And the Oscar Goes to... the Airplane!
Some of the airplanes that loom largest in our collective memory have flown only in the movies.
- By Preston Lerner
- Air & Space magazine, November 2012
Pabzzz
Hayao Miyazaki, who is sometimes referred to as the Japanese Walt Disney, is one of the masters of the Japanese form of animation known as anime. Miyazaki was captivated by the seaplanes that raced for the Schneider Trophy during the 1920s, and, as he explained in Helen McCarthy’s 1999 scholarly biography, “I wanted to express my love for all these ships.” Set in, around, and over the Adriatic Sea in 1929, Porco Rosso is densely populated with stylized combat versions of several of these between-the-war beauties. The eponymous hero of Porco Rosso—a cynical World War I ace-turned-mercenary-pilot known as the Crimson Pig—flies a gorgeous seaplane identified as a Savoia S.21. In fact, the real S.21 was an ungainly biplane that never raced in the Schneider Trophy. Actually, Miyazaki styled the airplane on the basis of childhood memories of the more successful—and much more attractive—Macchi M.33, a monoplane with a single engine housed in a nacelle mounted on struts above the sleek fuselage. In 1925, the M.33 was defeated in the Schneider Trophy by a Curtiss R3C-2, which, not so coincidentally, is the airplane (modified by Miyazaki into a fighter) flown by the villain in Porco Rosso. Another non-coincidence: Miyazaki named his company, Studio Ghibli, after the Ca.309 Ghibli (desert wind) twin-engine transport produced by Italy’s Caproni aircraft company.
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Comments (10)
Couldn't you get a picture of the plane used in the movie? The plane pictured is a prop from the "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular" show at Disney's Hollywood Studio park in Orlando Florida. Saw the show just this past August and I would say this stage show prop is fine for it's purpose but it is just a shadow of the one depicted in the movie. EDITORS' REPLY: You are correct that the airplane that we show is based in Orlando at Disney World. It’s part of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectactular. Our understanding is that the original mock aircraft created for the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark was mostly destroyed during its filming in 1981 in Tunisia, and that the few remaining parts of that airplane were then scrapped a few years later. Only a handful of studio production stills of that airplane were released, and none were of high enough resolution to use in our print feature, so we used the Disney World mockup.
Posted by Andrew Daubenspeck on September 22,2012 | 11:36 AM
On page 61 of the October/November issue it states that the XB-51 was supersonic. In the movie, Unknown, the XF-120 might have been supersonic, but the Martin XB-51 was not.
Posted by Bob Schild on September 23,2012 | 05:44 AM
Great pictures! I hope that everyone's Sunday is going safe and great!
Posted by Mike on September 23,2012 | 03:22 PM
Where is the Bell 222 from Airwolf? It's unbelievable that you have missed it.
Posted by xavier on September 26,2012 | 10:37 PM
While it may not have been built or even flown, the Germans did have a plane a lot like the one in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was designed by the Lippisch company to compete with the Messerschmitt Bf 110, but was rejected by the Luftwaffe for unspecified reasons. Here is a picture of it.
Posted by Gray Stanback on September 30,2012 | 11:25 PM
Another note of shock and dismay at the lack of Airwolf. From the beautiful adaptation of a standard Bell 222 airframe to the lunatic premise (a Mach 2+ attack helicopter that operated as like the worlds most heavily armed *gyrocopter*), it's a classic of 80's action TV.
Posted by Royce on October 1,2012 | 02:22 PM
I, too, ask where is the Bell 222 and the Airwolf. That was one of the greatest fictional aircraft ever (and had better theme music than most, too).
Posted by Ryk E. Spoor on October 1,2012 | 02:33 PM
No Snoopy Doghouse? No Flying Sub from "Voyage to the bottom of the Sea?" No, Colonial Vipers or Cylon fighters?
Posted by Walter Broaddus IV on October 1,2012 | 06:09 PM
To those who are dismayed at the omission of Airwolf and other such aircraft that where featured in TV programs, the title of the piece is "And the Oscar Goes To...The Airplane!", not the "The Emmy goes to...". Maybe a follow-up article could include fictional aircraft from other media besides the movies
Posted by Andrew Daubenspeck on October 27,2012 | 06:04 AM
Well, it's not fictional, but the Oscar goes to...
The B-52 in "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" who could forget that plane. Well sometime I read that the nuclear launch sequence and probably the cockpit was fictional, at that time was top secret, buy they do it pretty good.
Posted by Fernando on January 15,2013 | 08:50 PM