Warbird Information Exchange

Did any of you nice folks happen to see "NCIS" this week? Prominently featured in several airport scenes were A-4N Skyhawk N269WL (BuNo 159536) and a very attractive Hawker Hunter (aren't they all?) whose identity I could not determine. The Scooter is registered to Advanced Training Systems International of Mesa, Arizona, and is part of their extensive fleet of single- and two-seat Skyhawks. Anyone have any info on the Hunter? They are among the most attractive jet fighters ever produced.

The main thread in the show was experimental jet packs, and at the end, one of the bad guys took off with one and flew around the airport. While I'm sure it was a Hollywood prop that was suspended from a crane or something, it sure looked realistic and believable. It's gotta be every little boy's fantasy to zip around the sky with his own jet pack! Heck, I'd love to have one myself, so that I could fly to and from work and avoid the miserable Dallas traffic. . .

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Dean Hemphill, K5DH
Port Charlotte, Florida

Yeah I saw that last night. Was wondering who's jets they were as well.

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Ryan Orshinsky
Windsor, ON
CH2A - Engineering
rorshinsky@ch2a.ca
http://www.ch2a.ca

Hunters belong to Northern Lights guys ..... leased to a US company.... http://www.lortieaviation.com/

I didn't see the show (yet - thank God for OnDemand & CBS online) but from the videos I saw, it was a real jetpack, but had "Hollywood" addons to make it look cooler/bigger/longer.

There are actually quite a few "Rocket Belt" or "Jet Packs" around - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack

Interestingly, Jetpack International (http://www.jetpackinternational.com/) says they have a turbine powered pack that has an 11 minute flight time.

Also, this picture seems to indicate that the Hunter is ATAC's as well - http://www.imdb.com/media/rm169709056/tt1567044

Saw the show. Anyone know where it was shot? One of the ex-military bases around the LA area, I presume. It looks like the show lost it's standing with the Pentagon - it used to be that such shots were at Pt. Mugu, with 'real' military aircraft - no 'real' ones in those shots ....

In the final episode of last season, they went to Israel in a C-130 (including interior shots). Does that count?

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I think that on this occasion at least, using the ATAC aircraft made sense because they could shoot all the scenes in one place. We don't know all the details, but I would suspect it'd be harder to get a RocketBelt onto a military installation and do the kind of flying they did versus doing it at a low-traffic civilian base.

In addition, in doing a tour of the Pentagon years ago, we stopped by the offices that handle all this kind of stuff and they said that many times movie and TV production companies choose to shoot off base simply because it is easier to deal with security wise than on base where everyone has to get background checks and badges, and are highly restricted in what they can do and where they can do it while on base, making it much less flexible, something most directors need.