at :46, there are numbers on the upper surface of the right wing. Looks like " - 2".
That would be consistent with the plane's fictional registration of "16-2" which seems to have been accomplished by the simple expedient of masking or painting over the "R" and both "0"s (with a hyphen inserted). In fact, if you look closely you can still make out the last "0" in this shot as a lighter and less reflective outline of the numeral.
At :56 you can very briefly see something on the top of the right wing. Maybe "16".
That would make sense for "16-2". In fact at :57 you can also make out that same fake registration on the bottom of the left wing.
At 1:02 there is definitely nothing painted on the top of the right wing.
So it would seem .. thanks to the magic of the movies
Actually the image has merely been flipped by reversing the negative. It's one of the oldest tricks in the film making book for creating two shots for the price of one. Good enough to fool most of the audience (and even the odd world renowned aviation history expert!) Take a closer look at you'll see a backwards "16-2" on the upper surface of what now appears to be the plane's left wing. The effect is most obvious at :59 when the shot begins and you can make out a mirror image of the words "THE LONDON" on hangar in the upper left of frame (part of the set dressing for the movie which is seen in an earlier shot to read "THE LONDON METROPOLITAN AIRPORT")
At 1:08 the top wing is marked R16020 (although the middle 0 looks a bit funky).
I'm not sure what's going on there. I suspect it was either the first or last shot of the day and the art department got caught in the middle of applying or removing the alterations (the "16-2" is present on the right horizontal tail).
At 1:19 the right wing is marked "16 -2" but you can see where the "R" has been removed.
The "R" is still there, but masked or covered (probably with a temporary water-based paint). The ghost outline is a little more discernible at 1:20 (especially around the "legs" of the letter).
It seems like this would all have taken at least two days.
All in all, the airport (probably
Burbank Van Nuys) shoot appears to be no more than about a dozen individual set ups. Even if they weren't carrying multiple cameras, I doubt it would have taken a full day to shoot. I'm also fairly certain it would have been handled by a second unit crew while "One Take Woody" remained at the studio with his stars.
Russ Matthews
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