Warbird Information Exchange

Well the "gun pod" on the front weighed a mere 200 pounds so that coupled with the camera crap hanging off of it did make it a little unstable, but like I said, Reynolds claimed it was fast. As for the "mock up cockpit" on the backlot of disney MGM studios, its 22" wider than the real helicopter due to the fact that they needed to be able to get the whole cockpit in the scene.

"The Blue Thunder helicopter was originally an Aerospatiale SA341G Gazelle, built in 1973, and once flown by a coal mining company in the 1970s before Columbia Studios bought it. There were actually two Gazelles used in the Blue Thunder production, of course. After the movie wrapped, the first Gazelle was sold to an aviation salvage company in New Mexico, who leased it to a film company making the ABC TV mini-series Amerika (1987). Later, the salvager dismantled the machine for valuable spare parts. The second Gazelle is on display at MGM Studios in Florida (pictured in 2002), and can be seen on the backlot bus tour. It is in fairly poor condition." - NATHAN DECKER

OK Bill (or Scott)...... Which Coal Company owned it? Was it in WV? I had a client who was a former Army chopper pilot in Vietnam and there were a few companies with Gazelles in the early 1970's in WV. At that time there were so many turbine helicopters in Southern WV, it wasn't funny, they were everywhere. Now we have like 10 or so... Times change.

That came from this site (mod please fix the link, THANKS)

http://www.rotaryaction.com/pages/bluethunder.html

Mark H

_________________
Fly safe or you get to meet me .......

SA.341G; S/N 1066; Prod. Yr. 1973; temporary regd. F-WKQD to SNIAS; regd. 31/7/74 N57936 to Vought Helicopter Co.; regd. 2/10/74 N37LR to L.T. Ruth Coal Co.; sold to Kentucky Gem Coal Co. Inc. 10/10/74; purchased to Continental Flying Service, Inc. 19/11/76; regd. 17/12/76 same reg. to Continental Flying Service Inc.; 20/12/76 purchased to L.T. Ruth Coal Co.; reg. N37LR reserved 10/76; regd. 11/1/77 N37LR to L.T. Ruth Coal Co.; purchased 19/8/81 to Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.; allocated experimental reg. 28/11/83 N51BT to Columbia Pictures; purchased 25/10/84 to Mr. Michael E. Grube; w/o 23/6/94; dismantled for parts; NOTES: a) during 1981 modified for movie requirements on 1704.7 total hours done by R.W. Martin, Inc. (Cinema Air); b) used as mod for film "Blue Thunder" and "Amerika" TV miniserial (pilot: Jim Gavin)

SA.341G; S/N 1075; Prod. Yr. 1973; regd. 7/8/73 N94494 to G. D. Turner (Vought Helicopters Co.); re-regd. 25/9/73 N94494 to N777GH Holley & Beck; regd. 2/3/77 to F.R.B.C. Leasing Co.; leased 14/3/77 to Mocomb Contracting Corp.; leased 29/9/80 to P. Bosco & Sons, Inc. (fmr. Mocomb Contr.); 17/8/81 purchased by F.R.B.C. Leasing Co. to Moceri Management Co.; purchased 19/8/81 to Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.; allocated experimental reg. 16/11/81 N52BT to Columbia Pictures Inc.; regd. 21/3/86 same reg. to Mr. Michael E. Grube; Cof Reg. cancelled 16/8/88; dismantled (scrapped) for parts, w/o; NOTE: a) during 1981 modified as movie requirements by R.W. Martin, Inc. (Cinema Air)

http://www.gregdonner.org/blue_thunder/bt_movie.html

I would have edited the last post but it wouldn't let me.....

I kind of answered my own question here.......

Mark H

_________________
Fly safe or you get to meet me .......

Wow, didn't expect this thread to take-off as it has!!!
I thought both Blue Thunder Gazelle choppers were scrapped??
and the MGM Studios one is the mock-up.

Getting back to the original request though (to Quicksilvermustang),
what was the n-number and msn details of the choppers you
converted for Rambo III, is the Puma not the same one from
Rambo II?
Also, didn't RW Martin at Palomar covert the Blue Thunder machines
or are you the same company?

_________________
Simon D. Beck
http://www.uswarplanes.net
Author
The Aircraft-Spotter's Film & Television Companion (2016)
Fairchild C-82 Packet: The Military and Civil History (2017)

RW Martin worked in conjuction with us, Martin actually just oversaw it. We designed, built and test flew the Rambo 3 choppers. As for N-numbers, im at a loss. This thread made me go through some of our pictures while building all of these (and I forgot the bastardized Bell 47 we made for the movie "Annie" I almost forgot those too) I will post some pictures tomorrow or the next day of all three of these projects from start to finish. Maybe the N numbers are on there maybe they aren't i'll look. That was quite a while ago so i dont think we still have the 337 forms for all of that or not. BTW the puma is NOT the same as the one in 2, I dont know anything about that.

Well to add on to this, (its Scott btw Mark, my dad can barely turn a computer on) I dont know where they came from except when the filming was over the chopper was sold stripped to the next company.

Another thing that I havent found anywhere but when they interviewed my dad about designing and building the blue thunder helicopter, they asked what was the main factor that insipered the design. He said the Apache was....it was about the time they lost one of the prototypes (I think it was the second prototype built but dont quote me).

Hi, I'm still keen to see these photos when you get a chance.
Cheers

_________________
Simon D. Beck
http://www.uswarplanes.net
Author
The Aircraft-Spotter's Film & Television Companion (2016)
Fairchild C-82 Packet: The Military and Civil History (2017)

How was it the BT cockpit got to be used in "Firefox" where some of the Hind scenes occur over the ice flow? I've always been curious about that since "Firefox" was released a year or so before BT was.

Blue Thunder was filmed early 1982 but it wasn't released until April
1983, I don't know why - special effects, pick-up shots maybe?
Firefox was released late 1982, so the BT mock-up would have been
avaliable for the Firefox crew from mid-'82.

_________________
Simon D. Beck
http://www.uswarplanes.net
Author
The Aircraft-Spotter's Film & Television Companion (2016)
Fairchild C-82 Packet: The Military and Civil History (2017)

"Firefox" was released in mid '82. May or June, IIRC. Of course, it wasn't til after BT that I realized that was the helo cockpit in those scenes.

BT was shot Jan. to April '82 so Firefox must have got it
straight away for their June release.

_________________
Simon D. Beck
http://www.uswarplanes.net
Author
The Aircraft-Spotter's Film & Television Companion (2016)
Fairchild C-82 Packet: The Military and Civil History (2017)

the special effects were put in later i believe, i dont know much about those, im scaning 150 pics of blue thunder and rambo helos as well as other old warbird restorations we did long ago. they'll be up soon


SY

Ok here's at least some pics



I helped a little bit





little known fact: these are cessna 337 outer wings





making the nose cone



I had to test it out for myself





It flys!



still looking for the puma construction pics but heres the finishing ones





tubular mount for a night sun spotlight





heading to isreal for filming


the finished Rambo 3 helos

Brilliant job on those conversions!!!, the film company
must have been stoked when they saw them.

_________________
Simon D. Beck
http://www.uswarplanes.net
Author
The Aircraft-Spotter's Film & Television Companion (2016)
Fairchild C-82 Packet: The Military and Civil History (2017)

now for Blue thunder

this is what we started with





this taxied by dad's hangar one day and it inspired his design, note the #2, thats the second prototype apache that crashed a short while after this photo





movie mock up cockpit






it flys, note the #2 on the side in honor of the fallen apache