although at least one B-17F and one B-17G were utilized for ground filming in California.

A U.S. Coast Guard PB-1G "Dumbo", rescue variant of the B-17, was shown in the 1954 film The High and the Mighty, based on the Ernest K. Gann novel of the same name.

One ex-USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress and two ex-U.S. Navy PB-1W Flying Fortresses were retrieved from the boneyard, restored, and flown across the Atlantic Ocean for the making of the 1962 film The War Lover, based on a John Hersey novel of the same title.

The B-17 figures prominently in the book KG 200 by J.D. Gilman and J. Clive about the secret Luftwaffe unit KG 200, which tested and flew many captured Allied aircraft.

B-25 Mitchell

The B-25 Mitchell was the focus of the second half of the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, although critics complained that the bomber and its role were being depicted inaccurately.

The B-25 is featured in the 1961 novel Catch-22 translated into the 1970 Catch-22 (film) which had 17 film unit B-25s in flying condition plus one non-flyable.

The B-25 also had feature roles in the movies: Thirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944) (one pilot's account of the Doolittle Raid), Hanover Street (1979) based a fictional B-25 unit stationed in England, Forever Young (1992), following a B-25 test pilot's story both in the past and present.

B-29 Superfortress

The B-29 Superfortress has played an important role in several Hollywood films, particularly as that dubbed the Enola Gay which dropped the first atomic bomb. The Enola Gay was depicted in Above and Beyond and The Beginning or the End. Film makers also used the only B-29 still flying in 1983 in the movie The Right Stuff to recreate the launch of the Bell X-1 for the first supersonic flight.

B-36

The Convair B-36 featured prominently in Paramount's Strategic Air Command (1955) starring James Stewart, a World War II bomber pilot and member of the Air Force Reserve. The film features many good aerial shots of B-36s and was primarily filmed at Carswell AFB, Texas and in the Tampa, Florida area. One shot that was particularly difficult to shoot was where Stewart's character, a baseball player was standing on a baseball field and a B-36 flew overhead, casting a shadow over him and symbolizing his coming recall to active service. In the film this character is forced to crash land his B-36 in the Arctic.

B-52 Stratofortress

The 1957 Karl Malden film Bombers B-52 gives a fictional account of the B-52's introduction into service at Castle Air Force Base.

A B-52 was a focal point of the novel Trinity's Child, by William Prochnau, and the TV film adaptation By Dawn's Early Light.

The B-52 was also a key part of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 black comedy film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and in A Gathering of Eagles.

Bell X-1

The Bell X-1 was depicted early in the film The Right Stuff. The movie showed the historic flight of the X-1 becoming the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. This achievement helped usher in the US space program that was the subject of the rest of the film.

Bell 47

The 1950s American television series Whirlybirds starred a pair of Bell 47 helicopters. The association with Whirlybirds continues to be used in order to promote helicopters and the Bell 47 in particular. A Bell 47 was also one of the 'stars' of the Australian television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.

The Bell 47, in its miltary configuration as a H-13 Sioux, was central to the television series M*A*S*H, as well as the movie of the same name.

Bell 206

Chopper Squad was a 1970s Australian television series about a Bell 206 JetRanger used for rescue work in Sydney. The helicopter used was an actual rescue helicopter operated by the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Service.

Boeing 314

The Ken Follett novel Night Over Water is the story of a group of people who are travelling from England to the United States in a Boeing 314 at the beginning of World War II.

Boeing 707

A Boeing 707-349C leased from Flying Tiger Line portrayed two aircraft in the 1970 movie Airport.

The Boeing 707 serves as the platform for the real-life E-3 Sentry, an airborne warning and control aircraft. In the novel "Debt of Honor", the E-3s operated by the US were high priority targets for the air forces of Japan.

Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 was featured in the film Executive Decision as the location of a terrorist hijacking. It was also prominent in the novel and the film The Sum of All Fears as the National Airborne Operations Center during a nuclear showdown with Russia.

A 747-146 was the title subject of the movie Air Force One, portraying the real 747-200 that transports the President of the United States.

The 747 was depicted several times in the best selling novel "Debt of Honor". Most prominently, the aircraft was used in a suicide attack on the US Capitol building, killing the President, most of the cabinet and the congress who were present for a joint session of the United States Congress. This event laid the premise for the novel "Executive Orders", another best seller.

Boeing 767

The Boeing E-767 (a commercial 767 configured as an airborne early warning and control aircraft), was central to the plot in the novel Debt of Honor. During a war between the US and Japan, the E-767s were considered valuable assets to be protected by the operating Japanese and high priority targets for the US military.

Bücker Bestmann

In the film The Great Escape, the characters played by James Garner and Donald Pleasance steal a Bücker Bü 181 Bestmann from a German airfield in a bid to fly to neutral Switzerland, however the aircraft develops engine problems and crashes.

C-47 Skytrain / Dakota

Eleven C-47 Skytrains were gathered for airdrop scenes in the film A Bridge Too Far, all of which had to be of a paratroop configuration.

C-74 Globemaster

A C-74 Globemaster appeared in in the Michael Caine movie The Italian Job.

C-130 Hercules

C-130A Hercules, 56-0496, was used as the camera ship in filming the 1958 movie The Hunters, about USAF fighter pilots.

CASA 2.111

Several ex-Spanish Air Force CASA 2.111s were used as "stand-ins" to depict German Heinkel He 111 bombers in the film Battle of Britain.

CH-34 Choctaw / Westland Wessex

Westland Wessex helicopters portrayed CH-34 Choctaws in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

Concorde

The Concorde was a central feature in the disaster film The Concorde ... Airport '79. A French Concorde was leased for filming from the manufacturers.

The Transformers character Silverbolt turns into a Concorde.

In the Doctor Who serial "Time-Flight", a Concorde, its passengers, and crew are pulled through time to a prehistoric version of Earth.

Dassault Mirage 2000

The Mirage 2000-5 featured prominently in the 2005 French film Les Chevaliers du Ciel (The Knights of the Sky in literal translation, released as Sky Fighters in English-speaking territories).

The Transformers character Needlenose disguises himself as a Dassault Mirage 2000.

DC-4 / C-54 Skymaster

A former C-54A-10-DC Skymaster operated by Transocean Airlines portrayed the Douglas DC-4 in the 1954 film The High and the Mighty based on the Ernest K. Gann novel of the same name. Ironically, this airframe was lost over the Pacific on 28 March 1964 with an engine fire just as depicted in the film. There were no survivors of the nine "souls on board" and the wreckage was never found.

de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver

The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver was central to the film Six Days Seven Nights. The actual flying in the movie was done by its star, Harrison Ford, who enjoyed flying the Beaver so much that he bought the plane after filming was completed.

de Havilland Fox Moth

The novel Round the Bend by Nevil Shute is the story of two men, both British Licenced Aircraft Engineers. A large number of different aircraft types, both fictitious and real, feature in the book. The narrator and one of the protagonists of the story is Tom Cutter, and the novel details his efforts to establish an air charter business in Bahrain immediately after World War II. His first aircraft is a de Havilland Fox Moth; it is later joined by several other aircraft as the business expands, mostly fictitious, but among them a Percival Proctor.

de Havilland Hornet Moth

The novel Hornet Flight by Ken Follett is a thriller of the Resistance against the Nazi occupation of Denmark in World War II. In the novel a de Havilland Hornet Moth is used by the protagonists to fly from Denmark to the United Kingdom with information about a German radar system. The author drew inspiration from an actual flight that took place during World War II.

de Havilland Mosquito

De Havilland Mosquitos feature prominently in the 1964 film 633 Squadron alongside actors Cliff Robertson and Harry Andrews. The film was notable for its use of genuine, airworthy aircraft, rather than models, for many of the scenes.

Mosquitos also play the title role of the 1969 film Mosquito Squadron, starring David McCallum and Charles Gray.

Mosquitos are featured prominently in the Tintin comic book album The Red Sea Sharks. They drive the plot in various ways, first as contraband in the beginning of the story, and later on in combat.

de Havilland Vampire

The de Havilland Vampire was central to the plot of the novella, The Shepherd by British novelist Frederick Forsyth, the story of an RAF pilot attempting to fly home for Christmas from RAF Celle, Germany to RAF Lakenheath on Christmas Eve 1957. The fact that the DH.100 was not fitted with ejection seats until about 10 years later, and hence was a major challenge to bail out of, is an important element of the story.

Vampire jets also feature in the 1966 novel Shooting Script by former RAF pilot and thriller writer Gavin Lyall.

A French Air Force Vampire appears in the 1954 French-language comic La grande menace by Jacques Martin, the first featuring investigative journalist Guy Lefranc; it was destroyed while engaging an unidentified helicopter.

EB-66

The film Bat*21 featured an EB-66 being shot down over North Vietnam in the beginning of the movie. The rest movie depicted the real life events surrounding the rescue of LTC Iceal Hambleton, who was the only survivor of the 6 man crew.

Eurocopter Tiger

A prototype Eurocopter EC 665 Tiger attack helicopter played a starring role in the 1995 James Bond movie GoldenEye. In the movie, a prototype Tiger is stolen by Gen. Arkady Ourumov and his associate Xenia Onatopp as part of a plot to steal the GoldenEye control disk for the Janus crime syndicate.

F-4 Phantom II

The pilot episode of the Jack Webb Mark VII series O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971) featured three US Marine Corps F-4 Phantom IIs, the third of which served as the air-to-air camera ship.

The Gobots character Mach 3 and the Transformers character Fireflight both turn into F-4 Phantom IIs.

F4F Wildcat

F4F Wildcats left over from World War 2 were used to film the critical aerial battle scenes in the movie Midway.

F4U Corsair

The Chance Vought F4U Corsair was a regularly featured aircraft in the television series Baa Baa Black Sheep (later renamed Black Sheep Squadron).

F-5 Tiger

The F-5 Tiger played the part of an enemy aircraft in Top Gun.

F-14 Tomcat

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat was the central to the movie Top Gun. The aviation themed film was such a success in creating interest in naval aviation that the US Navy, who assisted with the film, set up recruitment desks outside some theaters. Producers paid the US Navy $886,000 as reimbursement for flight time of aircraft in the film. An hour of flight time for the F-14 was billed at $7,600.

It also appeared in the film The Final Countdown and the television series JAG. The Tomcat was a central part of the Stephen Coonts novel Final Flight. Four F-14s were later shown in the movie Executive Decision.

F-15 Eagle

File:F15s-transformers.jpg

The Transformers characters Thundercracker, Skywarp and Starscream as F-15 Eagle jets in a Marvel Comics story

The F-15 Eagle is one of the most recognized modern fighters; this has led to, or perhaps even been aided by, its common use in children's toys. The Transformers toy line and media has featured numerous characters who turn into F-15 Eagles, the most notable being the villain Starscream in 1984 and a group of similar Decepticons, the Seekers Acid Storm, Thundercracker, Skywarp and Sunstorm. Although completely unrelated design to the others, the Autobot Air Raid also disguises himself as an F-15.

The F-15 is featured in the film Air Force One. The Eagle was also shown in advertisements for the film Thirteen Days. The ads were withdrawn when it came to the attention of New Line Cinema that the F-15, which first flew in 1972, was out of place for a movie set in 1962. This was problematic for New Line who had termed the film a "by-the-numbers recreation" and "close to perfect." "Every ship, plane, truck and craft that moves in the film is absolutely authentic to the time period," said Steve Elzer, a spokesman for New Line. Mr. Elzer said the advertisement was created by an outside agency.

Air battles between F-15s were depicted in the novel Debt of Honor. The battles were not only significant to the plot, but unusual in that both sides were operating the same aircraft against each other.

F-16 Fighting Falcon

The F-16 Fighting Falcon was featured in the film The Sum of All Fears. The Falcon was also one of the stars of the movie Iron Eagle. The U.S. Air Force refused to assist with production of the film because they found the plot about a teenager flying the F-16 into a foreign country to be "a little off the wall".

The Transformers Aerialbot Skydive and Decepticon Dreadwind disguise themselves as F-16s.

F/A-18 Hornet

The F/A-18 Hornet appeared multiple times in the film Tears of the Sun, most notably in the final, climactic battle, helping to save the surviving SEAL team members.

The F/A-18F, a two seat variant, was featured in the film "Behind Enemy Lines". The movie centers around a Super Hornet being shot down over Bosnia. The film led to a lawsuit by Scott O'Grady, a US Air Force pilot who was downed over Bosnia and spent several days evading capture as did the movie characters. O'Grady alleged that the film was based on his experience.

F-22 Raptor

The F-22 Raptor has been featured in numerous books, such as Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor in which a lengthy mission by F-22s dominates the last part of the book; and Clive Cussler's Dark Watch. In Cussler's book, an F-22 embarks on a secret mission to take out a Syrian foe. In Debt of Honor, the F-22 represented the newest in stealth technology being used by the United States against advanced Boeing E-767 AWACS aircraft that were being operated by Japan.

The Raptor has appeared in movies as well. Despite appearing in the 2003 Hulk film, the F-22 made its major Hollywood debut in the 2007 film Transformers as the form taken by the Decepticon character Starscream in addition to numerous USAF fighters that engaged during the initial and climactic battles. The movie crew was allowed to film actual Raptors in flight, unlike previous computer-generated appearances, because of the military's support of director Michael Bay. The Raptors were filmed at Edwards Air Force Base. The real Raptor made its next big screen appearance in Iron Man.

Toys released for Starscream were replica F-22 Raptors models. These models were reused for other characters in the line, like Thundercracker, Skywarp and Ramjet, that also turned into F-22 Raptors.

Although the 2007 Transformers film made Starscream the most well known Transformer that turns into an F-22, there were other F-22 Transformers before it. For instance the 1997 Machine Wars versions of Megatron and Megaplex turned into F-22s.

F-35 Lightning II

The first major film appearance of a representation of a F-35 Lightning II was in Live Free or Die Hard (released as Die Hard 4 outside North America) in 2007. The film used a combination of a full-scale model and CGI to significantly dramatize its hovering ability using the lift fan.

The Transformers character of the Autobot Breakaway and his redeco the Decepticon Thrust from the Revenge of the Fallen toy both disguise themselves as F-35s. Breakaway appears as a playable character in the 2009 Revenge of the Fallen video game.

F-117 Nighthawk

The Nighthawk appeared in the 2007 movie Transformers.

Focke Wulf Fw 190

Modified T-6 Texans portrayed Focke Wulf Fw 190s in A Bridge Too Far.

Grumman X-29

The Transformers Autobot named Dogfight disguises himself as an X-29.

Harrier Jump Jet

The Harrier family's unique VTOL characteristics have led to them being featured in a number of films and flight simulator programs.

The Harrier Jump Jet appeared in a 1966 episode of The Saint called "Flight Plan", as an experimental aircraft called the Osprey.

The aircraft also appeared in the film True Lies, in which the character played by Arnold Schwarzenegger flies an AV-8B.

The Transformers Autobot named Slingshot disguises himself as a Harrier.

In the Revenge of the Fallen Decepticon character Dirge also became a Harrier, this design was later used for the Decepticon Jetblade.

The Harrier briefly appeared in the beginning of The Living Daylights.

Hawker Hurricane

The Hawker Hurricane was featured in the film Battle of Britain. Three airworthy Hurricanes were located and used for the filming.

Hindenburg

The Zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg was the subject of the 1975 film The Hindenburg, which speculated sabotage as the cause of the 1937 disaster at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey. The studio model of the airship is now displayed in the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

In the original theatrical release of the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones travels on the Hindenburg. The name was digitally removed from the Zeppelin's fixtures in subsequent releases, apparently because the film's events took place in 1938 and the Hindenburg was actually destroyed a year earlier in 1937. Jones also escapes the zeppelin via a trapeze-mounted parasite fighter biplane, a system never successfully installed on the Hindenburg or any German airship.

Hispano HA-1112

Hispano Aviación Ha 1112 Buchon

At least 24 former Spanish Air Force Hispano Aviación HA-1112s were used as flying and non-flying "stand-ins" to depict Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters of the Luftwaffe in the film Battle of Britain. In the mid-1960s at the time aircraft began to be collected for the film to be made, the only genuine Bf 109s known to exist were non-flyable examples in museums such as the Imperial War Museum and the South African National Museum of Military History or in private hands, whereas the HA-1112 was just being retired from service with the Spanish Air Force and flyable examples were plentiful.

MC-130 Combat Talon

The Lockheed MC-130 Combat Talon was featured as the rescue aircraft in the film Air Force One, performing a daring mid-air rescue of the President and his family as Air Force One is failing and going into the Atlantic Ocean.

Mikoyan MiG-29

The Mikoyan MiG-29 is the alternate form of the figure Dreadwing as well as his redecos Overcast and Fearswoop from the 2007 and 2009 Transformers movie toy lines.

Nieuport 17

The Nieuport 17 was one of the main aircraft featured in the movie Flyboys.

O-2 Skymaster

An unmodified Cessna 337 painted gray played the part of an O-2 Skymaster in the motion picture Bat*21, as the plane flown by Danny Glover.

P-38 Lightning

Von Ryan's Express (1965) begins with main protagonist, USAAF Colonel Joseph Ryan (Frank Sinatra) crash landing a P-38 Lightning in WWII Italy, where he is then captured as a POW.

A Guy Named Joe (1943) has Spencer Tracy returning as a guiding spirit looking after young P-38 pilot Van Johnson.

The 1944 short feature P-38 Reconnaissance Pilot, starring William Holden as Lt. "Packy" Cummings, dramatises the work of photo reconnaissance pilots in World War II.

P-40

In the John Wayne movie: Flying Tigers, (1942) real Curtiss P-40s are featured. A New York Times critic called the P-40 "the true stars" of the film. Republic Studios also built replicas for the film due to material shortages during the war.

Future US President Ronald Reagan appears in the Identification Of The Japanese Zero (Training Film) (1942) as a young pilot learning to recognize the difference between a P-40 and a Japanese Zero. In this film Reagan mistakes a friend's P-40 for a Japanese Zero and tries to shoot it down. In the end, Reagan gets a chance to shoot down a real Zero.

In the film God is My Co-Pilot (1945), based on Robert Lee Scott, Jr's book about the Flying Tigers and the USAAF pilots who replaced them in the Republic of China and Burma, a mix of real P-40 and "movie" P-40s are featured.

In Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), P-40s are depicted at the attack on Pearl Harbor, both being shot up on the ground and shooting down Zeros.

Panavia Tornado

The Royal Air Force's ground attack aircraft, the Panavia Tornado, featured extensively in the television pilot Strike Force, produced in the 1990s for ITV in the UK. Strike Force did not enter series production.

The Transformers character Darkwing disguises himself as a Panavia Tornado.

P-47 Thunderbolt

Fighter Squadron, (1948, Color), Director: Raoul Walsh, Cast: Edmond O'Brien, Robert Stack. Depicts a P-47 Thunderbolt unit based loosely on the 4th Fighter Group (sometimes known as "Blakeslee's Bachelors"). The 4th FG flew P-47s in combat from April 1943 to March 1944, when they converted to P-51 Mustangs. In this film, the German Bf 109s are actually painted P-51s. Much of what was depicted with the P-47s (e.g., the fighter escorts going all the way to Berlin, one pilot bailing out over enemy territory and his buddy landing to pick him up) actually happened with P-51s in real life.

Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů paid a tribute to the aircraft with his scherzo for orchestra. It was premiered 19 December 1945 in Washington, D.C..

Steve Earle's song "Johnny Come Lately" is about an American P-47 pilot in World War II; it contains a verse "My P-47 is a pretty good ship/ She took a round comin' cross the channel last trip."

Modified T-6 Texans depicted P-47s in the film A Bridge Too Far.

P-51 Mustang

The P-51 Mustang was featured in the film The Tuskegee Airmen.

Percival Proctor

The most prominent of the real aircraft in Nevil Shute's Round the Bend is a war-surplus Percival Proctor, which is used by the protagonist Constantine Shak Lin (also known as Connie Shaklin) to tour Asia to spread his teachings. At the end of the book the Proctor is the basis of a shrine to Shaklin and his new creed, laid up in a hangar in a state of uncompleted maintenance for pilgrims to view.

In 1968, three Proctors were remodelled with inverted gull wings and other cosmetic alterations to represent Junkers Ju 87s in the film Battle of Britain.

Piper Cherokee

The character Pussy Galore in the James Bond film Goldfinger is the leader of "Pussy Galore's Flying Circus", a group of women who fly Piper Cherokees. In the film the arch-villain uses the Cherokees in his plan to deprive the United States government of the gold in Fort Knox.

SH-2G Super Seasprite

The Transformers Combaticon named Vortex disguises himself as an SH-2G.

Sikorsky H-53 series

The Sikorsky MH-53 is also featured in the 2007 Transformers film as the alternate mode of Blackout. Production designer Jeff Mann stated "the Pave Low looks butch... the size made it the logical choice." Toys for Blackout were MH-53 replicas, which were reused for the characters of Evac, Spinister and Whirl.

The heavier CH-53E Super Stallion is the alternate form for the Decepticon Grindor in the film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The Super Stallion also appeared in the film The Sum of All Fears.

Sikorsky H-60 series

The UH-60 Black Hawk was the title aircraft in the movie Black Hawk Down. Film makers paid the US Department of Defense about $3 million to ship eight helicopters and about 100 crew members to the film location in Morocco.

Black Hawks were also featured in the film "Air Force One", again having been rented from the US military.

Sopwith Camel

The First World War Sopwith Camel fighter features prominently in the Biggles stories of W E Johns such as the collections: The Camels Are Coming, and Biggles of the Camel Squadron.

Space Shuttle orbiter

The Transformers Combaticon named Blast Off and the Autobot Sky Lynx both disguise themselves as Space Shuttle orbiters.

SR-71 Blackbird

Although retired from service for over a decade, the SR-71 Blackbird appears in form of the character Jetfire, an over-the-hill Transformer near the end of his days, in the film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and its toy line, which are SR-71 models.

Supermarine Spitfire

The 1942 movie The First of the Few is a dramatization of the life of R. J. Mitchell, mostly concerning his work on the Spitfire.

The Supermarine Spitfire was a central part of the film Battle of Britain, a fictionalized account of the real Battle of Britain that one critic called "the definitive depiction of war in the air". The movie led to an increase in the popularity of the aircraft among collectors of warbirds. According to one property dealer the appearance "did for Spitfires what the James Bond films did for the Aston Martin." Producers secured 35 airworthy Spitfires for use in the movie.

The Spitfire was also the main aircraft used in the 1988 television series Piece of Cake. The series was based on a novel by the same name. Pilots in the novel flew the Hawker Hurricane, but the lack of airworthy Hurricanes forced the producers to change aircraft types, using five reconditioned Spitfires.

The 1951 film Malta Story centered around Spitfires and their pilots defending Malta in 1942.

A Spitfire Mk. IX depicted an aerial reconnaissance variant in A Bridge Too Far.

Supermarine Swift

The second prototype Supermarine Swift appeared as the Prometheus in the 1952 film The Sound Barrier.

Thurston Teal

A Teal TSC 1A1 appears in the long opening shots of the 1973 iconic horror film The Wicker Man.

Lockheed U-2

The U-2 made an important appearance in the movie Thirteen Days as the aircraft that initially detected Soviet missiles being deployed in Cuba.

UH-1 Iroquois

The UH-1 Iroquois (commonly called the Huey) was a central part of the film We Were Soldiers. The helicopter was shown ferrying troops into the Ia Drang valley as part of the then new concept of air cavalry. The film particularly focused on the flights of Major Bruce Crandall, who was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions while piloting his UH-1 during the battle depicted in the film. Four of the UH-1s used were provided by the Georgia Army National Guard.

The UH-1 was an important part of the movie The Green Berets. The production company paid $18,623.64 for the material, the eighty-five hours of flying time by UH-1 helicopters, and thirty-eight hundred man-days for military personnel taken away from their regular duties.

Vickers Valiant

The Vickers Valiant figures in Anthony Gray's 1965 novel The Penetrators, in which an RAF officer attempts to demonstrate a weakness in the North American strategic defense system NORAD by launching a mock attack involving nine Avro Vulcans and some Vickers Valiant tankers for inflight refuelling.

V-22 Osprey

Two CV-22 Ospreys (of only three in the USAF inventory at the time) were filmed in flight at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, in May 2006 for the 2007 Transformers film. This would inspire a host of Transformers toys and characters based on the Osprey including the Decepticons Incinerator and Ruination as well as the Autobots Springer and Blades.

V-22s play prominent roles in several novels by Dale Brown, most particularly, Hammerheads which features an MV-22 on the cover.

In the TV series Stargate: Atlantis, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard contrasts flying a V-22 Osprey "You had to use your hands and feet with that one." to piloting the Ancients' city of Atlantis in the season three finale "First Strike". He gives the impression that it will be easier to fly the city - "This one you just have to sit down and think... Fly."

XB-70 Valkyrie

The Transformers character of Silverbolt was upgraded to an XB-70 Valkyrie for the Universe line as an Ultra class toy.

YB-40 Flying Fortress

The fairly rare (and now extinct) YB-40 Flying Fortress gunships make a brief appearance at the end of William Wyler's 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives as several can be identified in the Chino, California warbird scrapyard where actor Dana Andrews' character gets a job at the end of the picture.

See also

• G-BDXJ a retired Boeing 747 used for film and television work.

References

Bibliography

• Gilman J.D. & Clive J. (1978). KG 200. London: Pan Books Ltd. p. 315. ISBN 0-85177-819-4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Gray, Anthony (1965). The Penetrators. London: Souvenir Press. ISBN 0-85177-819-4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Wohl, Robert (2005). The Spectacle of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920-1950. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-300-10692-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Further reading

• Call, Steve (2009). Selling Air Power: Military Aviation and American Popular Culture After World War II. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 160344100X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Van Riper, A. Bowdoin (2004). Imagining Flight: Aviation and Popular Culture. College Station, Texas, USA: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 1-58544-300-x. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)