What Was the Plane In Raiders?

[scotrace]

Stupid question time - the plane that Dr. Jones flies with hat tipped over his face to rest - what kind of plane was that?

 

[Nathan Flowers]

http://www.indygear.com/props/planes.shtml

 

[Diamondback]

Trivia note from the same scene: the guy who looks up as Indy passes (German spy?) is actually ILM visual-effects guru Dennis Muren.

 

[The Wingnut]

I visited The Flying Lady shortly after the movie was made, the Trimotor was in their hangar along with a few other aircraft, namely a P-51, a grip of WWI and interwar biplanes, and some prototype castoffs from Lockheed, Hiller and a few other Bay Area based companies. I was too young to appreciate the Trimotor and its significance at the time, although I went ape over the P-51. Typical kid. They had Raiders playing on a constant loop on TVs scattered around the restaurant, though.

Hell of a place. Never updated, kept its hokey early '70s country decor and parade of RC models on a track above the booths until it was closed down after a lawsuit(something to do with a collapsed footbridge and an overly litigious customer). The collection was broken up with the closure.

The former restaurant and resort has been torn down by John Fry of Fry's Electronics in favor of a massive Alhambra style castle that will be the home of an exclusive mathematics academy.

 

[Twitch]

Since true is stranger than fiction check out the real deal that flew in January 1945 and was set for production. This one was the Ho 229 and used 2 jets engines but there were others quite similar to the movie one also.

The Smithsonian is in the long process of rebuilding it.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

scary thought, those planes...

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Looks remarkably like current production aircraft. Said current production stuff had to be a direct result of Operation Paper Clip.

 

[Diamondback]

Actually, Jack Northrop was building his own flying-wings during WWII, I'd suspect the earlier B-35/49 and modern B-2 to be a blend of Northrop's original N-1 through N-9 prototypes and captured Horten data. I know a guy who'd like to build one without the German markings, but he's afraid FAA'd never let him fly it for fear of a UFO panic...

 

[Twitch]

Funny you should mention UFOs. At least one prototype was brought to the US in 1945- the one at the Smithsonian.

Back when the modern wave of UFOs began remember it was Kenneth Arnold who saw them from his light plane. The whole "flying saucer" verbiage was horribly misinterpreted.

Go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold and clik on the image for size increase. This is the shape of vehicles he saw mentioning "they flew as though a saucer does when thrown to skip over water."

They never were discs. Hmm? One of the early black projects using Luftwaffe plans?

I have researched manuscript-length material on the advanced weapons, mostly aerial ones, by allies and axis alike. While the Allies would have surely beaten Germany, no matter what, if we hadn't been barely successful at Normandy we would have required a year to reorganize. By that time quite a few of the 2nd generation advanced weapons would have been deployed including SAMs, advanced rockets and an Amerika Bomber.

 

[Mid-fogey]

scotrace...

...If it wasn't clear from the above discussion, the plane you are talking was a Ford Trimotor, The plane in the first movie was a made up concoction.