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
Air Force Flight Test Center History Office
Largely forgotten today, Unknown remains a cult favorite of aviation buffs. Set during the heyday of experimental airplanes at Edwards Air Force Base, the movie stars a Bell X-2 and showcases a Douglas X-3 Stiletto. But the rarest bird of all is the so-called Gilbert Fighter, technically designated the XF-120. In fact, this was the last surviving Martin XB-51, a stylish three-engine, swept-wing, supersonic bomber designed to replace the A-26 Invader for night attack and close-air-support missions. The XB-51 lost out to the English Electric Canberra, which eventually entered service as the B-57 (built by Martin). One of the two XB-51 prototypes was destroyed during testing at Edwards. The other appeared in this Warner Brothers film, with no changes other than the fictitious name painted on its nose. In the movie, test pilot William Holden warns about structural overstress but is ignored, and the experimental bomber’s wings buckle in flight. Fact followed fiction, with an odd twist: After a refueling stop in El Paso, Texas, while flying to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to shoot additional footage, the bomber crashed on takeoff, streaming wreckage as it disintegrated. Initially, identification of the aircraft was complicated because the shredded fuselage retained the Gilbert XF-120 logo.
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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