TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => News, Views, Books, Archival Data & Interviews on AE => Topic started by: Monty Fowler on September 23, 2009, 08:56:16 PM
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I'm not a rivet counter by any means, but looking at the trailer of the upcoming Amelia movie, it sure looks like a Lockheed 10 Electra, and it looks like the movie producers made a real effort as far as the orange paint color, ID numbers and windows (what I could see of them). What do we know of the aircraft used? And pleaseeee tell me the Luke Field crash was computer generated and we didn't sacrafice a real aircraft on the altar of Hollywood?
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... What do we know of the aircraft used? And pleaseeee tell me the Luke Field crash was computer generated and we didn't sacrifice a real aircraft on the altar of Hollywood?
A Lockheed 12 was used in the African shots. (http://www.turtlepac.com/aircraftferry.htm)
Pix of same outfitted in AE's colors and N-number. (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Pegase-TV/Lockheed-12A-Electra/1548790/L/&sid=2d41d23dd7d0d84b1ad7e17479a53b1f) Owned by Bernard Chabbert. F-AZLL is its real tail number.
Some notes on the pilots who flew in the film (http://www.asb.tv/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t6616.html) on a Canadian discussion board.
More from Air Show Buzz about the flight from France down to South Africa: (http://www.asb.tv/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t6517.html)
"175 hours of flight including 65 hours of filming, with 35 hours in formation a Camera Ecureuil B2 flown by Mark Wolff. This plane flew a total of 19000 nautical miles (Amelia disappeared after 17000 nautical miles). Mr Faix, Koblet, Kasperski, Antoine Chabbert, John Herbert, Jean Francois Thibon were the crew flying the plane."
No evidence found yet, but I'll assure you that the crash did not destroy a real Electra. CGI is so much cheaper and safer!
Marty
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No Lockheed Model 10 Electras were harmed in the making of this film. In fact, no Model 10s appear in the film. From what I can see in the trailer a Lockheed 12 "Electra Junior" was used for the flying scenes. Although the Model 12 has the same twin-tail configuration as the Model 10, it's a much smaller airplane with a very different profile than an Electra. They may have used another 12 for the Luke Field wreck - but maybe not. More on that in a minute.
As Marty correctly notes, the 12 used in the flying scenes was flown to South Africa from France. And as Monty correctly notes, they seem to have the orange paint about right. But after having gone to all that trouble, they put the iconic loop antenna on the underside of the nose instead of over the cockpit. There are, of course, many other inaccuracies in the aircraft's configuration but this one is so glaring and, one would think, easy to get right, it makes you think the historical accuracy advisor was out to lunch. Apparently the continuity supervisor was with him because the 12 used in the Luke Field crash scene has the loop in the correct location.
Looking at the crash sequence in the trailer, it appears to be a real airplane. I'm quite sure it's not all CGI. My suspicion is that that they started with a Model 12 but modified the cockpit section. (The windshield is too big for a 12.) The sparks are probably CGI but it looks to me like they did yank the gear out from under a real live Model 12. Of course, the crash shown in the trailer is nothing like the actual Luke Field wreck. The real accident was much wilder.
Nit-picking this stuff is pointless but irresistible.
Ric
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What the heck else are nits good for ;D I had spotted the loop antenna in the wrong place in some of the shots ... too bad if a perfectly good aircraft got trashed regardless of the cause.
What would be really, really nice is if, at the end of the day, in addition to TIGHAR, the Amelia Earhart Centre in Ireland got a bit of a financial boost from all this attention.
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More about the Lockheed 12A Electra Junior used in the movie:
www.aopa.org/summit/news/2009/091006electra
--Mona
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What do we know of the aircraft used?
While noodling about to see whether publicity is showing up for the television show next Saturday (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=1.16429.26181.39326.x), I came across this very nice video of the Lockheed 12 used in the movie. (http://video.yahoo.com/watch/6246319/16207794) Lots of pretty in-flight scenes.