any surviving Blue thunder?
does anyone know if any of the choppers are still in flying condition???
shareThe parts or "Cockpit that were "Bolted" on can be seen at Disney World in Florida on the Tour aroud the park.
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MovieChat Forums > Blue Thunder (1983) Discussion > any surviving Blue thunder?
Here's a current photo of BT from MGM Florida.
http://www.geocities.com/markrlevin/images/blue/bluethunderhc.jpg
Sadly, BT doesn't look too airworthy anymore. At least some of it is still intact though.
A very unfitting end for one of the coolest machines in cinematic history.
FAA registration details:
Serial Number 1066 Type Registration Individual
Manufacturer Name AEROSPATIALE Certificate Issue Date 03/04/1985
Model SA341G GAZELLE Mode S Code 51457501
Year Manufacturer None Cancel Date 08/08/1994
Reason for Cancellation Cancelled Exported To
Serial Number 1075 Type Registration Unknown
Manufacturer Name AEROSPATIALE Certificate Issue Date None
Model SA341G GAZELLE Mode S Code 51503300
Year Manufacturer None Cancel Date None
Reason for Cancellation Unknown Exported To
One chopper was scrapped and the other was used for the TV show. I heard that this second chopper was being flown by a pilot during a joyflight for some lucky people and he lost control and crashed it during a hard maneouvre.
Regards,
MC.
From my understanding, the display at MGM Studios is simply a mockup that was used to shoot some of the cockpit scenes for the movie and was never actually part of the helicopter.
I was not aware of the 2nd helicopter being crashed, that's very unfortunate.
That's correct. The mockup seen from the train ride at the backlot is just a prop. The crash of the second chopper I am not 100% on. There was an accident report of a Gazelle that crashed in the US during the late '80s from memory with text similar to "...while the pilot was demonstrating a maneauver that the helicopter performs in a television show..."
So it's just guess work. Some very significant structural engineering work was done on those choppers, a lot more than just bolt-on light-weight parts like Airwolf. It is a shame that they didn't preserve the choppers but choppers are quite large machines and you have to find somewhere to put them for years where they won't rust, and Blue Thunder wasn't a big smash-hit film also. They were probably just sitting there annoying someone, taking up space and made up of valuable European helicopter parts.
Have a look here
http://www.rotaryaction.com/pages/bluethunder.html
--------------------------------------If it aint broke dont fix it,if it is broke turn up the radio