Unveiling The Iconic ’80s Movie Chopper

Aficionados of 80s motion films little question bear in mind the 1983 basic, “Blue Thunder.” It tells the story of a pair of Los Angeles cops who’re chosen to check out a brand new military-grade helicopter, the titular Blue Thunder, solely to seek out themselves embroiled in a top-secret authorities conspiracy. It is a textbook instance of old-school vehicular motion filmmaking, bolstered past its contemporaries by its quite a few high-flying chopper battles.

Commercial

As this was nicely earlier than the appearance of common-use CGI in filmmaking, almost the entire helicopter scenes in “Blue Thunder” had been filmed with an precise helicopter, specifically modified to be used within the movie. Whereas the true Blue Thunder was nowhere close to as superior because it was depicted within the film or its tie-in tv sequence, it was fairly a classy little bit of aeronautic engineering. The query for any deep-pocketed die-hard collectors of 80s-era memorabilia is whether or not there’s any hope of acquiring the Blue Thunder for a burgeoning assortment.

Within the movie “Blue Thunder,” the titular chopper is claimed to be geared up with a dizzying array of next-generation navy and police options, or no less than next-generation for the Nineteen Eighties. These options embrace a 20 mm front-mounted electrical cannon, a closed-circuit TV digital camera with a robust zoom lens, an infra-red scanner, long-range microphones, and a “whisper mode” that every one however eradicated the automobile’s operation noise. The massive spotlight function was the craft’s “turbine increase,” which allowed it to carry out a 360-degree flip within the movie’s climax.

Commercial

Clearly, none of those options had been actual, however the helicopter they had been allegedly put in in was. Or, to be extra correct, the helicopters. Blue Thunder was really two totally different helicopters, designated N51BT and N52BT. These autos had been modified from a pair of French Aérospatiale SA-341G Gazelle helicopters and used for motion scenes. The cockpits of those choppers had been tweaked to make them look a bit extra angular and militaristic, the skids had been changed with shorter fashions, and each our bodies got a placing black paint job.

Following the unique launch of the “Blue Thunder” movie, each N51BT and N52BT continued to see use of their supposed roles as a part of the 1984 “Blue Thunder” tv sequence. Sadly, reception to this sequence wasn’t significantly sturdy, and it was canceled after a single season of 11 episodes. Following the cancellation, each Blue Thunder choppers entered the possession of a New Mexico scrap collector named Michael Gruben. Within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, Gruben rented out one of many Blue Thunders to an ABC-affiliated manufacturing firm for use in motion scenes for the miniseries “Amerika,” however past that, neither chopper noticed the display screen once more. Lastly, in 1988, N52BT was scrapped for components and its FAA registration formally canceled, with N51BT following in 1994.

Commercial

Sarcastically, the occasion of Blue Thunder that really lasted the longest wasn’t even an actual helicopter. Alongside the true choppers, a mock-up of the Blue Thunder cockpit was made for the movie’s close-up scenes. This standalone mannequin managed to discover a place on the again a lot of MGM Studios for a time, although sadly, it too was in the end scrapped in 2009. With that, there aren’t any situations of the unique Blue Thunder remaining on the earth. In case you wished to personal a chunk of the movie, you’d must accept a scale RC mannequin.