Airwolf

[sqidd]

3 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

I did some search and that gigantic 1/5 Airwolf RC complete set almost cost around $15K USD.  From RCHelicopterFun:

 

If I flew it.....it would be a $15K pile of scrap!

 

[derex3592]

Ok... see...THOSE two things are why the good lord above didn't make me rich...LOL. I would have an air force of cool SH*T like that!!!! 

[peter]

6 hours ago, Big s said:

Blue thunder was cool, but didn’t have the soundtrack that was as memorable 

This is true, I don't remember the music from the film or the TV show.  Airwolf soundtrack was a win.  

[sqidd]

5 hours ago, derex3592 said:

Ok... see...THOSE two things are why the good lord above didn't make me rich...LOL. I would have an air force of cool SH*T like that!!!! 

Yes, I would have all sorts of dumb stuff like that!

And if I was rich enough a real one!

"Dude, you bought a helicopter?"

"Yep"

"What is it?"

"It's Airwolf"

'Wait, what?!?!"

[Big s]

Airwolf was just a dressed up business use helicopter. They often show similar models in other films and I always look at them and think Airwolf. I had an old plastic kit that had the option to leave off the dress up parts and I always thought, “why?”

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

 

13 minutes ago, Big s said:

Airwolf was just a dressed up business use helicopter. They often show similar models in other films and I always look at them and think Airwolf. I had an old plastic kit that had the option to leave off the dress up parts and I always thought, “why?”

That was the AMT/Ertl model kit, I had the exact same thought when I saw the instructions.  I guess it was nice to have an option to build a plain Bell 222, but that wasn't even advertised on the box.

[JB0]

22 minutes ago, Big s said:

Airwolf was just a dressed up business use helicopter. They often show similar models in other films and I always look at them and think Airwolf. I had an old plastic kit that had the option to leave off the dress up parts and I always thought, “why?”

You mean you had the option to upgrade it into STEALTH AIRWOLF?

 

 

Honestly, I assume they just added Airwolf parts to a pre-existing regular helicopter model to get the licensed product money easily.

[DewPoint]

I was told once that the show concept was that a high tech military prototype helicopter was built in a civilian helicopter shell to hide the fact that it was a high tech military prototype helicopter.

[JB0]

1 hour ago, DewPoint said:

I was told once that the show concept was that a high tech military prototype helicopter was built in a civilian helicopter shell to hide the fact that it was a high tech military prototype helicopter.

Makes sense to me!

[renegadeleader1]

1 hour ago, DewPoint said:

I was told once that the show concept was that a high tech military prototype helicopter was built in a civilian helicopter shell to hide the fact that it was a high tech military prototype helicopter.

That's mentioned in the pilot episode. It's also why the Airwolf patch on the uniforms is literally a wolf in sheeps clothing.

[Thom]

5 hours ago, sqidd said:

Yes, I would have all sorts of dumb stuff like that!

And if I was rich enough a real one!

"Dude, you bought a helicopter?"

"Yep"

"What is it?"

"It's Airwolf"

'Wait, what?!?!"

[mark-1s]

15 hours ago, sqidd said:

If I flew it.....it would be a $15K pile of scrap!

 

Maybe, but imagine all the fun you'd have before you crashed it!

[pengbuzz]

6 hours ago, DewPoint said:

I was told once that the show concept was that a high tech military prototype helicopter was built in a civilian helicopter shell to hide the fact that it was a high tech military prototype helicopter.

I believe that is mentioned somewhere in the series, but not 100 percent sure.

[Thom]

2 hours ago, mark-1s said:

Maybe, but imagine all the fun you'd have before you crashed it!

"Express elevator to Hell, going down!"

[peter]

Privately owned Airwolf.....probably non functioning:

[peter]

I think there are a few life size replicas/props in various museums:

 

 

 

 

[peter]

Sadly (for me at least), there are no life size Blue Thunder replicas apart from what's left of this:

 

I think the original filming helicopters modified back to their original form, sold off and eventually crashed somewhere.

 

[Old_Nash]

29 minutes ago, peter said:

Sadly (for me at least), there are no life size Blue Thunder replicas apart from what's left of this:

 

I think the original filming helicopters modified back to their original form, sold off and eventually crashed somewhere.

 

No one likes Blue Thunder XD

[Big s]

I think Airwolf had a similar fate. I think it was repurposed at one point as an ambulance and may have actually saved some lives, but that may just be legend

[pengbuzz]

4 hours ago, Big s said:

I think Airwolf had a similar fate. I think it was repurposed at one point as an ambulance and may have actually saved some lives, but that may just be legend

Actually, it's true; the Bell 222 used for Airwolf got sold to a German company that used it for an air ambulance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airwolf_(helicopter)

[sh9000]

There’s a Airwolf replica in California.  It was intact a while back but I’m not sure what condition it’s in now.

As for the Bell model kit, you can make  Redwolf without the outer Airwolf pieces.

[sqidd]

7 hours ago, Old_Nash said:

No one likes Blue Thunder XD

You can call me No One.

[captain america]

8 hours ago, peter said:

Sadly (for me at least), there are no life size Blue Thunder replicas apart from what's left of this:

 

I think the original filming helicopters modified back to their original form, sold off and eventually crashed somewhere.

 

Seeing as how it was a pricy and still functional piece of military hardware, it probably made more sense to sell it. That pic of the derelict bodywork is/was part of a studio tour somewhere, IIRC. Fun fact: the modded Gazelle also appeared in a mid 80s dystopian tv miniseries caked Amerika, where they had temporarily painted it black.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

From the 1985 Super Bowl commercial archive:

[Thom]

5 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

From the 1985 Super Bowl commercial archive:

Whatever happened to Wang..?

 

16 hours ago, peter said:

Sadly (for me at least), there are no life size Blue Thunder replicas apart from what's left of this:

 

I think the original filming helicopters modified back to their original form, sold off and eventually crashed somewhere.

 

That may be the mock up used for the 1983 TV series.. And seeing it like that is an awful shame!

One because they should do something to make it look better, and two because someone thought putting that out there 'as is' was a smart idea. 'Yeah, just toss it out there. They'll look at anything.'  (Check out the guy in the trolley. He is bored out of his mind...🤪

 

Edited October 16, 2021 by Thom

[JB0]

34 minutes ago, Thom said:

Whatever happened to Wang..?

Bankruptcy in the early 90s, were consumed by someone else in the aftermath.

Apparently the founder of the company insisted on installing his son as his successor(and retained enough control to make it happen) and his son was... ill-suited for the task. He was fired after doing serious damage to the company through poor management, but they didn't have the stability needed to recover.

 

[Thom]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

Bankruptcy in the early 90s, were consumed by someone else in the aftermath.

Apparently the founder of the company insisted on installing his son as his successor(and retained enough control to make it happen) and his son was... ill-suited for the task. He was fired after doing serious damage to the company through poor management, but they didn't have the stability needed to recover.

 

You're saying he wanged it...

[M'Kyuun]

On 10/15/2021 at 8:07 PM, sqidd said:

You can call me No One.

Likewise; Blue Thunder was more realistic in its depiction of then current state of the art technology. I'm not sure about whisper mode, but there have been strides in prop design that vastly reduce rotor noise.  The concept of Blue Thunder was excellent, and I absolutely loved the look of it, as well as the spec-ops nature of it as depicted in the film. I watched the series, too, but as I recall, it was cheesier than the film, although I liked the cast. Dana Carvey will forever be remembered for his SNL work and his portrayal of Garth in Wayne's World, not to mention his stand up comedy, but I've always held a soft spot for his portrayal of Clinton Wonderlove AKA JAFO, whose nickname is also an acronym which contains that most glorious of profanities around which they had to do some wordsmithing.  I used to have debates with a fellow student concerning the virtues of BT over Airwolf when I was in middle school. With time having passed, there's certainly much more to love, IMHO, about Airwolf as a whole, haunting soundtrack notwithstanding, than BT, which is nearly forgotten.  Stringfellow Hawke, which is probably the coolest tv character name ever, was played to a tee by Jan Michael Vincent, whose personal demons likely added to the edginess of the character. The chemistry between him and Dom felt real, and just made it that much more enjoyable. as to the chopper itself; it's undeniably gorgeous; hat's off to Bell for producing such a beautiful machine. However, its capabilities were exaggerated well beyond reality (where did they store all those missiles, which shot machine gun style from the same tubes? Dissymmetry of lift prevents high velocities well below supersonic, and even if the rotor was placed into autorotation, there's not enough lift generating surface on the Bell 222 to sustain flight without its main rotor. Where'd they hide the chaff and flare dispensers? TV bulletproof- all those hits and never a mark on her.😉).  BT's depiction of its flight characteristics and onboard tech was far more plausible, but Airwolf looked and sounded better, even as she flew into the realm of tv fantasy.

[sh9000]

 

[F-ZeroOne]

The Blue Thunder helicopter also makes a very brief appearance in the "Doctor Who" episode "Dalek", under the call sign "Bad Wolf", as the helicopter that transports the episodes antagonist (well, the other antagonist, not that installments titular famous one) to their underground storage base.

The British media at the time of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics also ran stories of how the skies would be patrolled by Blue Thunder "style" "gunships", using images of the helicopter to illustrate the stories. 

Edited October 17, 2021 by F-ZeroOne

[sqidd]

1 hour ago, F-ZeroOne said:

The British media at the time of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics also ran stories of how the skies would be patrolled by Blue Thunder "style" "gunships", using images of the helicopter to illustrate the stories. 

It's nice to know the media being fear mongering and untrustworthy is nothing new.

[Thom]

Sounds like National Enquirer TV.

[sqidd]

7 hours ago, Thom said:

Sounds like National Enquirer TV.

All "news" sounds like that now.

[sh9000]

 

[Big s]

All this talk about news media and cool names for tv reminded me that there was a news anchor with the name Wolf Blitzer. That dude may be famous for what he does, but missed his calling to be an NFL quarterback or action movie star.