title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Northrop F-20 Tigershark appears a number of times in Kaoru Shintani's manga/animated franchise "Area 88", as a personal unit of main character Shin Kazama.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Although the F-20 never entered service, in Barrett Tillman's 1991 novel "Warriors", the Royal Saudi Air Force orders over a hundred of them. The RSAF assigns the fighter to select pilots who graduate from a localized version of Top Gun established by former USAF and USN pilots. The bigger plot of the novel involves the Saudi pilots joining a pan-Arab attack against Israel.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is heavily featured in the 1998 Stephen Coonts novel "Fortunes of War". This novel sees Japan invade Russia with a fictional airplane they developed called the "Zero". While not wanting to directly come to the aid of the Russians, the US lends a squadron of F-22 Raptors to the Russian Air Force and hires American pilots to fly as sworn in members of the Russian military.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: After appearing briefly in the 2003 "Hulk" film, the F-22 made its major Hollywood debut in the 2007 film "Transformers" and its as the form taken by the Decepticon character Starscream in addition to numerous USAF fighters that engaged during the initial and climactic battles. The film 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.


title: Aircraft in fiction

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


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Although the live-action 2007 film "Transformers" made Starscream the best-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 transformed into F-22s.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The real Raptor made its next big screen appearance in "Iron Man", in which a Raptor call sign "Whiplash 1" lost its left wing during a mid-air collision with the Iron Man armor.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2013 film "Olympus Has Fallen", computer animation was used to depict F-22 Raptors intercepting an armed AC-130 attacking Washington, D.C.; two F-22s are shot down before a third hits the AC-130 with a missile, causing it to crash.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The plane is the subject of a flight-simulation video game, "F-22 Interceptor", which was released by Electronic Arts and Ingram Entertainment for the Sega Mega Drive console in 1991.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The F-22 Raptor, specifically the F-22A variant, is a major aircraft in the "Ace Combat" series, being prominently featured on the box art of several entries and being usable in a majority of the games in the series; one appearance is in "", which displays the F-22 on its box and used it in pre-release marketing. The FB-22 also appears in several other games in the series, starting with "".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The first major film appearance of a representation of a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II was 2006's "Superman Returns". During this film, a pair of F-35A fighters escorted the modified Boeing 777 mothership for an experimental NASA spaceplane. This visualization was a combination of an actual cockpit and CGI for the aircraft in flight.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The next major film appearance of an F-35 was in "Live Free or Die Hard" (released as "Die Hard 4.0" outside North America) in 2007. The film used a combination of a full-scale model and CGI effects.


title: Aircraft in fiction

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


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: F-35s are depicted in the 2012 film "The Avengers". The film was originally intended to include real F-35s, but the United States Department of Defense objected to the depiction of F-22s and F-35s as under the control of S.H.I.E.L.D., a covert, "extra-governmental" organization whose loyalties are unclear, so CGI aircraft were substituted instead.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris fly F-35s in a simulated dogfight against the UCAVs Carol's company is trying to sell to the US Department of Defense in the 2011 film "Green Lantern".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: For the 1955 biographical film "The McConnell Story" about ace Joseph C. McConnell, eight Republic F-84s of the 614th Fighter-Bomber Squadron donned dark blue paint with red stars to portray MiG-15s doing mock battle for the cameras with F-86 Sabres of the 366th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, both units based at Alexandria AFB, Louisiana. Air Defense Command headquarters notified its pilots in January 1955 that the mock MiGs would be operating over portions of the southwestern US.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The North American F-86 Sabre appears in the 1956 novel "The Hunters" by James Salter, and the "1958 film of the same name", set in Korea, features North American F-86 Sabres.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: F-86s appear in the 1957 junior fiction novel "Sabre Pilot" by Stephen W. Meader about a youngster named Kirk Owen who enlists in the USAF and serves as a fighter pilot in the Korean War.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: F-86s were a feature in the 1958 film "Jet Attack" which was directed by Edward L. Cahn and starred John Agar and Audrey Totter. The film, also released as "Jet Alert" and "Through Hell to Glory", was a drama set in the Korean War about a pair of pilots who parachute behind North Korean lines to rescue a captured scientist. The film, a low budget production, relied heavily on stock footage of F-86s for the aerial scenes.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: F-86s appear in the 1959 novel "MiG Alley" by Robert Eunson which portrays a pilot Captain Homer 'Mac' McCullough who flies F-86s during the Korean War and is frustrated at being forbidden to engage enemy MiGs beyond the Yalu River.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Desmond Bagley's 1965 novel "High Citadel" features F-86 Sabres, which make up the frontline equipment of the air force of the fictional South American country in which the book is set. There are four squadrons of Sabres; two are loyal to the current corrupt government; one is secretly loyal to a reformist politician who is returning from exile to take over the country; and the fourth is secretly loyal to Communist forces who are attempting to kill the politician. The latter part of the novel features a dogfight between a Sabre flown by one of the main characters—a CIA agent and former Sabre pilot who fought in the Korean War—and aircraft of the Communist squadron.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: F-86F Sabres of the JASDF regularly appear in the Showa era of kaiju films produced by Toho, with the aircraft appearing most prominently during a sequence in "Godzilla" where two Sabres attack the titular monster after he leaves the devastated city of Tokyo.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1981 dystopian film "The Last Chase", retired pilot J.G. Williams (played by Burgess Meredith) and his F-86 Sabre play the antagonist in attempting to track down and destroy the protagonist Franklyn Hart (played by Lee Majors). After becoming sympathetic to Hart's cause, Williams sacrifices himself in a kamikaze-style attack against a laser installation to protect Hart.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Sabre plays an important role in the 1999 film comedy "Blast from the Past" which stars Brendan Fraser and Christopher Walken. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Sabre pilot is forced to eject over a residential area in the US and the aircraft just happens to crash onto the house of an eccentric father who is sheltering with his family in a large underground bomb shelter he has constructed. Believing the crash to be the impact of a nuclear bomb, the family remain underground for 35 years.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A pair of McDonnell F-101B Voodoos fly over the Russian submarine "Спрут" at the end of the 1966 comedy "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming", directed by Norman Jewison. Although the film is set in New England, it was filmed on the West Coast and the fighters were from the 84th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, based at the now-closed Hamilton Air Force Base, California.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Gen. Charles "Chuck" Yeager's 10 December 1963 flying accident during a test flight in a modified rocket-boosted Lockheed NF-104A Starfighter was featured in "The Right Stuff" motion picture. The aircraft used for filming was a standard German "Luftwaffe" F-104G, flying with its wingtip fuel tanks removed; it otherwise lacked any of the NF-104A's modifications, most visibly the rocket engine pod at the base of the vertical stabilizer.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The F-104 is featured heavily in the 1964 film "The Starfighters", directed by Will Zens and starring future US Congressman Bob Dornan. The film later appeared on the Comedy Central series "Mystery Science Theater 3000" as the subject of episode #612.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: An F-104 Starfighter flown by Captain John Christopher, USAF, intercepts the USS "Enterprise" after the ship is thrown back in time by an encounter with a previously unmapped "black star" in "" first-season episode 1/19, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", as the starship is struggling to climb out of Earth's atmosphere over Omaha, Nebraska.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Footage of an F-104 featured in the opening scenes of the science-fiction motion picture "The Bamboo Saucer" (1968), playing the role of an experimental jet called the "X-109" whose pilot Fred Norwood (John Ericson) encounters a UFO while carrying out a test flight.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: An F-104 made regular appearances on the 1960s television sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie". Leading man Major Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman), a pilot in the US Air Force, was often to be seen landing and climbing out of the cockpit of an F-104A. That particular aircraft – "56-817" – later became part of the collection of the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island, Oahu, Hawaii.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters is a 1974 satirical concept album by Robert Calvert and others, telling a fictionalized tale of the F-104G's acquisition by and service with the German Air Force. The album included tracks with names such as "the Widowmaker" and "Catch a Falling Starfighter".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was the subject of the 1991 MicroProse game "F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0" and the 1993 Sega Mega Drive-exclusive "F-117 Night Storm".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The F-117 also appeared on the fourth season of the TV series 24, where it was stolen by a former Air Force pilot who was working with a terrorist cell. As part of a plot to steal the nuclear football, the stealth aircraft was used to carry out an attack on Air Force One, with the U.S. President on board, as it approached Los Angeles.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A former US Army Air Force Fairchild UC-61A Forwarder, painted in USAAF colours, makes a brief appearance to represent the Noorduyn UC-64A Norseman in which big band leader Glenn Miller disappeared in December 1944, in the 1954 Universal International Pictures film "The Glenn Miller Story".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The same aircraft was also featured in a 1964 episode of Michael Bentine's BBC TV comedy programme, "It's a Square World", about a shoestring airline with a staff of two. Filming took a day at Elstree Aerodrome, Herts. In 1965, it appeared in an episode of the ITV programme, "The Moonraker".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: When the Fairchild Hiller FH-227D operating as Uruguayan Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya) Flight 571 "T-571" crashed in the Argentine Andes on 13 October 1972, it began a tale of amazing human survival for the 16 of the 45 on board who were rescued over two months later, after two passengers walked to civilization. The survivors' story was published in "", a critically acclaimed book by Piers Paul Read, in 1974. When the story was filmed in 1992 as "Alive", directed by Frank Marshall, a similar FH-227 marked as the doomed aircraft was used for some shots, while Industrial Light & Magic depicted the crash using an eight-foot breakaway model, designed to shear at mid-fuselage. The nose and tail were heavily reinforced while a non-reinforced midsection was built up of plastic, foil, wires and metals so that when it broke it would have the layered metal look of a real airframe breaking up. A cable system was rigged to fly the model, which was on an aligned track, into the miniature mountain, hitting the "sweet spot" on the fuselage, a weakened area barely three inches long.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Fairey Fox I, G-ACXO, race number 35, which participated in the 1934 London to Melbourne MacRobertson Trophy Air Race, was portrayed in the 1991 Australian mini-series "The Great Air Race", also known as "Half a World Away", by an unlikely Boeing Stearman.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Two Fairey Swordfish starred in the 1960 film "Sink the Bismarck!". Swordfish "LS326" was marked as "5A" of 825 Naval Air Squadron, while "NF389" was marked as "LS423" / "5B".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Some Fairey Battles appear in the 1942 movie "Captains of the Clouds". The movie is in colour and features scenes of James Cagney's character flying one.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Focke-Wulf Fw 190s appear in the 1970 novel "Betrayed Skies" by Rudolf Braunburg which depicts a Luftwaffe fighter unit based in Poland in 1944.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A new-build Fw 190 A-8/N participated in the 2007 Finnish war film "Tali-Ihantala 1944", painted in the same markings as "Oberst" Erich Rudorffer's aircraft in 1944.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Fw 190s appear in the French graphic novel "The Grand Duke" (2012) written by Yann, illustrated by Romain Hugault and depicting aerial combat between the Soviet air force and the German Luftwaffe over the Eastern Front in the latter stages of the Second World War.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Focke-Wulf Fw "Triebflügel" aircraft was featured in the 2011 American superhero film "", with the supervillain Red Skull making his first escape in this rocket-aircraft. The scene accurately depicts the rocket and ramjet start and initial climb out of the "Triebflügel". Historically, the "Triebflügel" had only reached wind-tunnel testing when the Allied forces reached the production facilities, and no complete prototype was ever built. CGI vehicles designed for the film were based on real historical aircraft such as the "Triebflügel".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Fokker E.III Eindecker appeared in the BBC TV series "Wings" (1977–1978), a drama series about pilots of the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A scarlet-painted Fokker Dr.I triplane featured in the DC comic "Enemy Ace" and was the mount of the central character Baron Hans von Hammer, a German fighter pilot in the First World War. Debuting in 1965, the comic was written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Joe Kubert and the character has been revived several times since by other writers & artists.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A pair of Dr.Is appear in the 1966 film epic "The Blue Max", directed by John Guillermin and based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Jack D. Hunter. In the film, rival pilots Bruno Stachel (George Peppard) and von Klugermann (Jeremy Kemp) try to out-do one another in a test of nerves by flying their triplanes under a bridge. The scene was filmed at Formoy Viaduct in Ireland and stunt pilot Derek Piggott was obliged to fly a Dr.I under the bridge, through either the wide or narrow spans, a total of 32 times.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Dr.I appears in the 1971 film "Von Richthofen and Brown" (released in the US as "The Red Baron") which was directed by Roger Corman and starred John Phillip Law as the famous German ace. The aircraft makes its first appearance at a cocktail party thrown by the aircraft's designer Anthony Fokker (played by Hurd Hatfield) who shows off his creation to guest of honour Manfred von Richthofen (Law) but the latter's eyes are drawn more to Fokker's attractive mistress.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Fokker Dr.Is appear en masse in the 2006 aerial film "Flyboys" directed by Tony Bill and starring James Franco.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Fokker Dr.Is also appear in the 2008 German film "Der Rote Baron", a biopic about the famous First World War ace Manfred von Richthofen.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1927 William Wellman film "Wings" featured a Fokker D.VII among many types depicting World War I aircraft.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Fokker D.VII is flown in a dogfight by Baron Heinrich von Frohleich versus Race Bannon in a SPAD S.XIII in episode 10 of "Jonny Quest", "Shadow of the Condor", first aired 20 November 1964.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: John Wayne was depicted piloting a Ford Trimotor in several episodes of the 1932 serial film "Hurricane Express". A Ford Trimotor appeared in Chapter 1 of "Flash Gordon" (Universal, 1936). Director Howard Hawks' 1939 film "Only Angels Have Wings" features a Trimotor that catches fire after a freak accident with a condor, eventually performing an emergency landing on an airfield. A real and a model Trimotor were used for the sequence.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Ford 4-AT-E Trimotor, N8407, appeared in the 1965 comedy "The Family Jewels" "flown" by Jerry Lewis. This aircraft is now owned by the Experimental Aircraft Association.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Ford 5-AT-B Trimotor currently owned by Kermit Weeks' Fantasy of Flight Museum was featured early in the opening of the 1984 film "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Trimotor was also featured in Brian DePalma's 1987 version of "The Untouchables" with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Ford Trimotor 4AT-B featured in the 2009 film "Amelia", a biopic of aviator Amelia Earhart starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. The aircraft featured in the film belonged to the Golden Wings Museum, Minnesota.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) Nomad, an Australian-built twin-engine STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft, was a regular feature on the successful Australian TV series "The Flying Doctors" which aired on the Nine Network 1986–1993. The GAF Nomad had a controversial history with a high accident rate. Of the 172 that were constructed, 32 were involved in major hull-loss accidents, resulting in 76 fatalities including GAF test pilot Stuart Pearce (father of actor Guy Pearce).


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Two Gee Bee Model Z Super Sportster racing aircraft were featured in the 1991 Walt Disney film "The Rocketeer".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Kermit Weeks, founder of Fantasy of Flight, used a Gee Bee Model Z as his main character "Zee" in a 2008 series of children's books set in the interwar period.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Mexican Gee Bee Racer named "El Chupacabra" is one of the characters in the 2013 Disney animated film "Planes".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Gloster Gladiators appear in the Second World War novel "Signed with their Honour", written in 1942 by Australian author and war correspondent James Aldridge. The novel is set during the Axis invasion of Greece in 1940–41 and the central character is a British pilot named John Quayle who flies Gladiators with No. 80 Squadron RAF. An attempt in 1943 to make a film based on the novel was abandoned when two Gladiators were destroyed in a mid-air collision during the production.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A privately owned Gloster Meteor TT20, "N94749" appeared in the two-part 1976 episode, "The Feminum Mystique", of the first season of the "Wonder Woman" television series, as the experimental "XPJ-1" fighter which is stolen by the Nazis. This airframe has been donated to the Edwards Air Force Base Flight Test Center museum. The episode title was borrowed from Betty Friedan's 1963 book of a similar title, which is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the US.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Gloster Meteor T.7, either "WA634" or "WA638", owned by Martin-Baker appeared in the episode "Many Happy Returns" of the 1967 British TV series "The Prisoner".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1977 John Frankenheimer film "Black Sunday" features the Goodyear Blimp as the vehicle which Black September terrorists plan to hijack and attack the Super Bowl, played in the Orange Bowl in Miami.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Gotha G.IV appears in the 2006 First World War aerial film "Flyboys" directed by Tony Bill and starring James Franco. To depict the bomber, the producers used both computer-generated imagery and a replica of the forward fuselage of a Gotha, now displayed in a museum at RAF Manston.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Grumman G-21 Goose, painted red, white and black, named "Cutter's Goose", was the main transport of protagonist Jake Cutter (played by Stephen Collins) in the early 1982–83 adventure television series, "Tales of the Gold Monkey", and used to transport Cutter and his allies among various south Pacific islands in the late 1930s setting of the show.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1964 film "Flight from Ashiya", starring Richard Widmark, Yul Brynner and George Chakiris, follows the crews of two Grumman HU-16 Albatross of the USAF Air Rescue Service as they attempt to rescue the survivors of a Japanese shipwreck in the North China Sea.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Grumman J2F Duck was the primary plot device of the 1971 United Artists film "Murphy's War", starring Peter O'Toole as the title character. Stunt flying was done by Frank Tallman. The J2F-6 which starred in the film, BuNo "33587", afterwards resided in the Weeks Air Museum in Florida, USA (now the Fantasy of Flight Museum).


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1944 film "Wing and a Prayer" is the fictional account of a torpedo squadron equipped with Grumman TBF Avengers in early 1942. The movie culminates when the squadron fights at the Battle of Midway.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A group of Avengers appears in the opening scene of Steven Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". In the scene, a group of officials arrive at an isolated cantina in Mexico's Sonora Desert where the five Avengers of 'Flight-19' have mysteriously appeared overnight. Flight 19 was the infamous training flight of five TBMs that vanished without trace after taking off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on 5 December 1945. One of the TBMs featured in the scene was the TBM-3E (BuNo "53503") now owned and flown by the Rocky Mountain Wing of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF).


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Grumman G-44 Widgeon opened each week's episode of the 1978–1984 television series "Fantasy Island".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In Kaoru Shintani's manga series "Area 88", main character Shin Kazama pilots an X-29 during the final battles.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Bollywood war film "Border" is a fictionalized account of the 1971 Battle of Longewala between India and Pakistan. In the film a formation of HAL HF-24 Marut fighter-bombers of the Indian Air Force bomb Pakistani armoured ground forces consisting of 300 tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Gobots character Royal-T and the Transformers Aerialbot named Slingshot disguise themselves 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.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Royal Air Force Harrier was used by MI6 in the 1987 James Bond film "The Living Daylights" to smuggle KGB defector Georgi Koskov out of Austria.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Two AV-8B Harrier IIs were used in the 1994 film "True Lies". The aircraft was prominent in the latter part of the film, being used by Arnold Schwarzenegger's character to rescue his daughter from terrorists in a Miami high rise and shoot down their helicopter.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Harrier was one of the aircraft types featured in the short-lived 1982 BBC-TV series "Squadron" which was a drama about a fictional Royal Air Force unit, 373 Squadron. The unit was a Rapid Deployment Force and featured an unusual mix of aircraft including Harriers, C-130 Hercules and Puma helicopters. The series ran for 10 episodes.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The novel "A God in Ruins" (2015) by Kate Atkinson features the Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber. The central character, Teddy Todd, is a Halifax pilot serving with RAF Bomber Command during WW2 and flies over 70 night-bombing missions over Germany.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1962 British film "The Iron Maiden" features a Handley Page Victor bomber as a fictional supersonic passenger-carrying airliner designed by the protagonist. At the end of the film, this fictional airliner is named after the eponymous traction engine.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Hawker Hunter Mk 4s play a major role in the 1957 British Cinemascope motion picture "High Flight" directed by John Gilling and starring Ray Milland.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A formation of Hawker Hunters of the Chilean Air Force appeared in the 2004 Chilean film "Machuca" in which they bomb the "Palacio de La Moneda".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The music video for the 2000 electronica single "Sunset (Bird of Prey)" by Fatboy Slim features a Hawker Hunter trainer in United States Air Force livery, as the titular "Bird of Prey".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Along with the Supermarine Spitfire, the Hawker Hurricane is very strongly linked to the Battle of Britain in summer 1940, where the Royal Air Force fought the German Luftwaffe over the skies of Britain for air superiority. As such it has been featured in many works of fiction related to the Battle of Britain.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A number of Hawker Hurricanes, including the last one built, registered G-AMAU, "The Last of the Many", and five provided by the Portuguese Air Force, which flew the type until mid-1954, were used in the making of the Templar Productions Ltd. production provisionally titled ""Hawks in the Sun"", based on the book "What Are Your Angels Now?" by Wing Commander A. J. C. Pelham Groom, then released in March 1952 as "Angels One Five".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Hurricanes were shown in the 1956 British film "Reach For the Sky" starring Kenneth More and directed by Lewis Gilbert and based on the biography of Douglas Bader by Paul Brickhill. One Hurricane which featured in a static role in the film was the Mk. I, "P2617", now preserved at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon. Another, which flew in the aerial scenes, was the Mk-IIc, "LF363", now operated by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at Conningsby, UK.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Hawker Hurricane was shown in the 1969 film "Battle of Britain". Three airworthy Hurricanes were located and used for the filming.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Hawker Hurricane was the fighter flown by the Second World War character Johnny Redburn in the long-running British comic strip "Johnny Red" which was published in "Battle Picture Weekly" 1977–1987. The storyline featured Redburn, having been discharged from the RAF and joining the Merchant Navy, commandeers a CAM ship's Hurricane during an attack on a convoy (after the official pilot is killed), and ends up stranded in Soviet Russia at the height of the war against the Germans in which he fights alongside Russian pilots. The comic was written by Tom Tully and illustrated by Joe Colquhoun, John Cooper and Carlos Pino. The character was revived in 2017 for the graphic novel mini-series "Johnny Red: The Hurricane" written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Keith Burns.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Hawker Hurricane Mk. I is the aircraft for the fictional RAF pilots depicted in the 1983 novel "Piece of Cake" by Derek Robinson. The 1988 miniseries based on the novel used Supermarine Spitfires instead of Hurricanes.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Hiller UH-12 appears in the 1951 sci-fi film "When Worlds Collide" directed by George Pal and based on the 1933 novel of the same name. The helicopter is used to render assistance to flood-stranded refugees and to rescue a young boy stranded on a rooftop.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Hiller UH-12E suffered a tail-rotor strike during filming of the 1978 film "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". Footage of the crash was used in the film. The helicopter pilot and actors on board escaped without serious injury, but the helicopter was destroyed.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: 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 National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Twenty-eight former Spanish Air Force Hispano Aviación HA-1112s were used in the 1969 film "Battle of Britain" as "stand-ins" to depict Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters of the "Luftwaffe", 27 single-seat M1Ls, and one two-seat M4L. Eighteen were flown, six could taxi, the rest used to dress sets. 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 unairworthy 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 several airframes in flyable condition and some 50 dismantled Buchóns were up for disposal bid. The four airframes acquired by the Confederate Air Force just prior to the start of filming "were the first Buchóns in truly civilian ownership, early members of the fledgling warbird preservation movement."


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Several Buchóns were painted in RAF markings for the 1969 Italian "macaroni combat" war film "Eagles Over London", also known as "Battle Squadron" and "Battle Command" (), directed by Enzo G. Castellari. "In 1979, much of the footage shot for "Eagles Over London" appeared in the dire George Peppard film "Hell to Victory"".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Three of the Buchóns were "hastily converted into P-51B Mustangs for the 1970 film "Patton". This involved the attachment of a large Mustang-esque fibreglass air intake to the underside of the fuselage."


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: One CAF Buchón flew as a Bf 109B in Condor Legion markings for the film "The Hindenburg" which began filming in August 1974.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Buchóns, again depicting Bf 109s, made an appearance on the 1980 ABC-network TV sci-fi series "Galactica 1980", a short-lived spin-off from the original "Battlestar Galactica" series. The heroes travel back in time in their space Vipers to Earth during the Second World War and encounter the "Luftwaffe". The footage of Buchóns consisted of out-takes from the 1969 film "Battle of Britain".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: One Buchón, which had taxied in "The Battle of Britain", flew in the 1988 LWT miniseries "Piece of Cake", and was one of three flyable HA-1112s used to depict Bf 109s in the 1990 film "Memphis Belle". The "Piece of Cake" Buchón also appeared in the 1991 ITV television miniseries "A Perfect Hero".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Buchón now with the Planes of Fame Air Museum, Chino, California, is under repair after a landing accident at Lydd in Kent during filming of the 2001 film "Pearl Harbor" in 2000.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A former training airframe that did not appear in the "Battle of Britain" but which was restored to Bf 109G-10 standard in the early 1990s, and operated by the Old Flying Machine Company, appeared in the 1995 telemovie "Over Here" starring Martin Clunes.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Three Hughes OH-6A Cayuse helicopters make up part of the strike package against Ernst Stavro Blofeld's oil rig command center in the 1971 James Bond film "Diamonds Are Forever".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Hughes 500C takes part in the 1973 telemovie "Birds of Prey", in which a traffic reporter, played by David Janssen, gets into an aerial duel with a gang of bank robbers, who have their own getaway helicopter, an Aérospatiale Lama.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A pair of Hughes 500 helicopters appear in the 1978 film "Capricorn One", near the climactic ending where they get entangled with a crop duster biplane.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: "240-Robert" is an American television series that ran on ABC from 1979 to 1981. The series was about a specialized unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), that used four–wheel drive vehicles and a Hughes 500 helicopter.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1980s television series "Magnum, P.I.", Thomas Magnum's friend and fellow war veteran T.C. (for Theodore Calvin) flies a civilian Hughes 500D as a tourist charter Island Hoppers business.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: MD Helicopters MH-6 Little Bird helicopters provided air support for the downed Blackhawk's crash site in the 2001 film "Black Hawk Down".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the film "Fire Birds" (1990), a drug runner's Scorpion helicopter (portrayed by an MD 500) ambushes a US Army AH-1 Cobra during the opening sequence.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Also known as the "Hercules HK-1" and ""The Spruce Goose"", this gigantic flying boat has made a number of appearances in fiction.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The aircraft was central to the plot of the 1987 Hanna-Barbera animated film "Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1988 biopic "", a pivotal meeting between automaker Preston Tucker and Howard Hughes takes place in front of the Hercules, within its hangar, where Hughes briefly tells Tucker that whether the Hercules flies is not the point, as well as how to circumvent the "establishment" and Senator Ferguson.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1991 adventure film "The Rocketeer", hero Cliff Secord uses a large-scale model of the Hughes H-4 Hercules to escape some eager federal agents and Howard Hughes himself. After Secord glides the model to safety, Hughes expresses relief that the craft would actually fly.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The production and sole test flight of the H-4 Hercules was depicted in the 2004 Martin Scorsese film "The Aviator". A flying large-scale model was used for the film, and it is now displayed next to the original aircraft at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the video game "L.A. Noire" (2011) the player is able to enter the aircraft. Additionally, exterior and interior views of the H-4 Hercules aircraft appear in the opening introduction of the DLC mission, "Nicholson Electroplating".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The aircraft was the center of a con job in TNT's drama series "Leverage", Episode 5.01 "The Very Big Bird Job", which aired 15 July 2012, involved "selling" the Hercules. Part of the con involves convincing the mark that Hughes secretly gave the aircraft stealth capabilities.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 7 July 1946 maiden flight of the Hughes XF-11 reconnaissance design which ended in a crash in Beverly Hills, California, severely injuring pilot Howard Hughes was depicted in a 1977 telemovie, "The Amazing Howard Hughes" (with a P-38 Lightning standing in for the XF-11), and again in the 2004 Martin Scorsese film, "The Aviator", with the aircraft depicted by a mock-up with flight rendered through CGI.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The ICON A5 is the starter aircraft in "Microsoft Flight". It is included in all of the editions of "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1973 film "The Fifth Offensive", starring Richard Burton, had an Ikarus Kurir L playing the part of a Luftwaffe Fieseler Storch.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Swiss Air Force Junkers Ju 52/3m was used in the 1968 action thriller "Where Eagles Dare". The opening scene of the film shows the camouflaged Ju-52 flying at night over and through the Bavarian Alps en route to where the team of Allied infiltrators are dropped by parachute. The same aircraft rescues the main characters at the conclusion of the film.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Ju-52 appears in the 1973 novel "Band of Brothers" by Ernest K. Gann in which an abandoned example is resurrected and flown on two engines by a team of pilots.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Two Ju 52s appeared in one of the early scenes in the 2008 Second World War film "Valkyrie" directed by Bryan Singer and starring Tom Cruise. One aircraft was painted in a Luftwaffe scheme, the other in an all-silver finish.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the second season of the television series "Babylon Berlin", characters Gereon Rath and Reinhold Gräf use a Ju 52 to inspect the then-secret German-operated Lipetsk fighter-pilot school in the Soviet Union. The appearance is anachronistic, as the episode takes place before the aircraft entered production.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1941 Nazi propaganda film "Stukas", produced by Karl Ritter, described the wartime exploits of a squadron of Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers and their pilots during the Invasion of France during World War II.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A replica Junkers W 33 appears in the 1985 Australian TV mini-series "Flight into Hell", a dramatisation of the 1932 Kimberley rescue of German aviators Hans Bertram and Adolph Klausmann who, during an attempt to circumnavigate the world, crash-landed in a remote region of North-West Australia.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A pair of Ka-27 Helix helicopters appear throughout Martin Campbell's 1994 film "No Escape". The helicopters transport inmates to a prison island, and patrol the shoreline for would be escapees.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1934 screwball comedy "It Happened One Night", the foppish bridegroom "King" Westley (Jameson Thomas) arrives at his own wedding "piloting" a Kellett Autogiro Corporation K-3 autogyro, c/n 16, NC12691, (although the real pilot can be seen crouching in the cockpit after Westley deplanes). The same autogyro appeared in the 1933 W. C. Fields film "International House".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Stinson L-5A Sentinel was shown in the 1969 Mike Nichols film "Catch-22" as the aircraft that a pilot commits suicide in after accidentally killing another squadron member with his propeller. The title of Joseph Heller's 1961 satirical novel of the same name has entered the lexicon.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The one-of-a-kind Lamson L-106 Alcor pressurized high-altitude research sailplane played a key role in the 1977 book "Sierra Sierra", by John Joss. In the novel, Marine fighter pilot Mark Lewis saw his best friend, John O'Halloran, killed on the last day of the Vietnam War. When he travels to Seattle, Washington, to explain O'Halloran's death to his family he discovers that O'Halloran's father and sister are engaged in building a research glider, the Alcor, in which O'Halloran was to have set world records for altitude and distance, when he returned from Vietnam. Instead Lewis takes O'Halloran's place in the project, while trying to put his own life back together after the war, flying the Alcor in the mountain wave of the Sierra Nevada.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Lockheed Constellations of Trans World Airlines were depicted in the 2004 Martin Scorsese film "The Aviator". The preserved Super Constellation, "Star of America", "N6937C", of the Airline History Museum was filmed at San Bernardino International Airport, California, for this Howard Hughes biopic. A fleet of grounded Connies was rendered in CGI.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The same aircraft ("N6937C") was also used in the 1992 film "Voyager" which starred Sam Shepard and was directed by Volker Schlöndorff.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In Jimmie H. Butler's 1991 novel "Red Lightning, Black Thunder", the US deploys a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter out of Hawaii in a mission to launch ASAT missiles against a Soviet network of killer satellites.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Hainan Island incident was referenced in the television series "JAG", in the 2001 episode "Dog Robber" during season 7. In this episode based on the real incident, a US Navy Lockheed EP-3 Orion collides in mid-air with a Chinese fighter. The EP-3 crew then make an emergency landing at Fuzhou air base in China. The crew and aircraft are detained as in the real incident. A US delegation led by Admiral Thomas Boone flies to the base and secures the release of the crew, but the aircraft remains in Chinese custody. Against orders a Navy Lieutenant flies into Chinese airspace and destroys the EP-3 before the Chinese have a chance to study it in detail. This leads to him being court-martialed.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Lockheed F-80 Shooting Stars appear in the 1953 novel "Troubling of a Star" by Walt Sheldon which portrayed a USAF unit stationed in occupied Japan during the Korean War.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior, registration NC17342 appears in the 1940 film "Flight Angels" as an experimental aircraft called the "Stratosphere". This particular aircraft also appears in the films "Rosalie", "Nick Carter, Master Detective", "Secret Service of the Air", and "Murder Over New York".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Model 12 Electra Junior appeared as the French airliner in the climactic final scene from the 1942 film "Casablanca". (The aircraft carries the Air France seahorse logo, although Air France did not operate the type.) A "cut-out" stood in for a real aircraft in many shots.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A pair of restored Lockheed Model 12 Electra Juniors was used in the filming of the 2009 movie "Amelia", a biopic of aviator Amelia Earhart which starred Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. One of the aircraft was repainted to resemble a Lockheed Model 10 which was the aircraft in which Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were flying when they disappeared in 1937. The owner and restorer of the latter aircraft, pilot Joe Sheppard, flew the plane during filming and he had to shave off his moustache and wear a wig to resemble Swank.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Lockheed Hudsons appeared in the films "A Yank in the R.A.F." (1941) and "Captains of the Clouds" (1942)


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A vintage flying Lockheed Hudson IV appeared in the 2005 Second World War film "The Great Raid" directed by John Dahl. The film was based on the book by William Breuer. The Hudson now resides in the Temora Aviation Museum in Australia.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Lockheed Hudsons appeared in the 2006 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) mini-series "Above and Beyond" which portrayed the work of the Atlantic Ferry Organisation in flying military aircraft across the North Atlantic from Canada to deliver them to the RAF in Great Britain during the Second World War. An actual Hudson appeared in the series along with a number of others recreated with CGI.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Auric Goldfinger's private aircraft in the 1964 James Bond film "Goldfinger" is a Lockheed L-1329 JetStar with "Auric Enterprises" on the nose. A similar version designated C-140 in US military service appears without markings as a U.S. Military Air Transport Service plane to transport Bond to Washington to meet the US president before the film's climactic showdown between Bond and Goldfinger.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The demise of a Lockheed JetStar and its passengers features prominently in the opening chapters of Cormac McCarthy's 2022 novel The Passenger, forming a plot point around which the majority of the book revolves.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Several Lockheed L-1011 TriStars were depicted in the 1990 action film "Die Hard 2", with two large models constructed by Industrial Light and Magic "flown" on wires for the cameras through "storm clouds" made of non-toxic vaporized mineral oil. Filming was done at a remote airstrip in the Mojave Desert in California. Whipped by the Santa Ana winds coming through the Tehachapi Pass into the valley, the smoke effect contributed convincing heavy weather to the shots.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Lockheed L-1011 Tristar appears in the 1992 film "Passenger 57" as the location of a terrorist hijacking. The aircraft, registration N330EA, was formerly operated commercially by Eastern Airlines and was painted in the livery of the fictional airline "Atlantic International" for the film.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: An L-1011 is used in the Stephen King TV miniseries "the Langoliers". Registration N31018, c/n 193B-1065 built in 1974. Formerly of TWA-Trans World Airlines.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In "Final Approach" terrorists take over an L-1011, the actual plane being N140SC currently operated as Stargazer.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Although a Boeing 777 is mentioned as aircraft for the ill-fated Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 central to the ABC television series "Lost", the fuselage used to represent the wreckage on the beach was a Lockheed L-1011-385 formerly operated by Delta Air Lines.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1985 film "D.A.R.Y.L." the protagonist steals an SR-71 Blackbird from an air base while trying to escape from government agents.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In Payne Harrison's 1990 novel "Storming Intrepid", the US deploys an SR-71 over the USSR on an ELINT mission to record communications between the hijacked shuttle "Intrepid" and Soviet commanders on the ground. The Soviet air defenses attempt to shoot down the aircraft as it tries to get out of Soviet airspace. The aircraft briefly flames out, but successfully recovers and narrowly escapes a missile trap by MiG-31 interceptors.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Although already retired from service for around a decade at the time of the film's release, the SR-71 Blackbird appears as the alt-mode of the character Jetfire, an over-the-hill Transformer near the end of his days, in the 2009 film "" and its toy line.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Lockheed T-33, the trainer version of the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, appeared in the 1955 science-fiction film "This Island Earth". In one of the early scenes of the film, the hero scientist Cal (played by Rex Reason) is about to land his T-33 at the desert airfield near his government-owned laboratory when the aircraft becomes ensnared by some unknown alien force. The film achieved renewed fame when it was spoofed in the 1996 comedy "".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A T-33 played the role of a Soviet "Yak-12" in the 1957 Cold War romantic/drama "Jet Pilot" which starred John Wayne and Janet Leigh and was directed by Howard Hughes.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In 2015, Steven Spielberg's film "Bridge of Spies" recreated the 1960 events of a Lockheed U-2 piloted by Francis Gary Powers being shot down while on a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The U-2 made an important appearance in the 2000 Beacon Pictures docudrama "Thirteen Days" as the aircraft that initially detected Soviet missiles being deployed in Cuba in October 1962, and was later shot down, killing pilot Maj. Rudolf Anderson, Jr. (played by Chip Esten), the only combat casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1980s television series "Call to Glory", the U-2 was the "main ride" of U.S. Air Force Colonel Raynor Sarnac from the October 1962 Cuba Crisis to 1979.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Lockheed Vega DL-1B Special, one of only two that remain in flying condition, was used in the 1976 television miniseries "Amelia Earhart", starring Susan Clark as the aviatrix.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Stinson Reliant stood in for Lockheed Vega DL-1 Special, G-ABGK, c/n 155, "Puck", race number 36, in the 1991 Australian mini-series "The Great Air Race", about the 1934 London to Melbourne MacRobertson Trophy Air Race. It is also known as "Half a World Away".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1927 William Wellman film "Wings" featured Martin MB-2s among many types depicting World War I aircraft.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In Michael Crichton's "Airframe", one of the characters uses the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 which involved a DC-10 to describe how a highly publicized accident can destroy a good airplane's reputation because "a media industry that has grown hostile and shallow with the ascendancy of television always jumps to the wrong conclusion."


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: James Bond fights the crew of the MBB Bo 105 helicopter as it flies over Mexico City's Day of the Dead parade in the 2015 film "Spectre"


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Two Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifuns depicted Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters in the 1962 film "The Longest Day", and the type substituted for unavailable "Luftwaffe" fighters again in the 1964 film "633 Squadron".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: 27 Spanish Hispano Aviación HA-1112 M1L 'Buchon' single-engined fighters, Messerschmitt Bf 109s built under license in Spain, were used in the 1969 film "Battle of Britain". The Buchons were altered to look more like correct Bf 109Es, adding mock machine guns and cannon, redundant tailplane struts, and removing the rounded wingtips.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Computer-generated images of Bf 109Gs appear in the 2012 Second World War aerial film "Red Tails" directed by Anthony Hemingway and produced by Lucasfilm.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A computer-generated Bf 109 also appears in the 2002 war film "Hart's War" which starred Colin Farrell and Bruce Willis and was based on the 1999 novel of the same name by John Katzenbach. In the film, a Bf 109 engages in a dogfight with a P-51 above the POW camp where the film is set and the former is shot down, crashing into one of the camp's guard-posts.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Messerschmitt Bf 110 appears in the 1952 British war film "Angels One Five". In the film, the Luftwaffe raids 'Pimpernel' Squadron's airfield at Neethly. During the attack, Pilot Officer 'Septic' Baird (John Gregson), although not yet an operational pilot, runs to a spare Hawker Hurricane fighter and takes off. He engages and shoots down a Bf-110 over the airfield and is later seen proudly inspecting the crashed aircraft although Baird is later reprimanded by his CO because during the battle, he carelessly left his radio stuck on 'transmit', preventing other pilots from communicating. The Messerschmitt used in the film was a captured Bf-110G-4 which was later scrapped after filming.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The American hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult portrayed a Messerschmitt Me 262A on the cover of their third album "Secret Treaties" (1974). The album also contains a song, "Me 262", written from the point of view of a "Luftwaffe" pilot on a bomber interception mission in April 1945.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2000 alternate history novel "Fox on the Rhine", by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson, the "Luftwaffe", under Adolf Galland's command, prioritizes the development of the Me 262. A number of squadrons are used to maul a heavy bomber raid in concert with other, propeller-driven, fighters, but worker sabotage of the engines affects their operational performance.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the second and last issue of the 2001 DC Vertigo miniseries "Enemy Ace: War in Heaven", lead character Hans von Hammer leads a "Luftwaffe" flight against USAAF bomber formations with him piloting a scarlet red Me 262 that has no swastika tail insignia. Seeing the hopelessness of the war, he and his men later destroy the remaining 262s in their control before surrendering to a US Army unit.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: As was common in the 1950s, "MiGs" (presumably MiG−15s, as the story is set in Korea) appear in the 1956 novel "The Hunters" by James Salter about USAF fighter pilots. As was common in the 1950s, the MiGs are portrayed by Republic F-84F Thunderstreaks in the 1958 film "The Hunters"


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: MiGs were also played on screen by the F-5 Tiger II in 1986's "Top Gun" and the 1998 "JAG" episode 3.24.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: MiGs appear in the 2007 novel "Ascent" by UK author Jed Mercurio, a fictional work about a Soviet pilot Yefgeni Yeremin covertly flying MiGs during the Korean War. The book was later adapted into a graphic novel in 2011, illustrated by Wesley Robins.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Indian (Hindi) films "Silsila" (1981), "Border" and "Rang De Basanti" (2006) depicted the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Mikoyan MiG-29 is the alternate form of the figure Dreadwing as well as its redecos Overcast and Fearswoop from the 2007 and 2009 "Transformers" film toy lines.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Mil Mi-17 is used in the 2001 film "Behind Enemy Lines" as a NATO combat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopter that makes an attempt to rescue a downed airman.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: At the beginning of the 2002 film "Die Another Day", a Mil Mi-8T is commandeered by James Bond, to infiltrate the antagonists' base.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The aircraft also appeared in the 2006 film "Blood Diamond", directed by Edward Zwick; it was used by the protagonist to reach a refugee camp.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: An Mil Mi-8 helicopter appears in a major sequence in the 2019 Netflix film "Triple Frontier" directed by J C Chandor and starring Ben Affleck.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Mi-8s appear in the 2019 HBO mini-series "Chernobyl". Mi-8s were among the Soviet helicopters used to firefight and monitor the exploded reactor in 1986. In the series, helicopters are seen dropping sand-bags onto the fire and one helicopter is destroyed in a crash. The series portrays the incident as taking place shortly after the initial explosion at the reactor but in reality, the crash occurred some weeks later.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Mil Mi-24 helicopter appears in the 1997 film "Air Force One". The aircraft is used to retrieve a Russian prisoner in exchange for the US President, who is being held captive.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Mi-24 appears numerous times in the "Metal Gear" video game series, starting from the 1987 MSX original. Its appearance as a boss battle in the 1998 game "Metal Gear Solid" is probably the most famous instance.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The helicopter is used extensively in the 2005 film "The 9th Company", which fictionally depicts the Battle for Hill 3234 where Soviet Army paratroopers defend their post against Mujahideen fighters. It was especially employed to eliminate the Mujahideen's last wave of attack in the film's climactic battle.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 2007 film "Charlie Wilson's War" portrays the Mi-24 as used in the Soviet–Afghan War. Mujahideen use FIM-92 Stinger missiles supplied through US Congressman Charlie Wilson's efforts to shoot down Soviet Mi-24s.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The helicopter is used by the antagonist to flee a Moscow rooftop in the 2013 film "A Good Day to Die Hard".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2022 film "", a Mi-24 is used by the enemy in an attempt to kill Pete "Maverick" Mitchell after his aircraft was shot down, only for the hostile Mi-24 to be shot down by Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2013 Bruce Willis action film "A Good Day to Die Hard", a Mil Mi-26T, leased from the Belarus Ministry for Emergency Situations and painted in washable military camouflage, was used in various scenes.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: For the 1991 Australian mini-series "The Great Air Race", about the 1934 London to Melbourne MacRobertson Trophy Air Race, also known as "Half a World Away", Miles Falcon, VH-AAT, played Miles M.3 Falcon, G-ACTM, the prototype fitted with extra fuel tanks, race number 31.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Mitsubishi A5M Type 96 fighter, known to the Allies as the "Claude"", features prominently in the 2013 Studio Ghibli animated feature "The Wind Rises" directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The film is a semi-fictionalised lyrical portrayal of the famous Japanese aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi and depicts him designing the A5M in the 1930s.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Moller M400 Skycar appears in the 2010 telemovie "The Jensen Project" with LeVar Burton and Kellie Martin. It also appears in Clive Cussler's novel "Atlantis Found", where it is flown by Dirk Pitt.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Morane-Saulnier MS.230 appears as the fictional "new monoplane"'" in the 1966 World War I epic "The Blue Max" and was the aircraft in which the central character Bruno Stachel (George Peppard) meets his demise. Peppard purchased the aircraft and took it back to the US where it joined the collection of the San Diego Aerospace Museum. The plot, which has Stachel wringing-out a new design until it sheds its wings, is based on the experience with the late-war Fokker E.V, a parasol design, three of six of which crashed within a week of being delivered to "Jasta 6" in August 1918. Grounded for investigation, the problem was traced to shoddy workmanship at the Mecklenburg factory where defective wood spars, water damage to glued parts, and pins carelessly splintering the members instead of securing them were discovered. Upon return to service two months later, the design was renamed the Fokker D.VIII in an effort to avoid the type's reputation as a killer.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A replica of a Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa appeared in the 2007 Japanese motion picture "For Those We Love", a drama about WW2 Kamikaze pilots.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: An authentic Nieuport 28 was provided and flown by Frank Tallman, a Hollywood film pilot, for "The Twilight Zone" episode "The Last Flight" in which a World War I Royal Flying Corps pilot is transported in time in a cloud to the 1960s. Norton Air Force Base, California, was the filming site. The episode first aired on 5 February 1960.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Canadian-built variants of the North American T-6 Texan are seen in the 1943 RKO film "Bombardier", filmed at Kirtland Field, New Mexico.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Noorduyn Norseman appears in scenes in the 1942 Warner Bros. film "Captains of the Clouds", with Jimmy Cagney as a Canadian bush pilot at the start of World War II.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1941 Paramount Pictures film "I Wanted Wings" featured flights of more than 50 North American T-6 Texans from Kelly Field, Texas.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: An SNJ-5 Texan, a naval variant of the AT-6, appeared in several television productions. It was modified to play the role of a Japanese Zero in the TV series "Baa Baa Black Sheep" (1977) and the mini-series "Pearl" (1979) and it played the roles of both a Zero and an SBD Dauntless in the 1987 mini-series "War and Remembrance". T-6 Texans, one piloted by World War Two Marine Ace Archie Donaue represented Japanese Zeroes in the 1980 science fiction film The Final Countdown (film)


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: North American Harvards, the British Commonwealth name for the AT-6, appear prominently in Captains of the Clouds, starring James Cagney.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: North American BT-9 and BT-16 basic trainers were filmed at Randolph Field, Texas, for the 1941 Paramount Pictures film "I Wanted Wings", based on the 1937 novel of the same title by 1st Lt. Beirne Lay, Jr.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: On 5 November 1959, a small engine fire forced pilot Scott Crossfield to make an emergency landing on Rosamond Dry Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, California, in a North American X-15. Not designed to land with fuel on board, the X-15 landed with a heavy load of propellants and broke its back, grounding it for three months. Footage of this accident was later incorporated in "The Outer Limits" episode "The Premonition", first aired 9 January 1965.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The rocket craft is also the subject of the 1961 Essex Productions film "X-15", a fictionalized account of the program, directed by Richard Donner in his first outing, and narrated by USAF Brigadier General (Reserve) James Stewart in an uncredited role.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the opening scene of the 2018 film "First Man", Neil Armstrong, played by Ryan Gosling, is seen piloting a North American X-15 during a test flight.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Northrop A-17 makes an appearance at March Field at the conclusion of the 1941 Paramount Pictures film "I Wanted Wings".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Northrop M2-F2, a NASA research aircraft, appears in the 1970s TV series "The Six Million Dollar Man", starring Lee Majors. In the first episode, protagonist Steve Austin crashes the aircraft during a test flight and is severely injured. The footage used was from a real M2-F2 accident that took place on 10 May 1967 in the California desert. The clip of the crash was also used in the opening titles of each episode. The opening titles also used footage of the later Northrop HL-10 aircraft.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Paramount Pictures' 1953 film, "The War of the Worlds" incorporates color footage of a Northrop YB-49 test flight, originally used in one of Paramount's Popular Science theatrical shorts. In the George Pal film, the Flying Wing is used to drop an atomic bomb on the invading Martians.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the film "The Final Countdown" (1980) a Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is used by the USS "Nimitz" as an airborne command and radar facility to track the Japanese Fleet heading to attack Pearl Harbour.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2022 film , the E-2 plays an important role in the topical air attack operation, conducting the strike pack (consisting of four F-18) and detecting enemy aircraft.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1990 film "Air America", which loosely recounted the exploits of the Central Intelligence Agency proprietary airline in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and early 1970s, featured Cessna O-1 Bird Dogs.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: United States Navy Curtiss O2C-2 Helldivers from Floyd Bennett Field were used in filming "King Kong" in 1933, but as Carl Denham observed, "Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast." Writer and director Merian C. Cooper portrayed the pilot who kills Kong, while director Ernest B. Schoedsack plays his gunner, in uncredited roles. In the 2005 remake of the film, director Peter Jackson plays one of the gunners while the pilot is portrayed by Rick Baker, who played Kong (in a rubber suit) in the 1976 remake.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1927 William Wellman film "Wings" featured Curtiss P-1 Hawks among many types depicting World War I aircraft. The P-1s were used to portray German Albatros D.V fighters.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A civilianized Seversky P-35, the Seversky S2, which won the 1937 Bendix Trophy race, appeared as the "Drake Bullet" in the 1938 MGM film "Test Pilot".


title: Aircraft in fiction

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


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: 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.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1965 film "Von Ryan's Express" begins with main protagonist, USAAF Colonel Joseph Ryan (Frank Sinatra), crash landing a P-38 Lightning in World War II Italy and being held as a prisoner of war.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: P-38s appear in the 1968 novel "Order of Battle" by Alfred Coppel, a work that portrays US P-38Fs in the fighter-bomber role over Europe in WW2.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1992 action film "", the main character, Brig. Gen. Chappy Sinclair (Louis Gossett Jr.), pilots a P-38J as part a mission to field old Second World War airshow aircraft against a drug cartel in Peru. The aircraft, registration N38BP, came from the Planes of Fame museum.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The CAPCOM game 1942 for the arcades and the Nintendo Entertainment System features the P-38 as the default plane of choice.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1942 John Wayne film "Flying Tigers", real Curtiss P-40 Warhawks are featured. "The New York Times" critic called the P-40s "the true stars" of the film. Republic Studios also built replicas for the film due to material shortages during the war. These can be identified by the fairings hiding the cylinder heads of the automotive V-8 engines installed in them, and the lack of elevators on the horizontal stabilizer.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Future US President Ronald Reagan appears in the "Recognition of the Japanese Zero Fighter" (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.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A P-40 featured in the 1973 made-for-TV film "Death Race" (also known as "State of Division") which starred Lloyd Bridges and Doug McClure. The film featured a damaged Allied fighter, unable to take off but still able to taxi, being pursued across North Africa by a German tank.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Steve Earle's 1988 song "Johnny Come Lately" from the album "Copperhead Road" 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."


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: P-51 Mustangs featured in the 1948 Warner Bros. film "Fighter Squadron" which was directed by Raoul Walsh and starred Edmond O'Brien & Robert Stack. In this film, P-51Ds belonging to the California Air National Guard played the role of German Me-109 fighters to which the P-51 bore some resemblance from certain angles. For the production, P-51s were coated with acrylic Luftwaffe paint-schemes. The aerial sequences were filmed near Van Nuys in Los Angeles, California.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A P-51 Mustang piloted by Jimmy Leeward features as an antagonist in the 1980 aerobatics movie Cloud Dancer.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Steven Spielberg film "Empire of the Sun" (1987), based on the J. G. Ballard novel of the same name, featured models and restored Mustangs in an attack on a Japanese airstrip next to the internment camp where the story's protagonist is imprisoned. This was the most complex and elaborately staged sequence of the film, requiring over 10 days of filming and 60 hours of aerial footage of Mustangs. Film historians and reviewers regard the scene as a significant cinematic achievement: "Spielberg's most emotionally reverberant moment, and one of the rare movie scenes that can truly be called epiphanies."


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1998 film "Saving Private Ryan", a flight of P-51s save embattled American troops from German ground forces.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Red-Tailed P-51s play a central role in the 2012 film "Red Tails" when the 332nd Fighter Group is assigned to bomber escort duties, finally replacing their aging P-40s.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: 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.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: RAF Tornadoes featured in the 1998 BBC science fiction TV mini-series written & co-produced by Jed Mercurio. In the series, Tornado jets are scrambled to intercept a UFO.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Tornado was the subject of the 1985 video game Tornado Low Level, in which the titular aircraft was used to destroy enemy target markers. The markers could only be destroyed when the Tornado's wings were fully swept back, and moving at full speed.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A PBY Catalina features in the 1947 film "High Barbaree" (also released under the title "Enchanted Island") which was directed by Jack Conway, starred Van Johnson and was based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall. The film portrays a PBY crew during WW2 in the Pacific. During a depth-charge attack on a Japanese submarine, the PBY is damaged and crash-lands in enemy waters, leaving only two survivors, pilot Lt. Brooke (Johnson) and navigator Lt. Moore (Cameron Mitchell).


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A PBY-5A Catalina appeared in the opening sequence of the 1989 Steven Spielberg film "Always" as a firebomber picking up a water load and bearing down on two startled fishermen.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2002 submarine film "Below", the is directed to pick up three survivors of a torpedoed hospital ship by a Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina, marked as "AH545", 'WQ-Z' of No. 209 Squadron. The PBY-5A was marked as the Catalina that had a decisive role in the sinking of the .


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: United States Navy PB4Y-2M Privateers of VP-23, based at Naval Air Station Miami, Florida, were filmed at the close of the 1948 hurricane season and the footage used in the 1949 20th Century-Fox film "Slattery's Hurricane".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The most prominent of the real aircraft in Nevil Shute's 1951 novel "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.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: 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" but, in the event, radio-controlled models were used instead.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A pair of flying replica Pfalz D.IIIs were constructed to appear in the 1966 epic First World War film "The Blue Max", based on the novel of the same name by Jack D. Hunter. The aircraft subsequently appeared in "Darling Lili" (1970) and "Von Richthofen & Brown" (1971).


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Pfalz D.XII which is now in the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., was flown in "The Dawn Patrol" (1930), "Hell's Angels" (1930), and "Men with Wings" (1938). Footage of the Pfalz from "The Dawn Patrol" also featured in the 1938 remake with Errol Flynn.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The STOL-capable Pilatus PC-6 Porter was depicted in the 1990 film "Air America", loosely recounting the exploits of the Central Intelligence Agency proprietary airline in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and early 1970s. The PC-6s in this film were actually Fairchild AU-23A Peacemakers, the US-built version of the aircraft. Five examples were used in the production, four of them belonging to the Royal Thai Air-Force and a fifth which was a hybrid re-constructed from a number of derelict Porters. The latter was used for the filming of a landing on a hill-top airstrip because the Thai Air-Force refused to risk one of their own Porters in the filming of that scene.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The character Pussy Galore in the 1964 James Bond film "Goldfinger" is the leader of "Pussy Galore's Flying Circus", a group of women who fly Piper Cherokees, trained acrobats turned cat burglars, in the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. In the film the arch-villain uses the Cherokees in his plan to deprive the US government of the gold in Fort Knox.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Mark Haddon's 2019 novel "The Porpoise" starts with the flight en route to Popham Airfield in Hampshire and subsequent crash of a Piper PA-28 Warrior caused when the pilot crashes into a silo between Gapennes and Yvrench in Somme department resulting in four deaths including a pregnant woman, the only survivor being an unborn baby saved by a passing doctor. The baby becomes the protagonist of the novel.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Pitts Special S-1S and S-2A airplanes feature prominently in the 1980 film "Cloud Dancer", which flying scenes were filmed with cameras adapted to resist up to 12 g, mounted on the planes. The story follows a competition aerobatics champion through his show season, starring David Carradine. The role of Curtis Pitts was played by Woodrow Chambliss in a short scene; the movie had the participation both in performance as in advice of pilots Tom Poberezny, Charlie Hillard, Leo Loudenslager, and Jimmy Leeward. The movie is dedicated to pilot Walt Tubb, who died a few months after the filming, coincidentally while doing the same maneuver that in the movie causes the death of one of the characters.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1993 shooter game "Jungle Strike" has the main character flying the RAH-66 Comanche to complete various missions.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Republic RC-3 Seabee is an amphibious aircraft which James Bond uses in the 1974 film "The" "Man With the Golden Gun", to get to the island lair of villain Francisco Scaramanga. Bond lands the plane at the island, but it is later destroyed by Scaramanga's solar-powered laser gun.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The RF-8 is a reconnaissance version of the Vought F-8 Crusader carrier-based air superiority aircraft. In the 1980 film "The Final Countdown" an RF-8 is used by the USS "Nimitz" to overfly the Pearl Harbor naval base. The photos taken during that mission of the US Navy Fleet prior to the 1941 Japanese attack, convince the Nimitz's commanders that somehow they have gone back in time from the 1980s to the 1940s.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A replica Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c was used in the production of the BBC Great War drama series "Wings" which aired in 1977–1978. The replica was originally commissioned in 1969 by Universal Studios for a proposed big-budget film "Biggles Sweeps the Skies" but the project was cancelled after the aircraft was built. The replica was constructed by engineer and pilot Charles Boddington who was later killed during the making of the 1971 film "Von Richthofen & Brown". His son Matthew recently rebuilt the aircraft (after it was badly damaged in an accidental crash in the US) and it flew again at Sywell aerodrome, UK, in 2011.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1927 William Wellman film "Wings" featured a Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a among many types depicting World War I aircraft.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1938 Paramount film "Men with Wings", starring Ray Milland, featured a reproduction of the "Spirit of St. Louis" fashioned from a Ryan B-1 Brougham.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A recreation of the Ryan NYP was used for the 1957 Warner Bros. film "The Spirit of St. Louis", starring Jimmy Stewart as Charles Lindbergh.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2019 anime series "Girly Air Force", Gripen is one of the main fighter aircraft featured in the series along with Kei Narutani, the main protagonist of the series.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Douglas SBD Dauntless was used in the production of the 1976 motion picture "Midway". An SBD-5, which had formerly served in the RNZAF and which was (in 1976) non-airworthy and wingless, was used in the filming of the cockpit close-ups for actors such as Charlton Heston.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Later in 1987, the same aircraft (BuNo "28536"), now in airworthy condition, was used in the production of the epic 1988–1989 TV mini-series "War & Remembrance". The aircraft appeared in the sequence depicting the Battle of Midway and during filming, was flown off the the first time an SBD had taken off from a carrier in 42 years.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Douglas SBDs are a major feature in the 2019 film "Midway" directed by Roland Emmerich. The aircraft were recreated digitally and at least one full-scale static replica was built.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The loss of a US Navy Curtiss SB2C-1 Helldiver, BuNo "00154", of VB-5, during launch near Trinidad on 28 May 1943 during the shakedown cruise of the was incorporated by 20th Century Fox into the 1944 film "Wing and a Prayer: The Story of Carrier X".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Two USAAF Curtiss RA-25A Shrikes collided during a flypast for an air show near Spokane, Washington, on 23 July 1944, the accident filmed by a Paramount Pictures newsreel crew. This footage was used in the 1956 film "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers", apparently being shot down by a saucer.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Short Sunderland flying boat patrol bomber takes a key part in Ivan Southall's autobiographical 1974 novel "Fly West", where the writer tells his life as a RAF Coastal Command Sunderland pilot during World War II. Many details about the aircraft looks, performance and procedures are given throughout the book, and as almost the entirety of the book is set inside Sunderlands, the warplane practically becomes a character. Other aircraft, both from Allied and German origin, are also featured and mentioned.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Short Sunderland was the setting for much of the 1980 novel "The Flying Porcupine" by Richard Haligon. The novel takes its title from a nickname reputedly given to the Sunderland by German pilots thanks to its defensive armament of as many as 16 machine guns.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: CIA officer Jack Ryan (played by Alec Baldwin) is flown from an aircraft carrier to the submarine in a Sikorsky SH-3H Sea King in the 1990 film "Hunt for Red October", based on the Tom Clancy's novel of the same title.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: At the end of the successful rescue mission for "Apollo 13", two SH-3 Sea Kings, historically painted as Helos "66" and "406", retrieve the astronauts from their spacecraft after splashdown in the 1995 Ron Howard film.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1954 film "The Bridges at Toko-Ri", based on the 1953 James A. Michener novella of the same title, opens and closes with scenes of a US Navy Sikorsky HO3S-1 of utility helicopter squadron HU-1 operating from an in pilot rescue and recovery during the Korean War.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1954 science fiction film "Them!", a Sikorsky S-51 is used to spot giant ants in the New Mexico desert.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Westland Widgeon, a UK-built version of the Sikorsky S-51, appears in the 1971 British film "When Eight Bells Toll", starring Anthony Hopkins, directed by Étienne Périer and based on the Alistair MacLean novel of the same name. Aerial scenes were filmed over the Scottish islands of Staffa and Mull.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A flyable Sikorsky HO5S-1 will be featured in the 2022 Korean War drama film "Devotion". When the film was made, the helicopter was one of the few flyable examples remaining in the world.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1955 Warner Bros. film "The McConnell Story", about Capt. Joseph C. McConnell, Jr., the top American ace of the Korean War, includes footage of a Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw rescuing a downed B-29 crew in that conflict, while under heavy fire. A Chickasaw was furnished by the 48th Air Rescue Squadron, Eglin AFB, Florida, for seven days of filming at Alexandria AFB, Louisiana, in February 1955.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The character of "Harold the Helicopter" from the British children's program "Thomas & Friends" is based on the Sikorsky S-55, built in the UK as the Westland Whirlwind.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The book, "Retreat Hell", by W. E. B. Griffin, takes place in Korea during the Korean War. It centers on the use of a Sikorsky H-19A helicopter during the fall 1950. Much of the action is driven forward by the abilities of the helicopter.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Sikorsky S-58T appears as the "Screaming Mimi" in the 1980s television series "Riptide". This S-58 is still in service as a heavy lift helicopter.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A HH-53B Sea Stallion appears in the 1974 film "Airport 1975", where a pilot is lowered on a tether from the helicopter to a damaged Boeing 747 in flight.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The HH-53C variant was used in the combined combat search and rescue and VIP delivery sequences in the 1982 Malpaso Productions spy and action film "Firefox", produced, directed by, and starring Clint Eastwood, based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Craig Thomas.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion appears in the 2002 film "The Sum of All Fears", based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same title.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A CH-53E Super Stallion is featured in the 1997 film "The Jackal", where it flies over Washington D.C. and hovers between buildings during a fast rope sequence.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Sikorsky MH-53J is 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 .


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The heavier CH-53E Super Stallion is the alternate form for the Decepticon Grindor in the 2009 film "".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1996 film "Independence Day" a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane is fitted with an array of flashing lights to communicate with an alien spaceship.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Skycrane also appears in the 2001 film "Swordfish", near the climactic ending in which it has a bus full of hostages slung loaded underneath, and is flying through downtown Los Angeles.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1994 film "Clear and Present Danger", a pair of MH-60K Black Hawks are used to insert a special ops team into a Colombian jungle.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Black Hawks were also featured in the 1997 film "Air Force One", having been rented from the US military.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk was the title aircraft in the 2001 film "Black Hawk Down". For this film too the film makers rented the aircraft, paying the US Department of Defense about $3 million to ship eight helicopters and about 100 crew members to the film location in Morocco.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2003 film "Tears of the Sun" three SH-60 Seahawk helicopters bring evacuated US embassy staff and their SEAL team rescuers from Nigeria to the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. Two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters are used to retrieve a SEAL team and refugees in Nigeria.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Igor Sikorsky's Sikorsky S-29-A, previously owned by Roscoe Turner, doubled for a Gotha bomber in Howard Hughes' 1930 aerial epic "Hell's Angels". It was destroyed during filming. At the time of the aircraft's demise it had flown 500,000 miles.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Replicas of the Sikorsky S-38 were used in the filming of the 2004 Martin Scorsese biopic of Howard Hughes, "The Aviator".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: When MGM produced the 1959 film "The Gallant Hours", based on the life of US Navy Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, the studio rented a Sikorsky VS-44A, N41881, named "Mother Goose", from Catalina Air Lines, Inc., and painted it in wartime camouflage to depict a secret flight that Halsey had made to the South Pacific in a Consolidated PB2Y-1 Coronado. Although the studio had promised to repaint the flying boat after the production, this did not happen, and the airline had to restore the civilian livery itself.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: 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" (1932), and "Biggles of the Camel Squadron" (1934).


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1934 novel "Winged Victory" by Victor M. Yeates features the Sopwith Camel in action during the Great War.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Sopwith Camels appear in the 2013 novel "A Splendid Little War" by Derek Robinson which depicts a fictional RAF unit – Merlin Squadron – flying Camels in support of the White forces during the Russian Civil War in 1919.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A 1/6 scale radio-controlled model of a Sopwith 1½ Strutter was constructed by Proctor Enterprises to appear in the ABC television series "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" episode "Attack of the Hawkmen" (1995) produced by George Lucas.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A replica Sopwith 1½ Strutter featured in the 2006 film "Flyboys", a drama about the Lafayette Escadrille. The replica, built in 1992, was purchased from a private museum in Alabama.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The fictional RFC squadron in Derek Robinson's 1999 First World War novel "Hornet's Sting" flies the Sopwith Pup.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Transformers Combaticon named Blast Off, the Autobot Sky Lynx, and triple-changer Astrotrain all disguise themselves as Space Shuttle orbiters.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 1979 James Bond film "Moonraker" the film opens with the disappearance during a routine transfer flight, on the back of a Boing 747, of the eponymous space shuttle, built and operated by the Drax Corporation.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In Payne Harrison's 1990 novel "Storming Intrepid", the shuttle "Intrepid" – one of four new shuttles built by the US government – is hijacked by its mission commander, who is a Russian agent. The plot revolves around American efforts to prevent the agent from landing the shuttle in the USSR with its advanced SDI system intact.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2000 film "Space Cowboys", four retired astronauts launch into space aboard the shuttle "Daedalus" to repair a crippled Russian satellite.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In Jon Amiel's 2003 film "The Core", space shuttle "Endeavour" is sent off course by a disruption in the Earth's magnetic field, forcing it to land in the concrete-lined channel of the Los Angeles River.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2013 film "Gravity", space shuttle "Explorer" is destroyed by an out of control satellite in the early portion of the film.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1927 William Wellman film "Wings" featured a SPAD S.VII among many types depicting World War I aircraft.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Race Bannon, flying a SPAD S.XIII, fights a dogfight with a Fokker D.VII, flown by Baron Heinrich von Frohleich in Episode 10 of "Jonny Quest", "Shadow of the Condor", first aired 20 November 1964.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1976 film "Aces High" uses several modified Stampe SV.4 aircraft made to look like Royal Flying Corps Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 aircraft. These were prepared by Bianchi Aviation Film Services and flown by well-known pilots including Neil Williams.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Standard J-1 appeared in the 1923 film "The Eleventh Hour", which starred Alan Hale Sr. During the film, a J-1 attacks a submarine on the surface but the aircraft is hit by return fire from the vessel and it explodes in mid-air. To film the scene, stunt pilot Dick Kerwood was required to fly over the submarine (loaned by the US Navy) in San Diego Bay and, at about 3,000 feet, parachute out of his plane after setting the timer to explosives which would detonate ten seconds later. However the timer proved faulty and the aircraft exploded before Kerwood could bale out. He was seriously concussed but otherwise escaped injury and he managed to open his chute in time.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Stearman C3R featured in the 1958 film "No Place to Land" directed by Albert C. Gannaway and starring John Ireland. The film was a drama about crop-duster pilots in post-war rural California competing with each other for work.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A static replica of a Stinson Model A was featured in the 1988 Australian TV-film "The Riddle of the Stinson" which starred Jack Thompson. The film was a dramatisation of the true-life crash of an Australian Airlines Stinson in Queensland in 1937 which claimed the lives of 5 men and the subsequent rescue of two survivors ten days later by local Bernard O'Reilly who treked into the rainforest and found the crash-site.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Su-24 is featured in the 2021 Russian film "Sky" (), depicting the events surrounding the Turkish shootdown of a Russian Su-24 in 2015.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Sukhoi Su-27 and its derivatives have appeared in numerous fictional media. The Su-37 appears in the 2004 film "Stealth", where two were destroyed by the fictional F/A-37 jets.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2005 film "", Russian two-seat Sukhoi Su-35UB featured the main role of a fifth generation jet fighter Sukhoi Su-XX, nicknamed "Sabretooth" that a group of mercenaries and agents tries to steal.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Su-27 variants also feature prominently in the Ace Combat video game series, often being the aircraft of choice for main antagonists. Examples include the Yellow Squadron Su-37s in , Strigon Team Su-33s in , Andrei Markov's Su-35S in , Sol Squadron Su-30M2s, and Mihaly A. Shilage's Su-30SM in .


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Sukhoi Su-57 appears in "" as the aircraft used by the unnamed hostile nation, and referred to by its NATO reporting name "Felon" or as “fifth-generation fighters”. Two were shot down by a stolen F-14A Tomcat flown by Maverick and Rooster, and another by a F/A-18E Super Hornet flown by Hangman.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Along with the Hawker Hurricane, the Supermarine Spitfire fighter is very strongly linked to the Battle of Britain in summer 1940, where the Royal Air Force fought the German Luftwaffe over the skies of Britain for air superiority. As such it has been featured in many works of fiction related to the Battle of Britain.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Spitfire IXc was one of at least two used in the production of the 1962 World War II epic film "The Longest Day". The same aircraft also appeared in "Von Ryan's Express" (1965), "Night of the Generals" (1967), and "Battle of Britain" (1969).


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Spitfire was a central part of the 1969 Guy Hamilton-directed 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 film 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 Spitfires for use in the film.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The Spitfire was also the main aircraft used in the 1988 miniseries "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 privately owned airworthy Spitfires and a collection of static and taxiing replicas.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Real-life World War II RAF ace Douglas Bader was portrayed as a night-flying Spitfire pilot during The Blitz in the animated Disney series "Gargoyles" second-season episode "M.I.A", and was saved from losing his life in air combat by Goliath and by Griff, a British gargoyle of the London Clan.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 2001 Czech film "Dark Blue World", a World War II drama about Czech pilots who flew with the Royal Air Force directed by Jan Svěrák, featured Spitfires. The vintage Spitfires cost the film-makers US$7,500 an hour to use. The aerial sequences were a combination of live aerial footage, CGI and out-takes from the 1969 film "The Battle of Britain".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Spitfires starred in the 2006 seven-minute short film/commercial "Pilots" produced by the Swiss-German watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen to promote its Big Pilot's Watch Collection. John Malkovich featured in the film.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: In the 2017 movie "Dunkirk," directed by Christopher Nolan; three Spitfires were featured defending the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkirk against attacks by the German Luftwaffe.


title: Aircraft in fiction

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


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Douglas TBDs appear in the 2019 film "Midway" directed by Roland Emmerich. To portray the aircraft, the producers recreated TBDs digitally and also constructed a full-scale static replica which, after filming was completed, was donated to the "USS Midway" Museum in San Diego. In the film, TBDs are depicted as simultaneously carrying a pair of 500-pound bombs on wing racks in addition to a torpedo, a scene which would not have happened in reality, as under-powered TBDs struggled enough with the weight of just a torpedo.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Tupolev Tu-154B was in the centre of the plot of the 1979 Soviet film "Air Crew". The film is a recognized classic in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The UFM Easy Riser was one of two ultralight aircraft that lead the Canada geese south in the 1996 film "Fly Away Home". The film was a highly fictionalized account based on Bill Lishman's autobiography and work with Operation Migration, but both Lishman's real-life migratory experiments teaching birds to migrate and the film used the Easy Riser, due to its low cruising speed, which allowed the birds to pace the aircraft in flight.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A replica Vickers FB5 was constructed to appear in the 1986 film "Sky Bandits" (also released under the title "Gunbus") which was about a pair of cowboys who flee the US to escape prison for a bank robbery and end up serving in the RFC during the Great War. The replica, built as a taxiing prop for the film, is currently housed at Sywell Aerodrome in the UK.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Nevil Shute's romance "Pastoral" is a wartime story of a pilot and his crew of a Wellington bomber based at a fictional RAF station called "Hartley Magna".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A Vickers Wellington features in the 1961 comedy film "Very Important Person" (released in the US as "A Coming Out Party"). In the film, the central character, a military scientist named Sir Ernest Pease (James Robertson Justice) is taken over Germany during WW2 to test a top-secret apparatus. However the Wellington is hit by anti-aircraft fire and Pease is sucked out through a hole in the fuselage, parachuting into enemy territory and ending up in a POW camp.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: The 1968 Czechoslovak film "Nebeští jezdci" ("Sky Riders") about Czechoslovak airmen in RAF Bomber Command featured a Vickers Wellington. It was depicted by a taxiing replica based on an extensively modified Lisunov Li-2. Flight sequences were shot with large scale replicas and the film also incorporated wartime stock footage, including scenes from "Target for Tonight".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: A haunted Vickers Wellington is the subject of Robert Westall's macabre, and critically appreciated, 1982 short story "Blackham's Wimpy".


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Irish graphic novelist Garth Ennis chose the Wellington to be the aircraft flown by the Australian crew of RAF Bomber Command in his 2010 graphic novel "Happy Valley", set in 1942 during the early phase of the night bombing offensive and one of his "Battlefields" series.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Two Bell-Boeing 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.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: At least seven Waco 10 biplanes were employed in the production of the 1928 film "Lilac Time", a romantic drama about a British pilot in the Royal Flying Corps in WW1. The film was directed by George Fitzmaurice and starred Gary Cooper (being a silent film, Cooper did not have to fake a British accent). Wacos played the role of generic RFC planes and three were deliberately crashed during filming of the aerial combat scenes. Dick Grace, only just recovered from injuries he sustained while working on the film "Wings" the previous year, was the stunt pilot for two of the crash-landing scenes.


title: Aircraft in fiction

text: Developed in the 1960s by former RAF Wing Commander Ken Wallis, the Wallis WA-116 Agile was an improved, more stable autogyro design. Following a prototype, five WA-116s were built by Beagle Aircraft at Shoreham, three of which were for evaluation by the British Army Air Corps. In 1966, one of the Beagle-built WA-116s, registered "G-ARZB", was modified for use in the 1967 James Bond film "You Only Live Twice", dubbed "Little Nellie" and flown by Wallis, doubling for Sean Connery's 007.