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Various real-worldaircraft have long made significant appearances in fictional works, including books, films, toys, TV programs, video games, and other media.

The first aviation film was the 1911William J. Humphrey–directed two-reeler,The Military Air-Scout,^[1] shot after anAero Club of America flying meet atLong Island, New York. The stunt flying was done by Lt.Henry H. Arnold, "who picked up 'a few extra bucks' for his services" and "became so excited about movies that he almost quit the Army to become an actor."^[2]

The years betweenWorld War I andWorld War II saw extensive use of aircraft, a new technology, in film, a new medium.^[3] In the early 1920s, Hollywood studios made dozens of now-obscure "aerial Westerns" with leads such asTom Mix andHoot Gibson, where the role of the horse was taken by aircraft, or used aircraft as nothing more than vehicles for stunts to excite audiences.^[4] In 1926, the first "proper" aviation film was made;Wings is a story of two pilots who sign up to fly and fight in the First World War.^[5] Made with the cooperation of theUnited States' then-Department of War (a relationship that continues to this day), it used front-line military aircraft of the day such as theThomas-Morse MB-3 andBoeing PW-9, flown by military pilots.^[6] Future U.S. Air Force generalsHap Arnold andHoyt Vandenberg were among the military officers involved with the production: Arnold as a technical consultant and Vandenberg as one of the pilots.^[7]Wings was a box-office hit when it achieved general release in 1929 and went on to win the award for Best Production at the firstAcademy Awards.^[8][9]

InFascist Italy in the 1930s, aviation-themed films were used as propaganda tools to complement the massed flights led byItalo Balbo in promoting the regime domestically and abroad.^[10] One such film was the most successful Italian film of the pre-World War II era;Luciano Serra pilota (Luciano Serra, Pilot) was inextricably linked to the Fascist government viaMussolini's sonVittorio, who was the driving force behind the film's production.^[11] The film, set between 1921 and theItalo-Abyssinian War, was used to compare the allegedly moribund state of aviation in pre-Fascist Italy with the purported power of theRegia Aeronautica and Italian aviation in general in the 1930s.^[12] However, by the time thatLuciano Serra pilota was shown at the 1938Venice Film Festival, the link between aviation and Fascism had already been firmly established in the minds of the Italian people through widespread depictions of aircraft in a variety of media.^[11] For example, there was an entire branch of theFuturist Art movement devoted to aviation, known asAeropittura ("Aeropainting").^[13] While many of theAeropittura works were devoted to flight rather than aircraftper se, some did celebrate Italian aviation exploits, such as Alfredo Ambrosi'sIl volo su Vienna (The Flight over Vienna) which depicted in Futurist style theWorld War I exploit ofGabriele d'Annunzio; although the city of Vienna is shown in abstract in accordance with the aims ofAeropittura – namely to show the dynamism and excitement of flight – theAnsaldo SVA aircraft are carefully and accurately rendered.^[13][14]

The U.S. military controls whether its aircraft may be used for movie or video production. Requests for such use must be accompanied by the proposed production's script, allowing military officials to withhold aircraft when they believe the work will not portray the U.S. military in a sufficiently positive light. Because alternatives to using real military aircraft can be expensive, films that do not get U.S. military approval often do not get financed or made. Sean McElwee, writing forSalon.com, concluded of this problem,

This is aprima facie case for de facto censorship...If the government wants to allow its equipment to be used by studios, it needs to grant access to anyone who wants to use it – that is the meaning of pluralism. The Pentagon fears that some of the movies may hurt the military's reputation and recruiting efforts. These concerns are legitimate, but it's more important that we allowJohn Stuart Mill's 'market place of ideas' to be a place for free trade, rather than favoring some over others.^[15]

Aircraft have also appeared in televisionminiseries andseries around the world. These include the American productionsTwelve O'Clock High,Airwolf,Baa Baa Black Sheep,Sky King andWings; the Australian seriesBig Sky,Chopper Squad andThe Flying Doctors, and the miniseriesThe Lancaster Miller Affair; British shows such asAirline,Piece of Cake andSquadron, the Canadian seriesArctic Air;JETS – Leben am Limit andMedicopter 117 – Jedes Leben zählt from Germany; and the Canadian–British–German co-productionRitter's Cove.

Two privately ownedSkyraiders depicted U.S. Air Force "Sandy" search-and-rescue escort aircraft in the 1991 filmFlight of the Intruder.^[16]

The 1986Stephen Coonts novelFlight of the Intruder is about twonaval aviators who take theirGrumman A-6 Intruder on an unauthorized bombing raid onHanoi during the Vietnam War. It was made into a 1991 filmof the same name.^[17]

TheA-10 Thunderbolt II is featured in the 1989 video gameA-10 Tank Killer.^[18]

Most incarnations of theAutobot Powerglide, who first appeared inHasbro'sTransformers toy line in 1985, transform into an A-10.^[19][20][21]

TwoA-26firebombers were featured in the 1989Steven Spielberg filmAlways.^[22] Attempts to use radio-controlled models for special effects shots were abandoned as unworkable; instead, models were "flown" from wire rigs.^[23]

TheMitsubishi A6M Zero was featured in the filmThe Wind Rises, a 2013Studio Ghibli animated fictionalized biopic of Zero designerJiro Horikoshi.^[24]

Zero fighters are shown in the 2013 Japanese novelEien No Zero (The Eternal Zero) byNaoki Hyakuta, which was made into a 2013film of the same name directed byTakashi Yamazaki.^[25]

A heavily modifiedAérospatiale Gazelle was the centerpiece of the 1983John Badham action filmBlue Thunder.^[26] Thesame helicopter appeared in the short-lived 1984TV series by the same name starringJames Farentino. The modified Gazelle went on to be used in the TV mini-seriesAmerika.^[27]

At the climax of the 2012James Bond filmSkyfall, an armedAgustaWestland AW101 Merlin transport helicopter is used in the main villain Silva's assault on Bond and M at Bond's childhood home.^[28][29][30]

TheBoeing AH-64 Apache had a major role in the 1990 action-thriller film directed byDavid Green,Fire Birds (orWings of the Apache).^{[31][better source needed]}

The Apache helicopter has also made an appearance in the hardcore study-level simDCS: World, being praised for its accurate depiction of the systems and procedures.^[32]

The assault on what would later be known as thePegasus Bridge over theCaen Canal in France by British commandos landing inAirspeed Horsa gliders was depicted in the 1962 war epicThe Longest Day. Only one Horsa replica was actually constructed.^[33]

Ten non-flyable Airspeed Horsa mockups were fabricated for the filming of the 1977 filmA Bridge Too Far.^[34]

At least twoAmerican Eagle A-1s were employed in the production of the 1930 filmYoung Eagles which was directed byWilliam A. Wellman and starredBuddy Rogers andJean Arthur. The film portrayed American pilots serving in France during the Great War. Although the A-1 was a post-WW1 trainer, the filmmakers considered it suitable to portray wartime aircraft. One Eagle was painted with USAS insignia while a second was painted with German markings. Stunt pilotDick Grace was hired to deliberately crash-land both of them in separate scenes, which severely damaged both aircraft. Grace escaped injury on both occasions.^[35]

AnAvro Ashton, in its six-engined, Olympus testbed form, appeared as the fictitiousPhoenix airliner inCone of Silence (1960), based on the novel of the same name^[36] byDavid Beaty, a formerBOAC pilot. This concerned the takeoff problems of thePhoenix, and the subsequent accident investigation; it was based on two takeoff accidents to thede Havilland Comet.^[37]

TheAvro Canada CF-105 Arrow makes a prominent appearance in Daniel Wyatt's 1990 novel,The Last Flight of the Arrow. In the novel, the real-life destruction of the fighter is a cover for a secret U.S.-Canadian continental air-defense initiative that fields a fleet of Arrows. A Polish-CanadianRoyal Canadian Air Force pilot flies one Arrow on a high-speed reconnaissance flight over Russia to find proof that the Soviet Union is planning an airstrike on North America.^[38]

TheAvro Lancaster was the best-knownRoyal Air Force heavy bomber of World War II.^[39]

Lancasters appeared in the 1952 British war filmAppointment in London (released in the US asRaiders in the Sky) directed byPhilip Leacock and starringDirk Bogarde.^[40]

Avro Vulcans are central to the 2008 aviation novel by English authorDerek Robinson, titledHullo Russia, Goodbye England. A BritishRAF pilot named Silk, a veteran of Bomber Command in the Second World War, rejoins the service at the height of theCold War.^[41]

The 1965James Bond filmThunderball portrays the hijacking of an Avro Vulcan for its nuclear bombs.^[42]

B-17s appear in the 1951 novelThe Sun is Silent bySaul Levitt which traces the journey of a B-17 crew from their training through to daylight bombing missions over Germany. The author himself had served as a radioman/gunner in a B-17 during the war.^[43]

The B-17 Flying Fortress was the subject of the 1990Warner Bros. filmMemphis Belle.^[44] During filming, one of the five vintage B-17s was destroyed in an accidental crash and a second was damaged when an engine cowling detached in flight, tearing a chunk out of the aircraft's tail. There were no injuries in either incident.^[45]

ForGeorge Lucas' 2012 filmRed Tails about the332d Fighter Group, theTuskegee Airmen, the B-17G "Pink Lady" operated by theAssociation Forteresse Toujours Volante, appeared as a351st Bomb Group aircraft named "Yankee", coded ED-N. Filmed in theCzech Republic in 2010, the film company funding allowed the warbird to fly for an additional year before being retired to museum status. Other Flying Fortresses were rendered throughCGI.^[46]

Consolidated B-24 Liberators appear in the 1944 20th Century Fox filmWinged Victory which was directed byGeorge Cukor and which portrayed cadets undergoing training as aircrew in theU.S. Army Air Forces during WW2. The AAF detached several B-24s to the production, which was filmed at Santa Ana Army Airfield in California.^[47]

B-24s are a central feature in the 1952 novelAngle of Attack by Joseph Landon. The story concerns navigator Irwin 'Win' Hellman, whose B-24 is attacked by enemy fighters and badly damaged over Vienna. The B-24's pilot signals to the enemy fliers that he wishes to surrender but Hellman, who is Jewish and dreads being captured alive, believes they can still escape and, with the backing of the other crew, he takes command.^[48]

B-24s are a major feature of the 1979 novelRider on the Wind byDavid Westheimer. The novel portrays a B-24 pilot of the USAAF stationed in Palestine during the Second World War and who meets a Jewish resistance-fighter. The author himself served as a navigator in a B-24 with the 98th Bomb Group stationed in Palestine & Egypt in 1942.^[49]

TheNorth American B-25 Mitchell had feature roles in the filmsThirty Seconds over Tokyo (1944) (pilotTed Lawson's account of theDoolittle Raid^[50]),Hanover Street (1979) based on a fictional B-25 unit stationed in England,^[50] andForever Young (1992), following a B-25 test pilot's story both in the past and present.^[51]

B-25s appear in the 1976 novelWhip byMartin Caidin, which portrays a B-25 unit based in Australia and commanded by Captain 'Whip' Russell and they are employed in low-level bombing missions against Japanese convoys carrying reinforcements to Guadalcanal and Rabaul in 1942.^[52][53]

The B-25 was the focus of the second half of the 2001 filmPearl Harbor, although critics complained that the bomber and its role were being depicted inaccurately.^[54]

B-25s appear in the 2019Hulu mini-seriesCatch-22 directed byGeorge Clooney.^[55] Two vintage B-25s were used in the production^[56] and other B-25s were re-created with CGI.^[57]

TheBoeing B-29 Superfortress has played an important role in several Hollywood films, particularly theEnola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb. The Enola Gay was depicted inAbove and Beyond andThe Beginning or the End.^[58]

The 1957 filmBombers B-52 focused on the introduction of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber by the U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC) in the 1950s, using extensive footage of early model B-52s.^[59]

The 1963 filmA Gathering of Eagles focuses on the stresses of aB-52 wing commander at the height of the Cold War. Some excellent visuals of the B-52 including a complexinflight refueling operation which nearly ends in disaster.^[60]

The B-52 was also a key part ofStanley Kubrick's 1964 black comedy filmDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.^[61]

A B-52 was a focal point of the 1983 novelTrinity's Child, byWilliam Prochnau, and the 1990 telemovie adaptation,By Dawn's Early Light.^[62]

The 1950s syndicated American television seriesWhirlybirds, produced byDesilu Studios, starred a pair ofBell 47 helicopters. The association withWhirlybirds continues to be used to promote helicopters and the Bell 47 in particular.^[63] A Bell 47 was also one of the 'stars' of the Australian television seriesSkippy the Bush Kangaroo.^[64]

A Bell 47G3B-1 was used as the "Batcopter" in the 1966Batman film. This airframe had previously appeared inLassie Come Home.^[65]

A Bell 47 depicted a supposed German helicopter in the 1968 action filmWhere Eagles Dare. Although experimental German helicopter types did exist in this time period, theFocke-Achgelis Fa 223 was a larger, twin-rotor machine, which was used on only a limited basis.^[66][67]

The Bell 47, in its military configuration as aH-13 Sioux regularly appeared in theM*A*S*H film (1970) andtelevision series (1972-1983).^[68]

Chopper Squad was a 1970s Australian television series about aBell 206 JetRanger used for rescue work in Sydney. The helicopter used was an actual rescue helicopter operated by theWestpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Service.^[64]

TheBell UH-1 Iroquois (commonly called theHuey) was the most common helicopter during theVietnam War, as an aircraft used to insert and remove troops from the field, transport casualties for medical treatment and as a gunship.^[69] As such, it has appeared in many works of fiction related to the war.

The UH-1 was an important part of the 1968 filmThe Green Berets. The production company paid $18,623.64 for the material, the 85 hours of flying time by UH-1 helicopters, and 3,800 man-days for military personnel taken away from their regular duties.^[70]

The UH-1 was inFrancis Ford Coppola's 1979 filmApocalypse Now. Several Hueys were rented from the Philippine Air Force.^[71] The distinct and iconic sound of the helicopters was featured prominently in the film'ssound design of the soundtrack.^[72]

UH-1s were prominently featured inOliver Stone's 1986 filmPlatoon.^[71]

The UH-1 is a central part of the 2002 Vietnam war filmWe Were Soldiers. The helicopter is shown ferrying troops into theIa Drang valley as part of the then-new concept ofair cavalry. The film particularly focused on the flights of MajorBruce Crandall, who was later awarded theMedal of Honor for his actions while piloting his UH-1 during the battle depicted in the film.^[73][74] Four of the UH-1s used were provided by theGeorgia Army National Guard.^[75]

UH-1D helicopters are seen as the primary transport aircraft in the 2017 filmKong: Skull Island, and are attacked by Kong after launching seismic bombs in an attempt to map the Island's caves. Most are equipped with the M134 and FFAR pod armament.^[76]

TheBell X-1 was depicted early in the filmThe Right Stuff. The film showed the historic flight of the X-1 becoming the first aircraft to break the sound barrier in level flight under its own propulsion. This achievement helped usher in the US space program that was the subject of the rest of the film.^[77]

The 1936 movieWithout Orders centers on the emergency landing of a Boeing 247 by the stewardess.^[78]

The 1936 movie13 Hours by Air takes place largely aboard a transcontinental Boeing 247 flight and includes significant historically interesting second-unit footage of actual terminal facilities onUnited Air Lines's then-new transcontinental route network.^[78]

The 1961 episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" of the television seriesThe Twilight Zone takes place on aBoeing 707 with the aircraft traveling through various periods of history.^[79]

A Boeing 707-349C leased fromFlying Tiger Line portrayed two aircraft in the 1970 filmAirport, based on the 1968Arthur Haileynovel of the same name.^[80]

The Boeing 707 is featured as the titular aircraft inAirplane!, a 1980 disaster-parody film produced byJon Davison.^[81]

In 2011, the American television seriesPan Am took place in the early and mid-1960s and featured interior sets and exterior CGI representations of the 707 on the ground and in flight; it was Pan Am's flagship airliner during that time. Additional footage of John Travolta's Boeing 707 in Pan Am livery has also been used in the TV series.^[82]

Industrial Light and Magic constructed a large-scale model of aBoeing 727 of fibreglass and aluminum for use in the 1990action filmDie Hard 2.^[83]

The 1996 filmEraser includes an elaborate action sequence involving a parachute jump from a crippled Boeing 727.^[84]

The 1998 filmU.S. Marshals depicts the crash of a 727 from theJustice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS).^[85]

In the 2008 TV seriesBreaking Bad, the mid-air crash between aBoeing 737 and aBeechcraft Super King Air overAlbuquerque, referred to as the Wayfarer 515 disaster, takes an important part in the plot. Because of it, this model is featured and mentioned several times during the second season. Also, the episode "Seven Thirty-Seven" is named for the aircraft; it is the first of several episode titles that collectively foreshadow the Wayfarer 515 disaster. When placed together, they read "Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ".^[86][87]

A redressedBoeing 747 ofAmerican Airlines was featured extensively in the 1974 filmAirport 1975,^[88] and the sequelAirport 77.^[89]

AnAir Mauritius 747SP was featured in the 1993 Bollywood movieGumrah (1993 film).

In the 1990 action filmDie Hard 2, a 747 that has been hijacked by terrorists is destroyed byJohn McClane. Three 23-foot models were fabricated byIndustrial Light and Magic with one destroyed during filming done at a remote airstrip in theMojave Desert of California. The effects were matched to a real 747 filmed taxiing atAlpena, Michigan. The cost of the special effects pushed the film's production costs towards the then-record of $70 million.^[90]

A 747-212B, rented fromKalitta Air, was the title subject of the 1997 filmAir Force One, portraying the real 747-200-basedVC-25 that transports the US president. The film shows characters firingM4A1 carbines on board a number of times (and hitting the cabin walls), but the5.56x45mmFMJ rounds used at the time would easily have torn holes through the plane, leading to explosive depressurization.^[91][92]

The 747 was also prominent in the novel and the 2002 filmThe Sum of All Fears as theNational Airborne Operations Center during a nuclear showdown with Russia.^[93]

A 747 in-flight is also the setting for the 2006 horror-thriller filmSnakes on a Plane in which a large number of venomous snakes wriggle loose on the large jet.^[94][95]

AnAll Nippon AirwaysBoeing 747-400 was featured in the 2008 Japanese movieHappy Flight.^[96]

A cargo 747 was used in the 2020 filmTenet for a scene where they crashed the plane into a hangar. DirectorChristopher Nolan said that it was much cheaper to do it in real life than using computer graphics.^[97]

ABoeing 757 is the setting of the 2006 filmUnited 93, that is based on the events on boardUnited Airlines Flight 93 which was hijacked during theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001.^[98]

An Air New ZealandBoeing 767-200 was featured in the 1993 TV movieMercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771, whereby its crew lead a lost Cessna 188 to a safe landing place. The movie is based on theCessna 188 Pacific rescue that took place in 1978. The plane in the actual rescue was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 and the Boeing 767 was not introduced into Air New Zealand's fleet until 1985.^[99]

The Boeing 767 is the setting of the 2014 action filmNon-Stop in which a killer onboard is executing the aircraft's passengers and crew.^[100]

A modifiedBoeing 777 was used as theUnited States Air Force mothership for an experimentalNASAspaceplane in the 2006 filmSuperman Returns.^[101]

In 1950,Paul Mantz tore the wings off aBoeing PT-13D (Model 75) Stearman by flying between two oaks for the 1950 filmWhen Willie Comes Marching Home.^[102] A crop-dusting Stearman, N6340, was featured early in the 1963Elvis Presley filmIt Happened at the World's Fair.^[103]

A Boeing Stearman appears in the climactic scene of the Disney Sci-Fi filmThe Cat from Outer Space (1978). The scene involves a mid-air transfer of characters between the Stearman and a Gazelle helicopter. The Stearman is a wreck but is flown by the powers of the magic necklace belonging to the cat Jake.^[104]

More recently, Model 75s have appeared in a number of films includingIndependence Day (1996),The English Patient (1997),^[105] andPearl Harbor (2001).^[106]

In the final sequence ofMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, two Boeing-Stearman feature in a plane chase whereTom Cruise wing walks as the planes engage in aerobatics.^[107] The scene involves Cruise jumping between planes, in reality this mid-air transfer was actually shot between a Boeing-Stearman and a helicopter with a rig to make it appear to be the wheels of the other plane.^[108] In total, four Boeing-Stearman were used in production.^[107]

TheBreda-Zappata BZ.308 makes a brief appearance inWilliam Wyler's 1953 romantic comedy "Roman Holiday" starringAudrey Hepburn.

Comics writerGarth Ennis' 2007 revival of the old British war comic heroBattler Britton: Bloody Good Show, featured the ace fighter pilot commanding a squadron ofBristol Beaufighters in North Africa during the Second World War.^[109]

Bristol Blenheims appear in the 1945 British filmThe Way to the Stars (released in the US asJohnny in the Clouds). In the early part of the film, Pilot Officer Peter Penrose (John Mills), a '15-hour sprog' (rookie) arrives at Halfpenny Field, a Royal Air-Force aerodrome, in the summer of 1940 and joins B-Flight of No 72 Squadron, equipped with Blenheims and commanded by Flight-Lieutenant David Archdale (Michael Redgrave).^[110]

A Bristol Blenheim IV, restored from aBolingbroke IVT, appeared in the 1995 filmRichard III, an adaptation of Shakespeare's play directed by and starringIan McKellen; who set the play in an imaginary 1930s England ruled by a fascist-style Monarch.^[111]

ABristol Type 175 Britannia airliner was the central feature of the 1959 filmJet Over the Atlantic (also released asHigh Over the Atlantic), a drama directed byByron Haskin and starringGuy Madison andVirginia Mayo. The film's plot is about an airliner en route from Spain to the United States. Among the passengers is an American who has been arrested for murder and is being extradited back to the US. Another passenger, rendered mentally unstable by the loss of his daughter, releases a toxic gas on board the aircraft, rendering the flight crew unconscious, and leaving the prisoner as the only person capable of flying the aircraft. Despite the film's title, the Bristol Type 175 was a turbo-prop engined aircraft rather than a jet-powered plane.^[112]

In the long-running British First World War comic stripCharley's War, published inBattle Picture Weekly 1979–1986 and written byPat Mills and illustrated byJoe Colquhoun, the storyline goes on a tangent when Charley Bourne's younger brother Wilf enlists under-age and becomes an observer/gunner in aBristol F2B squadron in France in early 1918.^[113][114]

A replica Bristol F2B mounted on skis was featured in the 1981 filmDeath Hunt which starredCharles Bronson andLee Marvin. The replica, which was constructed in the US and had an inverted Ford Ranger engine instead of a Rolls-Royce, was originally commissioned in 1979 to appear in the filmHigh Road to China (1983), but was not used in that production.^[115]

The fictional RFC unit featured in Derek Robinson's 1999 novelHornet's Sting, set in 1917 over the Western Front, exchange their outdated Sopwith Pups for the new Bristol F2Bs.^[116]

A flying replica of aBristol Tourer, a civil utility biplane developed from the Bristol F2B, appeared in the 1985 Australian TV mini-seriesA Thousand Skies, a dramatisation of the career of famous Australian aviatorCharles Kingsford Smith.^[117]

ABristol Type 170 Freighter Mk. 11A played a major role in the 1957 British filmThe Man in the Sky (distributed in the U.S. asDecision Against Time) directed byCharles Crichton and starringJack Hawkins. In the film, one of the engines catches fire during a test flight, and Hawkins' character struggles to use up enough fuel to make an emergency landing. During filming, the aircraft was damaged in a crash, but was repaired and returned to service withSilver City Airways until it was retired and scrapped in 1962.^[118]

In the 2015James Bond filmSpectre, Bond pilots aBN-2 Islander through the Austrian Alps to rescueMadeleine Swann fromSpectre gang members.^[119]

In the 1963epic filmThe Great Escape, theprisoners of war played byJames Garner andDonald Pleasence steal aLuftwaffeBücker Bü 181.^[120] No aircraft were involved in the actual escape fromStalag Luft III. Pleasence, who had been an aircraft wireless operator withNo. 166 Squadron, was imprisoned inStalag Luft I after hisLancaster was shot down over Germany on 31 August 1944.^[121]

In the 2003 filmTears of the Sun, aSEAL team performs a parachute jump from aGrumman C-2A Greyhound to begin a mission inNigeria.^[122]

In the 2018 filmMission: Impossible – Fallout,Ethan Hunt performs aHALO jump from aBoeing C-17 Globemaster III belonging to theUAE Air Force.^[123]

In the TV seriesAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a heavily modified C-17 serves as the team'sBus.^[124]

A ski-equippedDouglas C-47 Skytrain is featured inHoward Hawks' 1951 science-fiction thriller,The Thing From Another World, based on the 1938 novellaWho Goes There? byJohn W. Campbell, Jr.^[125]

In the 1955 British filmThe Night My Number Came Up directed byLeslie Norman and starringMichael Redgrave andDenholm Elliott, a man tells guests at a dinner party of a dream he had of a Tokyo-bound Dakota that crashes in the Japanese mountains. Some of the guests board such a flight the next day and they begin to fear the dream is coming true.^[126]

Eleven aircraft were gathered for airdrop scenes in the 1977 filmA Bridge Too Far, all of which had to be of a paratroop configuration, representing the C-53 Skytrooper variant.^[34]

A Douglas C-47 DL Skytrain featured in the climactic scenes of the 1978 filmThe Wild Geese which starredRichard Burton andRoger Moore as the leaders of a group of British mercenaries sent to rescue a deposed African leader. The C-47 used in the film belonged to United Air of South Africa and was nick-named 'The Wild Goose' after its film role. The aircraft was destroyed in a crash in South Africa in 1988 which claimed the lives of all 24 people on board.^[127]

Indiana Jones travels from New York City to Venice in the 1989 adventureIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade.^[128]

The20th Century Fox productionThe Big Lift (originally titledQuartered City), set during theBerlin Airlift, was filmed in Berlin at a former German studio nearTempelhof in 1949 andDouglas C-54 Skymasters were prominently featured. Military personnel fromRhein-Main Air Base appeared as extras.^[129]

The crash of aFairchild C-82 Packet in the North African desert is central to the plot of the 1965 filmThe Flight of the Phoenix drawn from a 1964 novel byElleston Trevorof the same title.^[130]

TheFairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was the subject of the 2004remake ofFlight of the Phoenix, using the descendant design of theC-82 Packet of the original.^[131] It was also used inTransformers: Rise of the Beasts as Stratosphere's alternative mode.

Lockheed C-121A Constellation tail number 48-615 was used in the 1977 filmMacArthur, starringGregory Peck, painted inSupreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) markings.^[132]

In the 1990action filmDie Hard 2,John McClane ejects from the cockpit of a groundedFairchild C-123 Provider for a parachute recovery just before terrorists destroy it. A full-scale fuselage mock-up, molded from a real Provider, was rigged with 3,000 bullet hits, each one drilled and loaded with a charge, tapped, and wired to discharge in sequence. Actual pyrotechnics work was done atIndian Dunes, California, with actorBruce Willis' ejection composited into the shot later; real C-123s do not haveejection seats.^[133]

The 1990 filmAir America loosely recounted the exploits of theCentral Intelligence Agency proprietary airline in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and early 1970s and featured Fairchild C-123K Providers leased from theRoyal Thai Air Force.^[134]

The C-123 was featured in the 1997 filmCon Air, with much of the film's action taking place in and around the aircraft.^[135] Three C-123s were used in the production of the film. One aircraft was used for all of the flying sequences. Another was used for thetaxiing scenes and the third Provider, non-airworthy and in poor condition, was dismantled and its fuselage was used for the filming of the climatic crash scene.^[136]

The 1976 filmRaid on Entebbe was based on a real-life Israeli military rescue mission which relied on the unique short-field capabilities of theLockheed C-130.^[137]

In the place of a Soviet transport plane, a C-130 Hercules (orLockheed L-100 Hercules civilian model in military markings) was featured in the 1987James Bond filmThe Living Daylights; aC-123K Provider was used for some tail ramp fight scene close-ups.^[138]

The special operations variant, theLockheed MC-130 Combat Talon, was featured as the rescue aircraft in the 1997 filmAir Force One, performing a daring mid-air rescue of the President and his family as Air Force One is failing and going into the water.^[91]

In the 2007 filmTransformers aclose air support variant of the C-130, theAC-130 gunship, is used to drive off the Decepticons after the military base in Qatar is attacked, by executing apylon turn to deliver ground fire.^[139]

In the 2007 gameCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the player uses an AC-130H for support. The AC-130H is also playable during the mission "Death from Above".^[140] Since its initial inclusion, it has become a staple of the series, making further appearances inModern Warfare 2,Black Ops,Modern Warfare 3,Black Ops 4, the 2019Modern Warfare remake andits sequel,Black Ops Cold War, and theOnline andHeroes mobile games.

In the 2013 filmOlympus Has Fallen, a C-130 armed withmulti-barrel cannons attacks Washington, D.C., and shoots down two USAF F-22 Raptor fighters sent to intercept it. The C-130 is shot down by another F-22 and crashes into theWashington Monument, causing part of it to collapse.^[141]

In the 2013 filmLone Survivor, an AC-130 variant provides firepower as Luttrell is extracted from the village towards the end of the film.^[142]

The 2020 filmOperation Christmas Drop, a romantic comedy loosely based on the actual annual USAF humanitarian missionof the same name, features Alexander Ludwig as a C-130 pilot as he prepares and conducts the long-running mission in his C-130J.^[143]

Guy Ritchie's 2023 filmThe Covenant features an AC-130 gunship in the final scene, coming to the rescue of Jake Gyllenhaal's MSG Kinley as he's pinned down at the Darunta Dam.^[144]

A restoredCommonwealth Aircraft Corporation Wirraway, an Australian production variant of the North American NA-16 Harvard, appeared in the beach landing scenes in the 1998 war filmThe Thin Red Line directed byTerrence Malick and based on the 1962James Jones novel of thesame name. In the film, the aircraft is painted to depict aDouglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber.^[145]

TheCaproni Ca.60 Noviplano, a nine-wing flying boat of which only a single prototype was constructed and which crashed on its first test flight in 1921, features in the 2013 Japanese animated featureThe Wind Rises, a romantic dramatization of the life of Japanese aircraft designerJiro Horikoshi. In the film, the Italian aeronautical designerGiovanni Caproni appears as a mentor to Horikoshi in several dream sequences, one of which features a tour of the Ca.60.^[24]

Several ex-Spanish Air ForceCASA 2.111s were used as "stand-ins" to depict GermanHeinkel He 111 bombers in the 1969 filmBattle of Britain.^[146]

Four ex-Spanish CASA 2.111s, playing the role of Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111s, were also used in the production of the 1970 Oscar-winning filmPatton, starringGeorge C. Scott.^[147]

ACaudron 277 was used to play the role of both British and German two-seaters in the 1966 First World War aerial epicThe Blue Max directed byJohn Guillermin and based on the 1964 novel of the same name byJack D. Hunter.^[148]

The protagonist of the 1950s American television showSky King, played by actorKirby Grant, flew aCessna 310 in later episodes.^[149]

ACessna 402, operated by the fictional small airline Sandpiper Air at Tom Nevers Field airport,Nantucket, was featured in theNBC-TV sitcomWings which ran for eight seasons, 1990–1997.^[150]

The protagonist of the 1950s television showSky King flew aCessna T-50 in early episodes; the aircraft was later replaced by a Cessna 310.^[149]

CrashedWACO CG-4A gliders of the99th Troop Carrier Squadron were depicted by replicas in the filmSaving Private Ryan. These were recreated using measurements taken from a surviving example at theMuseum of Army Flying,Middle Wallop,Hampshire, England.^[151]

A surplus US ArmySikorsky S-58DT (a convertedUH-34D) was prominently featured asScreaming Mimi in the 1984–86 television seriesRiptide, and remains in service.^[152][153]

Westland Wessex helicopters portrayed CH-34 Choctaws inStanley Kubrick's 1987 filmFull Metal Jacket.^[154]

Turbine-repowered Sikorsky S-58Ts portrayed CH-34 Choctaws in the 1990 filmAir America about the exploits of theCentral Intelligence Agency proprietary airline during the war in Southeast Asia.^[134]

In the 1967James Bond filmYou Only Live Twice aKV-107 has anelectromagnet slung loaded underneath, and is used to airlift an antagonist's car off the road, thereby freeing up007 from their pursuit.^[155]

A Kawasaki-built KV-107 portrays aUH-46 Sea Knight of theUnited States Navy that airlifts a team of hijackers aboard theUSS Missouri in the 1992 filmUnder Siege, and is later depicted being blown up on the ship'sfantail. Filming was done aboard theUSS Alabama museum ship.^[156]

In the 2000 filmRules of Engagement twoBoeing-Vertol 234 Chinook helicopters are portrayed asBoeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knights of theUnited States Marine Corps. The helicopters transport a rescue team to evacuate personnel from a fallen embassy inYemen.^[157]

A CH-47D performs the rescue mission by pulling up a wreckedSuper Puma in the filmRescue Under Fire.^[158]

Starting in 2007, theCirrus SR22 became one of two aircraft (along with theF-16 Fighting Falcon) to be featured inGoogle Earth Flight Simulator.^[159]

The SR22 was also featured in the final scene of the 2010 romantic comedy filmShe's Out of My League.^[160]

TheConcorde was the title aircraft and star of the 1979 filmThe Concorde... Airport '79 in which it was flown primarily byAlain Delon andGeorge Kennedy's characters.^[161] The aircraft used crashed twenty-one years later asAir France Flight 4590, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground.

In the 1982 serial "Time-Flight" of theBBC sci-fi seriesDoctor Who, a Concorde, its passengers, and crew are pulled through time to a prehistoric version of Earth, and the Doctor commandeers a second Concorde to follow it.^[162]

TheAerialbotSilverbolt of the Transformers turns into a Concorde.^[163]

In the 2010Charles Stross novelThe Fuller Memorandum, the occult arm of the British government maintains four Concordes for use as supersonic reconnaissance aircraft to monitor theSleeper in the Pyramid. In the event of the Black Pharaoh awakening, the Concordes are to be used as nuclear bombers to attempt to contain the threat before it manifests on Earth.^{[164][independent source needed]}

In the 2017 filmThe Wife, two significant scenes, including the final one in the movie, take place on Concorde flights transporting a Nobel Prize winner. They were shot in the aircraft displayed at Scotland'sNational Museum of Flight.^[165][166]

Lego released a set based on the Concorde. The set has 2083 pieces and features the iconic design plus inside area of the plane.^[167]

United States NavyConsolidated NY trainers fromFloyd Bennett Field appeared as some of the biplanes that attackKing Kong atop theEmpire State Building in the1933 original film.^[168]

TheConvair XF-92, an experimental delta-wing interceptor, played the role of anF-102 Delta Dagger in the 1956 filmToward the Unknown starringWilliam Holden.^[169]

A pair ofCurtiss JN-4 Jenny biplanes featured in the 1919 silent filmThe Grim Game which starredHarry Houdini. In the film, the script originally called for a mid-air transfer of one of the characters between the two Jennys but while filming the scene, the two aircraft collided. Both pilots managed to safely crash-land and there were no injuries. The producers subsequently altered the script and incorporated the footage into the final cut.^[170]

A Curtiss JN-4 featured in the 1921 silent filmStranger than Fiction which starredKatherine MacDonald. The Jenny features in a major sequence in which the aircraft takes off from the roof of a 10-storey building in downtown Los Angeles. To film the scene, stunt pilotFrank Clarke took off from a wooden ramp. Prior to launching, the Jenny was fixed to an anchor with a rope which was cut after Clarke revved the engine to full power. Nonetheless, the Jenny dropped five storeys before Clarke was able to level out and fly along the length of Broadway street. It is not known if the producers asked permission from city officials prior to performing the stunt.^[171]

A pair of JN-4s also featured in the 1925 filmThe Cloud Rider. In one major scene, one of the Jennys flown by the film's female lead (played byVirginia Lee Corbin) loses a wheel (her plane having been sabotaged by the film's villains) and has to be assisted mid-air by the male lead (played byAl Wilson) who has another JN-4 pilot fly him alongside so he can climb onto the former's wing to render assistance. To film the scene, pilot Frank Clarke wore a wig to resemble the actress and after the aerial shots were completed, he was required to safely land his JN-4 with only one wheel.^[172]

A JN-4 appeared in the 1926 filmThe Woman With Four Faces directed byHerbert Brenon. Once again, Frank Clarke was employed as a stunt pilot. For one scene, he was required to double as the male lead and, while landing his aircraft, wave at actressBetty Compson. However, when Clarke took his eyes off the runway, his Jenny crashed into a tree but the pilot escaped without injury.^[173]

The rare US Marine CorpsCurtiss RC-1 air ambulance, made an appearance in the 1935Warner Bros. filmDevil Dogs of the Air starringJames Cagney andPat O'Brien.^[174]

The novelHornet Flight by Ken Follett is a thriller ofthe Resistance against the Nazi occupation of Denmark in World War II. In the novel ade Havilland Hornet Moth is used by the protagonists to fly from Denmark to the United Kingdom with information about a German radar system. The author drew inspiration from an actual flight that took place during World War II.^[175]

Mosquitos play the title role of the 1969 filmMosquito Squadron, starringDavid McCallum andCharles Gray.^[176]

The Mosquito plays an important role with thede Havilland Vampire inFrederick Forsyth's 1975 novellaThe Shepherd.^[177]

De Havilland Vampires appear in the 1954 British motion pictureConflict of Wings, a drama about the conflict that arises when an RAF squadron based in Norfolk is allocated a small island to use as a range for low-level attack training only to encounter the protests of nearby villagers who want the island preserved as a bird sanctuary.^[178]

Vampires appear in the 1966 novelShooting Script by former RAF pilot and thriller writerGavin Lyall.^[179]

The Vampire is central to the plot of the 1975 novella,The Shepherd by British novelistFrederick Forsyth, the story of an RAF pilot attempting to fly home for Christmas fromRAF Celle, Germany, toRAF Lakenheath on Christmas Eve 1957. The fact that the DH.100 was not fitted withejection seats until about ten years later, and hence was a major challenge to bail out of, is an important element of the story.^[180][181]

ADouglas DC-2, PH-AJU, "Uiver", race number 44, was depicted byDouglas DC-3, VH-ANR, in the 1991 Australian mini-seriesThe Great Air Race, about the 1934 London toMelbourneMacRobertson Trophy Air Race.^[182] It is also known asHalf a World Away.^[183]

ADouglas DC-3A ofCentral Airlines appears in the 1954 filmStrategic Air Command as the transport that conveys a security check team intoCarswell AFB, Texas.^[184]

The 1961 episode ofThe Twilight Zone entitled"The Arrival" features a DC-3 on Flight 107, which arrives at its destination with no one on board. It originally aired on 22 September 1961.^[185]

The chief character of the 1965 novelHigh Citadel byDesmond Bagley is an alcoholic former Korean War fighter pilot who flies a Douglas DC-3 for a small airline in a fictional Andean country in South America. He is forced at gunpoint by his co-pilot—a Communist agent—to crash-land the DC-3 at a remote abandoned mine in the Andes so that Communists planning a coup can capture and kill a politician travelling as a passenger.^[186] The 1966 suspense novelFlying Finish byDick Francis features a DC-3 being used to transport race horces.^[187]

A DC-3 starred in the 1982 British television seriesAirline. The aircraft used to depict the DC-3 of the fictionalRuskin Air Services was also used in the 1980s television seriesTenko and the 2001 seriesBand of Brothers.^[188][189]

In the 1985 two-part episode of the television seriesMagnum, P.I. entitled "All For One", the four main characters (Thomas, Rick, T.C. and Higgins) fly fromHawai'i toCambodia in a DC-3 (c/n N162E) to carry out a personal mission. Several scenes are filmed both inside and outside of this aircraft.^[190]

In the 1989 comedy filmMajor League, the hard-luckCleveland Indians baseball team is "upgraded" to a DC-3 for their transportation to away games.^[191]

In the 1994 filmRichie Rich, the Rich family own and pilot a DC-3, named "Billion Dollar One", which crashes in the Atlantic due to a bomb on board.^[192]

The DC-3 features in a chase scene in the 2008James Bond filmQuantum of Solace.^[193]

The 2012Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television seriesArctic Air features aYellowknife-based airline that relies on DC-3s.^[194]

The 2016 filmRules Don't Apply features a DC-3 in two sequences on land and one in air.Howard Hughes pilots the DC-3 in a risky manner while two other passengers are aboard, shutting off the engines in-air and performing a "proper glide".^[195]

TheDouglas DC-4 appears in theErnest K. Gann novelThe High and the Mighty. A former USAFDouglas C-54 Skymaster operated byTransocean Airlines portrayed the Douglas DC-4 in the John Wayne 1954film of the same name.^[196] Ironically, this airframe was lost over the Pacific on 28 March 1964 with an engine fire just as depicted in the film. There were no survivors of the nine "souls on board" and the wreckage was never found.^[197]

In the 1990action filmDie Hard 2, aDouglas DC-8 is given false landing instructions by terrorists and crash lands in a blizzard, resulting in fatalities to all on board.Industrial Light and Magic used a 23-foot-long model to shoot the effects of the crash and explosion. Filming was done at a remote airstrip in theMojave Desert of California. "However, shots of the passengers' frightened reactions to the initial impact, which had been shot on a set and originally cut into the movie, were so terrifying (made all the more authentic by preproduction research ofFederal Aviation Administration test crashes and data from real aircraft crashes) that they were ultimately cut before the film's release." ILM constructed five DC-8 models for the production.^[90]

The filmBat*21 featured an EB-66 variant of theDouglas B-66 Destroyer^[198] being shot down over North Vietnam in the beginning of the film.

The 1976 children's bookThunder and Lightnings byJan Mark is about the relationship of two boys – otherwise outsiders – who share an interest in aeroplanes, in particular theEnglish Electric Lightnings flown by the local squadron. The author was awarded theCarnegie Medal in 1978 for the book.^[199][200]

AEurocopter EC665 Tiger attack helicopter has a starring role in the 1995James Bond filmGoldenEye.^[201]

Three Eurocopter EC665 Tigers save the day in the 2017 filmRescue Under Fire.^[158]

AEurocopter AS332 Super Puma becomes the main protagonist of the filmRescue Under Fire. The unit used for filming in the movie was the same as in the real events.^[158]

Protagonist Lt. Harry Brubaker flew aMcDonnell F2H Banshee in the 1953James A. Michener novelThe Bridges at Toko-ri. In the subsequent 1954film adaptation, his aircraft was changed to aGrumman F9F Panther.^[202]

Flight Command, released byMGM in 1940, featured theGrumman F3F, filmed atNAS North Island, San Diego, California. Flying by Frank Clarke andPaul Mantz.^[130]

The 1941Warner Bros. filmDive Bomber showed Grumman F3Fs.^[203] F3F-2, BuNo0989, '6-F-4', of VF-6, assigned toUSS Enterprise, is one of the best-known F3F-2's due to the fact it is the aircraft thatFred MacMurray "crashed" in this movie.^[204] Filming began atNAS North Island, San Diego, California, on 20 March 1941.^[205]

US Marine aviator Lt. Col. Wilbur "Bull" Meecham flew aMcDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in the 1979 filmThe Great Santini starringRobert Duvall as Meecham.^[206]

The Gobots character Mach 3 and the Transformers characterFireflight both turn into F-4 Phantom IIs.^[163]

In the 1988 filmIron Eagle II, F-4s appear as Soviet MiGs. The aircraft were provided by the Israeli Air Force for the production.^[207]

Grumman F4F Wildcats were shown in the critical aerial battle scenes in the filmMidway.^[208]

Vought F4U Corsairs featured in the latter part of the 1951 RKO war movieFlying Leathernecks which was directed byNicholas Ray and starredJohn Wayne andRobert Ryan. The film's fictional Marine Air Corps unit exchange their older fighters for new F4Us as they support the drive across the Pacific in the latter stages of the war. For the film, the producers borrowed a number of flying F4Us which were then serving as trainers at the Marine Air Base at El Toro, California, and they also incorporated some wartime colour footage of F4Us taken during WW2.^[209]

F4Us also featured in the 1952Monogram filmFlat Top which was directed byLesley Selander and starredSterling Hayden. In the film, Hayden plays Commander Dan Collier who takes command of a squadron of un-disciplined fighter pilots on board an aircraft carrier and is tasked with getting them combat-ready before the invasion of the Japanese-occupied Philippines in 1944. The film made extensive use of colour wartime footage of carrier-borne F4Us.^[210]

The F4U Corsair was a regularly featured aircraft ofVMF-214 in the 1976–1978 television seriesBaa Baa Black Sheep, based on the experiences ofPappy Boyington. The series was later renamedBlack Sheep Squadron.^[211]

Computer-generated images of F4U Corsairs appear in the 2006 Second World War dramaFlags of Our Fathers directed byClint Eastwood.^[212]

An F4U Corsair named Skipper Riley (voiced byStacy Keach) is one of the characters in Disney's animated TV series and films "Air Mater" (2011),Planes (2013).^[213]

The F4U Corsair is also featured in the 2022 Korean War drama filmDevotion.^{[214][215][216]}

In the aviation comic strip "Chicken Wings" by Michael and Stefan Strasser, the rather incompetent (but in his own mind brilliant) pilot Chuck of the "Roost Air" flight charter company, is building his own F4U out of spare parts, acquired from an unknown place, and with tools pilfered from his hard-tested flight mechanic, Julio.^[217]

Northrop F-5s played the part of the fictional MiG-28 enemy aircraft in the 1986 filmTop Gun.^[218][219]

The soleGrumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket, which never entered production or squadron service, was incorporated as the primary mount forBlackhawk and the Blackhawk Squadron in wartime editions of the anthology seriesMilitary Comics published byQuality Comics, the first issue of which was published in August 1941. The long-running title was later acquired byDC Comics, with the squadron upgrading to more modern types.^[220]

Grumman F6F Hellcats appeared in the 1951 motion pictureFlying Leathernecks directed byNicholas Ray and starringJohn Wayne.^[221] One of the pilots who flew aircraft for the aerial scenes in the production was Marine Captain Phil De Groot who, after completing work on the film, flew in the Korean War and was wounded in action. The production was filmed at a small airstrip atCamp Pendleton, California. De Groot said, "They put some sand all over the strip, and some palm trees, and built a little pagoda there, simulating Guadalcanal".^[222]

F6Fs appear in the 1964 novelThe Last Tallyho byRichard Newhafer, a work inspired by the author's real-life experiences as a Hellcat pilot during WW2.^[223]

F6Fs appear in the 1978 novelWingmen byEnsan Case, a novel depicting US Navy fighter pilots serving on a fictional aircraft carrier- the 'USSConstitution'. The carrier's fighter squadron- VF-20- takes part in the Pacific War 1943-1944 and it centres on the experiences of two of its members- ensign Fred Trusteau and the squadron-commander, Lt Jack Hardigan.^[224]

Computer-generated images of F6F Hellcats appear in the 2002 Second World War dramaWindtalkers directed byJohn Woo and starringNicolas Cage.^[225]

TheF8F Bearcat are to appear in the 2022 Korean War drama filmDevotion.^{[214][215][216]} Two flyable Bearcats were used.^[215][216] Footage of actors flying the aircraft was created using a two-seatHawker Sea Fury with its rear seat modified to resemble a Bearcat cockpit and visible portions of the airframe painted like aVF-32 Bearcat.^[215]

TheGrumman F9F-2 Panther was prominently featured in the 1954 filmsMen of the Fighting Lady andThe Bridges at Toko-Ri. The latter film was based on the 1953novel of the same name, whose protagonist flew aMcDonnell F2H Banshee.^[202]

Footage of the F9F-5 Pantherramp strike accident of 23 June 1951 aboardUSS Midway has been used in several films, includingMen of the Fighting Lady,Midway (1976), andThe Hunt For Red October (1990). The footage shows Commander George Chamberlain Duncan crash BuNo 125228, then the forward fuselage breaking away and rolling down the deck. Duncan survived the crash.^[226]

TheGrumman F-14 Tomcat was central to the 1986 filmTop Gun.^{[227][228][229]} The U.S. Navy provided F-14s at $7,600 per flight hour for a total bill of $886,000 ($2,542,000 today^[230]).^[231][219] The aviation-themed film created such interest in naval aviation that the Navy set up recruitment desks outside some theaters.^[232] The F-14 also appears in the climax of the 2022 sequelTop Gun: Maverick.^[233]

Two F-14As ofVF-84 fromUSS Nimitz appeared in the 1980 filmThe Final Countdown.^[234] Four VF-84 planes appeared in the 1996 releaseExecutive Decision,^[235] the Jolly Rogers' (VFA-103) final film appearance before being disestablished.

The military legal drama TV seriesJAG (1995–2005) featured lead characterHarmon Rabb, a Tomcat pilot-turned-lawyer,^[227] and recurring scenes with the Tomcat.^[236]

The Tomcat was also a central part of theStephen Coonts novelFinal Flight.^[227]

The F-14 is the primary focus of the 1987Williams pinball machine "F-14 Tomcat"^[237] and theAfter Burner video game series bySega.^[238]

TheMcDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is one of the most recognized modern fighters; this has led to, or perhaps even been aided by, its common use in children's toys.Leader-1 of theGobots turns into an F-15.^[239] The Transformers toy line and media have featured numerous characters who turn into F-15 Eagles, the most notable being the villainStarscream in 1984^[240] and a group of similar Decepticons, theSeekers:Acid Storm,Thundercracker,Skywarp andSunstorm. Although a completely unrelated design to the others, the Aerialbot Air Raid also disguises himself as an F-15.^[241]

F-15s appear in the 1980 novelEagles by M.H. Davis, a work which portrays pilots of the USAF.^[242]

The F-15 is featured in the 1997 filmAir Force One.^[92] The Eagle was also shown in advertisements for the 2000 filmThirteen Days. The ads were withdrawn when it came to the attention ofNew Line Cinema that the F-15, which first flew in 1972, was out of place for a film set in 1962. This was problematic for New Line, who had termed the film a "by-the-numbers recreation" and "close to perfect". A New Line spokesman said the advertisement was created by an outside agency.^[243]

F-15Js and F-15DJs of theJASDF appear prominently in the 2004 filmUltraman: The Next. The film's protagonist, Shunichi Maki, is a prestigious pilot of the F-15, and encounters the enigmaticUltraman 'The Next' while flying the aircraft.^[244]

The F-15 has appeared in numerous video games, including the 1985Microprose titleF-15 Strike Eagle^[245] and its two sequels, 1989'sF-15 Strike Eagle II^[246] and 1992'sF-15 Strike Eagle III.^[247] F-15 also appears in three ofJane's Combat Simulations games: 1998'sF-15^[248] andIAF,^[249] and 1999'sUSAF.^[250]

A number of video games have featured theGeneral Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon: theFalcon series (1984-2005),F-16 Combat Pilot (1989),Street Fighter II (1991, featured at Guile's stage as part of the background),F-16 Multirole Fighter (1998),F-16 Aggressor (1999) and many others.^[251]

The TransformersAerialbot Skydive and Decepticon Dreadwind disguise themselves as F-16 Fighting Falcons.^[252] The Transformers characterNeedlenose disguises himself as an F-16XL.^[253]

The Falcon was one of the stars of the 1986 filmIron Eagle. The US Air Force refused to assist with production of the film because it found the plot about a teenager flying an F-16 into a foreign country to be "a little off the wall".^[231]

The 1986 action-adventure romantic comedy filmThe Jewel of the Nile featured a brutal dictator's personal F-16 as the key element in the protagonists (played byKathleen Turner andMichael Douglas) escaping from a fortified town.^[254]

The aircraft was also featured in theHBO 1992 productionAfterburn. A dramatization of true events, the F-16 was the subject of a protracted legal battle over the safety of the design.^[255]

The F-16 was featured in the 2002 filmThe Sum of All Fears.^[93]

Starting in 2007, the F-16 became one of two aircraft (along with theCirrus SR22) to be featured inGoogle Earth Flight Simulator.^[256]

TheMcDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet appears in the 1994 filmClear and Present Danger which was directed byPhillip Noyce. The jet drops alaser-guided bomb on a car at a drug lord's villa, being laser designated by a special forces team.^[257]

In the 1996Michael Bay-directed filmThe Rock, F/A-18s attack the prison onAlcatraz Island in the final scenes.^[258]

The F/A-18 Hornet was prominently featured in the 1996 filmIndependence Day and was filmed using F/A-18 squadrons belonging to the 3rd Marine Corps Aircraft Wing at El Toro and Miramar, in California.^[257]

F/A-18A Hornets play a crucial role in the climax of the 1998 filmGodzilla, in which the planes first destroy the Baby Godzillas inMadison Square Garden by demolishing the building withAGM-84 Harpoon missiles, then killGodzilla himself by firing additional Harpoon missiles at the monster after he became entangled in the cables ofBrooklyn Bridge.^[257]

The F/A-18 Hornet appeared in the 2003 filmTears of the Sun during the final, climactic battle, helping to save the surviving SEAL team members.^[259]

The aircraft appears in the 2000 video gameF/A-18, part ofJane's Combat Simulations series.^[260]

The two-seaterF/A-18F Super Hornet was featured in the 2001 filmBehind Enemy Lines, directed byJohn Moore and starringOwen Wilson andGene Hackman. The plot begins with a Super Hornet being shot down overBosnia.^[261]

In the 2013 Disney animated filmPlanes, the characters Bravo and Echo are based on the F/A-18E Super Hornet.^[262]

Both the F/A-18E and -F Super Hornets star in the 2022 filmTop Gun: Maverick with most of the inflight scenes also filmed on U.S Navy F/A-18F's.^[263]

Two F/A-18s are depicted as having gone rouge in the filmCaptain America:Brave New World, leading to them being destroyed by theFalcon andCaptain America^[264][265]

TheNorthrop F-20 Tigershark appears a number of times inKaoru Shintani's manga/animated franchiseArea 88, as a personal unit of main character Shin Kazama.^[266][267]

Although the F-20 never entered service, inBarrett Tillman's 1991 novelWarriors, theRoyal Saudi Air Force orders over a hundred of them. The RSAF assigns the fighter to select pilots who graduate from a localized version of Top Gun established by former USAF and USN pilots. The bigger plot of the novel involves the Saudi pilots joining a pan-Arab attack against Israel.^[268]

After appearing briefly in the 2003Hulk film, the F-22 made its major Hollywood debut in the 2007 filmTransformers and its2009 sequel^[269] as the form taken by theDecepticon characterStarscream in addition to numerous USAF fighters that engaged during the initial and climactic battles. The film crew was allowed to film actual Raptors in flight, unlike previouscomputer-generated appearances, because of the military's support of directorMichael Bay. The Raptors were filmed atEdwards Air Force Base.^[270]

Toys released for Starscream were replica F-22 Raptor models. These models were reused for other characters in the line, likeThundercracker,Skywarp andRamjet, that also turned into F-22 Raptors.^[271]

Although the live-action 2007 filmTransformers made Starscream the best-known Transformer that turns into an F-22, there were other F-22 Transformers before it. For instance the 1997Machine Wars versions ofMegatron and Megaplex transformed into F-22s.^[272]

The real Raptor made its next big screen appearance inIron Man, in which a Raptor call sign "Whiplash 1" lost its left wing during a mid-air collision with the Iron Man armor.^[273]

In the 2013 filmOlympus Has Fallen, computer animation was used to depict F-22 Raptors intercepting an armedAC-130 attacking Washington, D.C.; two F-22s are shot down before a third hits the AC-130 with a missile, causing it to crash.^[141]

The plane is the subject of a flight-simulation video game,F-22 Interceptor, which was released byElectronic Arts andIngram Entertainment for theSega Mega Drive console in 1991.^[274]

The F-22 Raptor, specifically the F-22A variant, is a major aircraft in theAce Combat series, being prominently featured on the box art of several entries and being usable in a majority of the games in the series; one appearance is in7: Skies Unknown, which displays the F-22 on its box and used it in pre-release marketing.^[275][276] TheFB-22 also appears in several other games in the series, starting with5: The Unsung War.^[277]

The F-22 is used at the basis for theArchangel experimental fighters inEvan Currie's Holy Ground Tie in series (prologue).^[278]

The first major film appearance of a representation of aLockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II was 2006'sSuperman Returns. During this film, a pair of F-35A fighters escorted the modifiedBoeing 777 mothership for an experimentalNASAspaceplane. This visualization was a combination of an actual cockpit andCGI for the aircraft in flight.^[101]

The next major film appearance of an F-35 was inLive Free or Die Hard (released asDie Hard 4.0 outside North America) in 2007. The film used a combination of a full-scale model and CGI effects.^[279]

The Transformers character of the AutobotBreakaway and its redeco the DecepticonThrust from theRevenge of the Fallen toy both disguise themselves as F-35s. Breakaway appears as a playable character in the 2009Revenge of the Fallen video game.^[280]

F-35s are depicted in the 2012 filmThe Avengers. The film was originally intended to include real F-35s, but theUnited States Department of Defense objected to the depiction of F-22s and F-35s as under the control ofS.H.I.E.L.D., a covert, "extra-governmental" organization whose loyalties are unclear, so CGI aircraft were substituted instead.^[281][282]

Hal Jordan andCarol Ferris fly F-35s in a simulateddogfight against theUCAVs Carol's company is trying to sell to the US Department of Defense in the 2011 filmGreen Lantern.^[283]

A squadron of F-35s engagesGeneral Zod's ship in the 2013 filmMan of Steel.^[15]

For the 1955 biographical filmThe McConnell Story aboutaceJoseph C. McConnell, eightRepublic F-84s of the614th Fighter-Bomber Squadron donned dark blue paint with red stars to portrayMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s doing mock battle for the cameras withF-86 Sabres of the366th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, both units based atAlexandria AFB, Louisiana. Air Defense Command headquarters notified its pilots in January 1955 that the mock MiGs would be operating over portions of the southwestern US.^[284]

F-84F Thunderstreaks were also used to portray North Korean MiG-15s inThe Hunters, a 1958 film starringRobert Mitchum andRobert Wagner. They were painted flat grey with red star emblems, and the top North Korean pilot had a pair of dice and "7-11" nose art.^[285]

TheNorth American F-86 Sabre appears in the 1956 novelThe Hunters byJames Salter,^[286] and the1958 film of the same name, set in Korea, featuresNorth American F-86 Sabres.^[287]

F-86s appear in the 1957 junior fiction novelSabre Pilot byStephen W. Meader about a youngster named Kirk Owen who enlists in the USAF and serves as a fighter pilot in the Korean War.^[288]

F-86s were a feature in the 1958 filmJet Attack which was directed byEdward L. Cahn and starredJohn Agar andAudrey Totter. The film, also released asJet Alert andThrough Hell to Glory, was a drama set in the Korean War about a pair of pilots who parachute behind North Korean lines to rescue a captured scientist. The film, a low budget production, relied heavily on stock footage of F-86s for the aerial scenes.^[289]

F-86s appear in the 1959 novelMiG Alley by Robert Eunson which portrays a pilot Captain Homer 'Mac' McCullough who flies F-86s during the Korean War and is frustrated at being forbidden to engage enemy MiGs beyond the Yalu River.^[290]

Desmond Bagley's 1965 novelHigh Citadel features F-86 Sabres, which make up the frontline equipment of the air force of the fictional South American country in which the book is set. There are four squadrons of Sabres; two are loyal to the current corrupt government; one is secretly loyal to a reformist politician who is returning from exile to take over the country; and the fourth is secretly loyal to Communist forces who are attempting to kill the politician. The latter part of the novel features adogfight between a Sabre flown by one of the main characters—a CIA agent and former Sabre pilot who fought in the Korean War—and aircraft of the Communist squadron.^[186]

Mitsubishi F-86F Sabres of the JASDF regularly appear in the Showa era ofkaiju films produced byToho, with the aircraft appearing most prominently during a sequence inGodzilla where two Sabres attack the titular monster after he leaves the devastated city of Tokyo.^[291]

In the 1981 dystopian filmThe Last Chase, retired pilot J.G. Williams (played byBurgess Meredith) and his F-86 Sabre play the antagonist in attempting to track down and destroy the protagonist Franklyn Hart (played byLee Majors). After becoming sympathetic to Hart's cause, Williams sacrifices himself in a kamikaze-style attack against a laser installation to protect Hart.^[292]

A Sabre plays an important role in the 1999 film comedyBlast from the Past which starsBrendan Fraser andChristopher Walken. During theCuban Missile Crisis, a Sabre pilot is forced to eject over a residential area in the US and the aircraft just happens to crash onto the house of an eccentric father who is sheltering with his family in a large underground bomb shelter he has constructed. Believing the crash to be the impact of a nuclear bomb, the family remain underground for 35 years.^[293]

A pair ofMcDonnell F-101B Voodoos fly over the Russian submarineСпрут at the end of the 1966 comedyThe Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, directed byNorman Jewison. Although the film is set in New England, it was filmed on the West Coast and the fighters were from the84th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, based at the now-closedHamilton Air Force Base, California.^[294]

Gen.Charles "Chuck" Yeager's 10 December 1963 flying accident during a test flight in a modified rocket-boostedLockheed NF-104A Starfighter was featured inThe Right Stuff motion picture. The aircraft used for filming was a standard GermanLuftwaffe F-104G, flying with its wingtip fuel tanks removed; it otherwise lacked any of the NF-104A's modifications, most visibly the rocket engine pod at the base of the vertical stabilizer.^[295]

The F-104 is featured heavily in the 1964 filmThe Starfighters, directed by Will Zens and starring future US CongressmanBob Dornan. The film later appeared on theComedy Central seriesMystery Science Theater 3000 as the subject of episode #612.^[296]

An F-104 Starfighter flown by Captain John Christopher, USAF, intercepts the USSEnterprise after the ship is thrown back in time by an encounter with a previously unmapped "black star" inStar Trek first-season episode 1/19, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", as the starship is struggling to climb out of Earth's atmosphere over Omaha, Nebraska.^[297]

Footage of an F-104 featured in the opening scenes of the science-fiction motion pictureThe Bamboo Saucer (1968), playing the role of an experimental jet called the "X-109" whose pilot Fred Norwood (John Ericson) encounters a UFO while carrying out a test flight.^[298]

An F-104 made regular appearances on the 1960s television sitcomI Dream of Jeannie. Leading man Major Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman), a pilot in the US Air Force, was often to be seen landing and climbing out of the cockpit of an F-104A. That particular aircraft (56-817) later became part of the collection of thePacific Aviation Museum onFord Island,Oahu, Hawaii.^[299]

Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters is a 1974satiricalconcept album byRobert Calvert and others, telling a fictionalized tale of theF-104G's acquisition by and service with theGerman Air Force.^[300] The album included tracks with names such as "The Widowmaker" and "Catch a Falling Starfighter".^[301]

In the climax of the 1982 filmTurkey Shoot, severalRAAFF-111 andMirage III fighter-bombers are used to quell a prison revolt.^[302]

TheLockheed F-117 Nighthawk was the subject of the 1991 MicroProse gameF-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0^[303] and the 1993Sega Mega Drive-exclusiveF-117 Night Storm.^[304]

The plane also appeared in the 1996 action movieExecutive Decision starringKurt Russell,Steven Seagal,Halle Berry,John Leguizamo,Oliver Platt,Joe Morton,David Suchet, andB.D. Wong. In this movie, the plane is called an experimental "Remora F117x" aircraft and is capable of carrying passengers and transferring them in-flight onto another aircraft.

In 2005, the fourth season of24 featured an episode in which a terrorist hijacks an F-117A and uses it to shoot downAir Force One.^[305]

TheFairchild UC-61A Forwarder was featured in a 1964 episode ofMichael Bentine'sBBC TV comedy programme,It's a Square World, about a shoestring airline with a staff of two. Filming took a day atElstree Aerodrome, Herts. In 1965, it appeared in an episode of theITV programme,The Moonraker.^[306]

When theFairchild Hiller FH-227D operating asUruguayan Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Uruguaya) Flight 571T-571 crashed in the ArgentineAndes on 13 October 1972, it began a tale of amazing human survival for the 16 of the 45 on board who were rescued over two months later, after two passengers walked to civilization. The survivors' story was published inAlive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, a critically acclaimed book byPiers Paul Read, in 1974. When the story was filmed in 1992 asAlive, directed byFrank Marshall, a similar FH-227 marked as the doomed aircraft was used for some shots, whileIndustrial Light & Magic depicted the crash using an eight-foot breakaway model, designed to shear at mid-fuselage. The nose and tail were heavily reinforced while a non-reinforced midsection was built up of plastic, foil, wires and metals so that when it broke it would have the layered metal look of a real airframe breaking up. A cable system was rigged to fly the model, which was on an aligned track, into the miniature mountain, hitting the "sweet spot" on the fuselage, a weakened area barely three inches long.^[307]

TheFairey Fox I, G-ACXO, race number 35, which participated in the 1934 London toMelbourneMacRobertson Trophy Air Race, was portrayed in the 1991 Australian mini-seriesThe Great Air Race, also known asHalf a World Away,^[183] by an unlikelyBoeing Stearman.^[182]

TwoFairey Swordfish starred in the 1960 filmSink the Bismarck!. Swordfish LS326 was marked as "5A" of825 Naval Air Squadron, while NF389 was marked as LS423 / "5B".^[308]

Fairey Swordfish of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm are a central feature in the 2020 graphic novelThe Stringbags written byGarth Ennis and illustrated byP J Holden. The story is about a reserve FFA crew who take part in the three most famous actions of the Swordfish during the Second World War including the attack on the Italian Fleet atTaranto in 1940, the attack on theBismarck in 1941 and theChannel Dash in 1942.^[309][310]

SomeFairey Battles appear in the 1942 movieCaptains of the Clouds. The movie is in colour and features scenes ofJames Cagney's character flying one.^[311]

Focke-Wulf Fw 190s appear in the 1980 novelBetrayed Skies by Rudolf Braunburg which depicts a Luftwaffe fighter unit based in Poland in 1944.^[312]

ModifiedNorth American T-6 Texans portrayed Focke-Wulf Fw 190s in the 1977 filmA Bridge Too Far.^[34]

A new-build Fw 190 A-8/N participated in the 2007 Finnish war filmTali-Ihantala 1944, painted in the same markings asOberstErich Rudorffer's aircraft in 1944.^[313]

Fw 190s appear in the French graphic novelThe Grand Duke (2012) written by Yann, illustrated by Romain Hugault and depicting aerial combat between the Soviet air force and the German Luftwaffe over the Eastern Front in the latter stages of the Second World War.^[314]

AFocke-Wulf FwTriebflügel aircraft was featured in the 2011 Americansuperhero filmCaptain America: The First Avenger, with thesupervillainRed Skull making his first escape in this rocket-aircraft. The scene accurately depicts the rocket and ramjet start and initial climb out of theTriebflügel. Historically, theTriebflügel had only reached wind-tunnel testing when the Allied forces reached the production facilities, and no complete prototype was ever built.CGI vehicles designed for the film were based on real historical aircraft such as theTriebflügel.^[315]

AFokker E.III Eindecker appeared in the BBC TV seriesWings (1977–1978), a drama series about pilots of theRoyal Flying Corps in the First World War.^[316]

A scarlet-paintedFokker Dr.I triplane featured in the DC comicEnemy Ace and was the mount of the central character Baron Hans von Hammer, a German fighter pilot in the First World War. Debuting in 1965, the comic was written byRobert Kanigher and drawn byJoe Kubert and the character has been revived several times since by other writers & artists.^[317]

A pair of Dr.Is appear in the 1966 film epicThe Blue Max, directed byJohn Guillermin and based on the 1964 novel of the same name byJack D. Hunter.^[318] In the film, rival pilots Bruno Stachel (George Peppard) and von Klugermann (Jeremy Kemp) try to out-do one another in a test of nerves by flying their triplanes under a bridge. The scene was filmed at Fermoy Viaduct in Ireland and stunt pilotDerek Piggott was obliged to fly a Dr.I under the bridge, through either the wide or narrow spans, a total of 32 times.^[319]

A Dr.I appears in the 1971 filmVon Richthofen and Brown (released in the US asThe Red Baron) which was directed byRoger Corman and starredJohn Phillip Law as the famous German ace. The aircraft makes its first appearance at a cocktail party thrown by the aircraft's designerAnthony Fokker (played byHurd Hatfield) who shows off his creation to guest of honourManfred von Richthofen (Law) but the latter's eyes are drawn more to Fokker's attractive mistress.^[320]

Fokker Dr.Is appear en masse in the 2006 aerial filmFlyboys directed byTony Bill and starringJames Franco.^[321]

Fokker Dr.Is also appear in the 2008 German filmDer Rote Baron, a biopic about the famous First World War aceManfred von Richthofen.^[322]

The 1927William Wellman filmWings featured aFokker D.VII among many types depicting World War I aircraft.^[323]

AFokker D.VII is flown in a dogfight by Baron Heinrich von Frohleich versusRace Bannon in aSPAD S.XIII in episode 10 ofJonny Quest, "Shadow of the Condor", first aired 20 November 1964.^[324]

John Wayne was depicted piloting aFord Trimotor in several episodes of the 1932serial filmHurricane Express. A Ford Trimotor appeared in Chapter 1 ofFlash Gordon (Universal, 1936).^[325] DirectorHoward Hawks' 1939 filmOnly Angels Have Wings features a Trimotor that catches fire after a freak accident with acondor, eventually performing an emergency landing on an airfield. A real and a model Trimotor were used for the sequence.^[326]

A Ford 4-AT-E Trimotor, N8407, appeared in the 1965 comedyThe Family Jewels "flown" byJerry Lewis.^[327]

The Ford 5-AT-B Trimotor currently owned byKermit Weeks'Fantasy of Flight Museum was featured early in the opening of the 1984 filmIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.^[328][329]

A Trimotor was also featured inBrian DePalma's 1987 version ofThe Untouchables withKevin Costner andSean Connery.^[330]

A Ford Trimotor 4AT-B featured in the 2009 filmAmelia, a biopic of aviatorAmelia Earhart starringHilary Swank andRichard Gere. The aircraft featured in the film belonged to theGolden Wings Museum, Minnesota.^[331]

TheGovernment Aircraft Factories (GAF) Nomad, an Australian-built twin-engineSTOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft, was a regular feature on the successful Australian TV seriesThe Flying Doctors which aired on theNine Network 1986–1993.^[332]

TwoGee Bee Model Z Super Sportster racing aircraft were featured in the 1991Walt Disney filmThe Rocketeer.^[333]

Kermit Weeks, founder ofFantasy of Flight, used a Gee Bee Model Z as his main character "Zee" in a 2008 series of children's books set in theinterwar period.^[334]

A Mexican Gee Bee Racer named "El Chupacabra" is one of the characters in the 2013Disney animated filmPlanes.^[335]

Gloster Gladiators appear in the Second World War novelSigned with their Honour, written in 1942 by Australian author and war correspondentJames Aldridge. The novel is set during the Axis invasion of Greece in 1940–41 and the central character is a British pilot named John Quayle who flies Gladiators withNo. 80 Squadron RAF.^[336] An attempt in 1943 to make a film based on the novel was abandoned when two Gladiators were destroyed in a mid-air collision during the production.^[337][338]

A privately ownedGloster Meteor TT20, N94749 appeared in the two-part 1976 episode, "The Feminum Mystique", of the first season of theWonder Woman television series, as the experimental "XPJ-1" fighter which is stolen by the Nazis. This airframe has been donated to theEdwards Air Force Base Flight Test Center museum.^[339] The episode title was borrowed fromBetty Friedan's 1963 bookof a similar title, which is widely credited with sparking the beginning ofsecond-wave feminism in the US.^[340]

AGloster Meteor T.7, either WA634 or WA638, owned byMartin-Baker appeared in the episode "Many Happy Returns" of the 1967 British TV seriesThe Prisoner.^[341]

The 1977John Frankenheimer filmBlack Sunday features theGoodyear Blimp as the vehicle whichBlack September terrorists plan to hijack and attack theSuper Bowl, played in theOrange Bowl inMiami.^[342]

AGotha G.IV appears in the 2006 First World War aerial filmFlyboys directed byTony Bill and starringJames Franco. To depict the bomber, the producers used both computer-generated imagery^[343] and a replica of the forward fuselage of a Gotha, now displayed in a museum at RAF Manston.^[344]

AGrumman G-21 Goose, painted red, white and black, named "Cutter's Goose", was the main transport of protagonist Jake Cutter (played byStephen Collins) in the early 1982–83 adventure television series,Tales of the Gold Monkey, and used to transport Cutter and his allies among various south Pacific islands in the late 1930s setting of the show.^[345]

A G-21 Goose is also used in the 1985 movieCommando to fly to an island near the coast of California.^[346]

The 1964 filmFlight from Ashiya, starringRichard Widmark,Yul Brynner andGeorge Chakiris, follows the crews of twoGrumman HU-16 Albatross of the USAF Air Rescue Service as they attempt to rescue the survivors of a Japanese shipwreck in the North China Sea.^[130]

The 2010 filmThe Expendables also features an Albatross as the protagonists' private airplane.^[347][348]

AGrumman J2F Duck was the primary plot device of the 1971United Artists filmMurphy's War, starringPeter O'Toole as the title character. Stunt flying was done byFrank Tallman.^[349] The J2F-6 which starred in the film, BuNo33587,^[350] afterwards resided in the Weeks Air Museum in Florida, USA (now the Fantasy of Flight Museum).^[351]

The 1944 filmWing and a Prayer is the fictional account of a torpedo squadron equipped withGrumman TBF Avengers in early 1942. The movie culminates when the squadron fights at theBattle of Midway.^[352]

A group ofAvengers appears in the opening scene ofSteven Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi filmClose Encounters of the Third Kind. In the scene, a group of officials arrive at an isolated cantina in Mexico's Sonora Desert where the five Avengers of 'Flight-19' have mysteriously appeared overnight.Flight 19 was the infamous training flight of five TBMs that vanished without trace after taking off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on 5 December 1945.^[353] One of the TBMs featured in the scene was the TBM-3E (BuNo53503) now owned and flown by the Rocky Mountain Wing of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF).^[354]

AGrumman G-44 Widgeon opened each week's episode of the 1978–1984 television seriesFantasy Island.^[355]

The Transformers Autobot named Dogfight disguises himself as aGrumman X-29.^[356]

In Kaoru Shintani's manga seriesArea 88, main character Shin Kazama pilots an X-29 during the final battles.^[357]

The Bollywood war filmBorder is a fictionalized account of the 1971Battle of Longewala between India and Pakistan. In the film a formation ofHAL HF-24 Marut fighter-bombers of theIndian Air Force bomb Pakistani armoured ground forces consisting of 300 tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers.^[358]

The Gobots character Royal-T and the Transformers Aerialbot named Slingshot disguise themselves as aHarrier.^[359] In theRevenge of the Fallen Decepticon characterDirge also became a Harrier. This design was later used for theDecepticonJetblade.^[360]

ARoyal Air Force Harrier was used byMI6 in the 1987James Bond filmThe Living Daylights to smuggleKGB defector Georgi Koskov out of Austria.^[361]

TwoAV-8B Harrier IIs were used in the 1994 filmTrue Lies.^[235] The aircraft was prominent in the latter part of the film, being used byArnold Schwarzenegger's character to rescue his daughter from terrorists in a Miami high rise and shoot down their helicopter.^[362]

The Harrier was one of the aircraft types featured in the short-lived 1982 BBC-TV seriesSquadron which was a drama about a fictional Royal Air Force unit, 373 Squadron. The unit was a Rapid Deployment Force and featured an unusual mix of aircraft including Harriers, C-130 Hercules and Puma helicopters. The series ran for ten episodes.^[363]

An 8-bit shooter computer gameHarrier Attack byDurell Software was published in 1983.^[364]

The novelA God in Ruins (2015) byKate Atkinson features theHandley Page Halifax heavy bomber. The central character, Teddy Todd, is a Halifax pilot serving with RAF Bomber Command during WW2 and flies over 70 night-bombing missions over Germany.^{[365][366][367]}

The 1962 British filmThe Iron Maiden features aHandley Page Victor bomber as a fictional supersonic passenger-carrying airliner designed by the protagonist. At the end of the film, this fictional airliner is named after the eponymous traction engine.^[368]

The 1952 British filmThe Sound Barrier featuresHawker Hunter fighters.^[369]

Hawker Hunter Mk 4s play a major role in the 1957 British Cinemascope motion pictureHigh Flight directed byJohn Gilling and starringRay Milland.^[370]

A formation of Hawker Hunters of theChilean Air Force appeared in the 2004 Chilean filmMachuca in which they bomb thePalacio de La Moneda.^[371][372]

The music video for the 2000 electronica single "Sunset (Bird of Prey)" byFatboy Slim features aHawker Hunter trainer inUnited States Air Force livery, as the titular "Bird of Prey".^[373]

Along with theSupermarine Spitfire,^[374] theHawker Hurricane is very strongly linked to theBattle of Britain in summer 1940, where theRoyal Air Force fought the GermanLuftwaffe over the skies of Britain for air superiority.^[375] As such it has been featured in many works of fiction related to the Battle of Britain.

A number ofHawker Hurricanes, including the last one built, registered G-AMAU, "The Last of the Many", and five provided by thePortuguese Air Force, which flew the type until mid-1954, were used in the making of the Templar Productions Ltd. production provisionally titled "Hawks in the Sun", based on the bookWhat Are Your Angels Now? by Wing Commander A. J. C. Pelham Groom, then released in March 1952 asAngels One Five.^[376]

Hurricanes were shown in the 1956 British filmReach For the Sky starringKenneth More and directed byLewis Gilbert and based on the biography ofDouglas Bader byPaul Brickhill. One Hurricane which featured in a static role in the film was the Mk. I, P2617, now preserved at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon. Another, which flew in the aerial scenes, was the Mk-IIc, LF363, now operated by theBattle of Britain Memorial Flight based at Conningsby, UK.^[377]

TheHawker Hurricane was shown in the 1969 filmBattle of Britain. Three airworthy Hurricanes were located and used for the filming.^[378]

A Hawker Hurricane was the fighter flown by the Second World War character Johnny Redburn in the long-running British comic stripJohnny Red which was published inBattle Picture Weekly 1977–1987. The storyline featured Redburn, having been discharged from the RAF and joining theMerchant Navy, commandeers aCAM ship's Hurricane during an attack on a convoy (after the official pilot is killed), and ends up stranded in Soviet Russia at the height of the war against the Germans in which he fights alongside Russian pilots. The comic was written byTom Tully and illustrated byJoe Colquhoun, John Cooper and Carlos Pino.^[379] The character was revived in 2017 for the graphic novel mini-seriesJohnny Red: The Hurricane written byGarth Ennis and illustrated by Keith Burns.^[380]

The Hawker Hurricane Mk. I is the aircraft for the fictional RAF pilots depicted in the 1983 novelPiece of Cake by Derek Robinson.^[381] The 1988miniseries based on the novel usedSupermarine Spitfires instead of Hurricanes.

The 2006 novelBlue Man Falling byFrank Barnard also featured Hurricanes.^[382]

TheHeinkel He 111 has a prominent role in the filmsBattle of Britain^[383] andIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.^{[citation needed]}

AHiller UH-12 appears in the 1951 sci-fi filmWhen Worlds Collide directed byGeorge Pal and based on the1933 novel of the same name. The helicopter is used to render assistance to flood-stranded refugees and to rescue a young boy stranded on a rooftop.^[384]

A UH-12C was used to attackJames Bond in the 1963 filmFrom Russia with Love.^[385][386]

A Hiller UH-12E suffered a tail-rotor strike during filming of the 1978 filmAttack of the Killer Tomatoes. Footage of the crash was used in the film. The helicopter pilot and actors on board escaped without serious injury, but the helicopter was destroyed.^[387]

TheZeppelinLZ 129 Hindenburg was the subject of the 1975 filmThe Hindenburg, which speculatedsabotage as the cause of the 1937 disaster atNaval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey.^[388] The studio model of the airship is now displayed in theSmithsonian Institution'sNational Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.^[389]

Twenty-eight former Spanish Air ForceHispano Aviación HA-1112s were used in the 1969 filmBattle of Britain as "stand-ins" to depictMesserschmitt Bf 109 fighters of theLuftwaffe,^[146] These aircraft included 27 single-seat M1Ls and one two-seat M4L.^[390] Eighteen were flown, six could taxi, the rest used to dress sets.^[391] In the mid-1960s at the time aircraft began to be collected for the film to be made, the only genuine Bf 109s known to exist were unairworthy examples in museums such as theImperial War Museum and theSouth African National Museum of Military History or in private hands; whereas the HA-1112 was just being retired from service with the Spanish Air Force and several airframes in flyable condition and some 50 dismantled Buchóns were up for disposal bid.^[392] The four airframes acquired by theConfederate Air Force just prior to the start of filming "were the first Buchóns in truly civilian ownership, early members of the fledgling warbird preservation movement."^[393]

Several Buchóns were painted in RAF markings for the 1969 Italian "macaroni combat"war filmEagles Over London, also known asBattle Squadron andBattle Command (Italian:La battaglia d'Inghilterra), directed byEnzo G. Castellari.^[394] "In 1979, much of the footage shot forEagles Over London appeared in the direGeorge Peppard filmHell to Victory".^[393]

Three of the Buchóns were "hastily converted intoP-51B Mustangs for the 1970 filmPatton. This involved the attachment of a large Mustang-esque fibreglass air intake to the underside of the fuselage."^[393]

One CAF Buchón flew as a Bf 109B inCondor Legion markings for the filmThe Hindenburg which began filming in August 1974.^[393]

Buchóns, again depicting Bf 109s, made an appearance on the 1980 ABC-network TV sci-fi seriesGalactica 1980, a short-lived spin-off from the originalBattlestar Galactica series. The heroes travel back in time in their space Vipers to Earth during the Second World War and encounter theLuftwaffe. The footage of Buchóns consisted of out-takes from the 1969 filmBattle of Britain.^[395]

One Buchón, which had taxied inThe Battle of Britain, flew in the 1988LWT miniseriesPiece of Cake,^[396] and was one of three flyable HA-1112s used to depict Bf 109s in the 1990 filmMemphis Belle.^[390][397] ThePiece of Cake Buchón also appeared in the 1991ITV television miniseriesA Perfect Hero.^[396]

A Buchón now with thePlanes of Fame Air Museum,Chino, California, is under repair after a landing accident atLydd in Kent during filming of the 2001 filmPearl Harbor in 2000.^[396]

A former training airframe that did not appear in theBattle of Britain but which was restored to Bf 109G-10 standard in the early 1990s, and operated by the Old Flying Machine Company, appeared in the 1995 telemovieOver Here starringMartin Clunes.^[396]

A Buchon appears in the 2017Christopher Nolan filmDunkirk.^[398][399]

In the 1983 filmBlue Thunder, the antagonist Colonel Cochrane flew a heavily armedMD 500.^[27]

ThreeHughes OH-6A Cayuse helicopters make up part of the strike package againstErnst Stavro Blofeld's oil rig command center in the 1971James Bond filmDiamonds Are Forever.^[400]

AHughes 500C takes part in the 1973 telemovieBirds of Prey, in which a traffic reporter, played byDavid Janssen, gets into an aerial duel with a gang of bank robbers, who have their own getaway helicopter, anAérospatiale Lama.^[401]

A pair of Hughes 500 helicopters appear in the 1978 filmCapricorn One, near the climactic ending where they get entangled with a crop duster biplane.^[402]

240-Robert is an American television series that ran on ABC from 1979 to 1981. The series was about a specialized unit of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), that used four–wheel drive vehicles and a Hughes 500 helicopter.^[403]

In the 1980s television seriesMagnum, P.I., Thomas Magnum's friend and fellow war veteran T.C. (for Theodore Calvin) flies a civilian Hughes 500D as a tourist charter Island Hoppers business.^[404]

MD Helicopters MH-6 Little Bird helicopters provided air support for the downed Blackhawk's crash site in the 2001 filmBlack Hawk Down.^[405]

In the filmFire Birds (1990), a drug runner's Scorpion helicopter (portrayed by anMD 500) ambushes a US Army AH-1 Cobra during the opening sequence.^[31]

TheHughes H-4 Hercules, also known as theHercules HK-1 and"The Spruce Goose", is a largeflying boat which has made a number of appearances in fiction. The aircraft was central to the plot of the 1987Hanna-Barbera animated filmYogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose.^[406]

In the 1988 biopicTucker: The Man and His Dream, a pivotal meeting between automakerPreston Tucker andHoward Hughes takes place in front of the Hercules, within its hangar, where Hughes briefly tells Tucker that whether the Hercules flies is not the point, as well as how to circumvent the "establishment" and SenatorFerguson.^[407]

In the 1991 adventure filmThe Rocketeer, hero Cliff Secord uses a large-scale model of the Hughes H-4 Hercules to escape some eager federal agents and Howard Hughes himself. After Secord glides the model to safety, Hughes expresses relief that the craft would actually fly.^[408]

In the video gameL.A. Noire (2011) the player is able to enter the aircraft. Additionally, exterior and interior views of the H-4 Hercules aircraft appear in the opening introduction of the DLC mission, "Nicholson Electroplating".^[409][410]

The aircraft was the center of a con job inTNT's drama seriesLeverage, Episode 5.01 "The Very Big Bird Job", which aired 15 July 2012, involved "selling" the Hercules. Part of the con involves convincing the mark that Hughes secretly gave the aircraft stealth capabilities.^[411]

The 7 July 1946 maiden flight of theHughes XF-11 reconnaissance design which ended in a crash inBeverly Hills, California, severely injuring pilotHoward Hughes was depicted in a 1977 telemovie,The Amazing Howard Hughes (with aP-38 Lightning standing in for the XF-11), and again in the 2004Martin Scorsese film,The Aviator,^[412] with the aircraft depicted by a mock-up with flight rendered through CGI.^[413]

TheICON A5 is the starter aircraft in the 2012 gameMicrosoft Flight, and is included in all of the editions ofMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2020 andMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2024.^[414][415]

The 1973 filmThe Fifth Offensive, starringRichard Burton, had anIkarus Kurir L playing the part of a LuftwaffeFieseler Storch.^[416]

TheChengdu J-20 made its debut inAmerican Warships. It also makes appearances inSky Hunter andBorn to Fly.^{[417][418][419]}

The J-20 is one of many playable fighter jets inBattlefield 4.^[420]

A Swiss Air ForceJunkers Ju 52/3m was used in the 1968 action thrillerWhere Eagles Dare.^[421] The opening scene of the film shows the camouflaged Ju-52 flying at night over and through the Bavarian Alps en route to where the team of Allied infiltrators are dropped by parachute. The same aircraft rescues the main characters at the conclusion of the film.^[422]

A Ju-52 appears in the 1973 novelBand of Brothers byErnest K. Gann in which an abandoned example is resurrected and flown on two engines by a team of pilots.^[423]

Two Ju 52s appeared in one of the early scenes in the 2008 Second World War filmValkyrie directed byBryan Singer and starringTom Cruise. One aircraft was painted in a Luftwaffe scheme, the other in an all-silver finish.^[424]

In the second season of the television seriesBabylon Berlin, characters Gereon Rath and Reinhold Gräf use a Ju 52 to inspect the then-secret German-operatedLipetsk fighter-pilot school in the Soviet Union. The appearance is anachronistic, as the episode takes place before the aircraft entered production.^[425]

The 1941 Nazi propaganda filmStukas, produced byKarl Ritter, described the wartime exploits of a squadron ofJunkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers and their pilots during the Invasion of France during World War II.^[426]

A replicaJunkers W 33 appears in the 1985 Australian TV mini-seriesFlight into Hell, a dramatisation of the1932 Kimberley rescue of German aviatorsHans Bertram and Adolph Klausmann who, during an attempt to circumnavigate the world, crash-landed in a remote region of North-West Australia.^[427]

The Transformers Combaticon namedVortex disguises itself as anSH-2G Super Seasprite.^[428]

A pair ofKa-27 Helix helicopters appear throughoutMartin Campbell's 1994 filmNo Escape. The helicopters transport inmates to a prison island, and patrol the shoreline for would-be escapees.^[429]

In the 1934 screwball comedyIt Happened One Night, thefoppish bridegroom "King" Westley (Jameson Thomas) arrives at his own wedding "piloting" aKellett Autogiro CorporationK-3autogyro, c/n 16, NC12691,^[430] (although the real pilot can be seen crouching in the cockpit after Westley deplanes).^{[431][432][433]} The same autogyro appeared in the 1933W. C. Fields filmInternational House.^[430]

AStinson L-5 Sentinel was shown in the 1969Mike Nichols filmCatch-22 as the aircraft that a pilot commits suicide in after accidentally killing another squadron member with his propeller.^[434] The title ofJoseph Heller's 1961satiricalnovel of the same name has entered the lexicon.

The one-of-a-kindLamson L-106 Alcor pressurized high-altitude researchsailplane played a key role in the 1977 bookSierra Sierra, by John Joss. In the novel, Marine fighter pilot Mark Lewis saw his best friend, John O'Halloran, killed on the last day of theVietnam War. When he travels toSeattle, Washington, to explain O'Halloran's death to his family he discovers that O'Halloran's father and sister are engaged in building a research glider, the Alcor, in which O'Halloran was to have set world records for altitude and distance, when he returned from Vietnam. Instead Lewis takes O'Halloran's place in the project, while trying to put his own life back together after the war, flying the Alcor in themountain wave of theSierra Nevada.^[435]

Lockheed Constellations ofTrans World Airlines were depicted in the 2004Martin Scorsese filmThe Aviator. The preserved Super Constellation, "Star of America", N6937C, of theAirline History Museum was filmed atSan Bernardino International Airport, California, for thisHoward Hughes biopic. A fleet of grounded Connies was rendered in CGI.^[413]

The same aircraft (N6937C) was also used in the 1992 filmVoyager which starredSam Shepard and was directed byVolker Schlöndorff.^[436]

In Jimmie H. Butler's 1991 novelRed Lightning, Black Thunder, the US deploys aLockheed C-141 Starlifter out of Hawaii in a mission to launchASAT missiles against a Soviet network of killer satellites.^[437]

TheHainan Island incident was referenced in the television seriesJAG, in the 2001 episode "Dog Robber" during season 7. In this episode based on the real incident, a US NavyLockheed EP-3 Orion collides in mid-air with a Chinese fighter. The EP-3 crew then make an emergency landing atFuzhou air base in China. The crew and aircraft are detained as in the real incident. A US delegation led byAdmiral Thomas Boone flies to the base and secures the release of the crew, but the aircraft remains in Chinese custody. Against orders a Navy Lieutenant flies into Chinese airspace and destroys the EP-3 before the Chinese have a chance to study it in detail. This leads to him being court-martialed.^[438]

Lockheed F-80 Shooting Stars appear in the 1953 novelTroubling of a Star by Walt Sheldon which portrayed a USAF unit stationed in occupied Japan during the Korean War.^[439]

ALockheed Model 12 Electra Junior, registration NC17342 appears in the 1940 filmFlight Angels as an experimental aircraft called the "Stratosphere". This particular aircraft also appears in the filmsRosalie,Nick Carter, Master Detective,Secret Service of the Air, andMurder Over New York.^[440][441]

A Model 12 Electra Junior appeared as the French airliner in the climactic final scene from the 1942 filmCasablanca.^[442] (The aircraft carries theAir Franceseahorse logo,^[443] although Air France did not operate the type.) A "cut-out" stood in for a real aircraft in many shots.^[442]

A pair of restored Lockheed Model 12 Electra Juniors was used in the filming of the 2009 movieAmelia, a biopic of aviatorAmelia Earhart which starredHilary Swank andRichard Gere. One of the aircraft was repainted to resemble aLockheed Model 10 which was the aircraft in which Earhart and her navigatorFred Noonan were flying when they disappeared in 1937. The owner and restorer of the latter aircraft, pilot Joe Sheppard, flew the plane during filming and he had to shave off his moustache and wear a wig to resemble Swank.^[331]

Lockheed Hudsons appeared in the filmsA Yank in the R.A.F. (1941) andCaptains of the Clouds (1942)^[444]

A vintage flying Lockheed Hudson IV appeared in the 2005 Second World War filmThe Great Raid directed byJohn Dahl. The film was based on the book byWilliam Breuer. The Hudson now resides in theTemora Aviation Museum in Australia.^[445][446]

Lockheed Hudsons appeared in the 2006 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) mini-seriesAbove and Beyond which portrayed the work of theAtlantic Ferry Organisation in flying military aircraft across the North Atlantic from Canada to deliver them to the RAF in Great Britain during the Second World War. An actual Hudson appeared in the series along with a number of others recreated with CGI.^[444]

Auric Goldfinger's private aircraft in the 1964James Bond filmGoldfinger is aLockheed L-1329 JetStar with "Auric Enterprises" on the nose. A similar version designated C-140 in US military service appears without markings as a U.S.Military Air Transport Service plane to transport Bond to Washington to meet the US president before the film's climactic showdown between Bond and Goldfinger.^[447]

In the 1968John Wayne filmHellfighters, the JetStar is featured prominently.^{[448][unreliable source?]}

The demise of a Lockheed JetStar and its passengers features prominently in the opening chapters ofCormac McCarthy's 2022 novelThe Passenger, forming a plot point around which the majority of the book revolves.^[449]

SeveralLockheed L-1011 TriStars were depicted in the 1990action filmDie Hard 2, with two large models constructed byIndustrial Light and Magic "flown" on wires for the cameras through "storm clouds" made of non-toxic vaporizedmineral oil. Filming was done at a remote airstrip in theMojave Desert in California. Whipped by theSanta Ana winds coming through theTehachapi Pass into the valley, the smoke effect contributed convincing heavy weather to the shots.^[90]

The Lockheed L-1011 Tristar appears in the 1992 filmPassenger 57 as the location of a terrorist hijacking.^[450] The aircraft, registration N330EA, was formerly operated commercially byEastern Airlines and was painted in the livery of the fictional airlineAtlantic International for the film.^[451]

An L-1011 is used in the Stephen King TV miniseriesthe Langoliers.^[452] Registration N31018, c/n 193B-1065 built in 1974. Formerly of TWA-Trans World Airlines.

InFinal Approach terrorists take over an L-1011, the actual plane being N140SC currently operated asStargazer.^[453]

Although aBoeing 777 is mentioned as aircraft for the ill-fatedOceanic Airlines Flight 815 central to the ABC television seriesLost, the fuselage used to represent the wreckage on the beach was aLockheed L-1011-385 formerly operated byDelta Air Lines.^[454][455]

In the 1985 filmD.A.R.Y.L. the protagonist steals anSR-71 Blackbird from an air base while trying to escape from government agents.^[456]

In Payne Harrison's 1990 novelStorming Intrepid, the US deploys an SR-71 over the USSR on anELINT mission to record communications between the hijacked shuttleIntrepid and Soviet commanders on the ground. The Soviet air defenses attempt to shoot down the aircraft as it tries to get out of Soviet airspace. The aircraft briefly flames out, but successfully recovers and narrowly escapes a missile trap byMikoyan MiG-31 interceptors.^[457]

Although already retired from service for around a decade at the time of the film's release, the SR-71 Blackbird appears as the alt-mode of the characterJetfire, an over-the-hill Transformer near the end of his days, in the 2009 filmTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen and its toy line.^[458]

ALockheed T-33, the trainer version of theLockheed F-80 Shooting Star, appeared in the 1955 science-fiction filmThis Island Earth. In one of the early scenes of the film, the hero scientist Cal (played byRex Reason) is about to land his T-33 at the desert airfield near his government-owned laboratory when the aircraft becomes ensnared by some unknown alien force. The film achieved renewed fame when it was spoofed in the 1996 comedyMystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.^[459]

A T-33 played the role of a Soviet "Yak-12" in the 1957 Cold War romantic/dramaJet Pilot which starredJohn Wayne andJanet Leigh and was directed byHoward Hughes.^[460]

In 2015,Steven Spielberg's filmBridge of Spies recreated the 1960 events of aLockheed U-2 piloted byFrancis Gary Powers being shot down while on a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union.^[461]

The U-2 made an important appearance in the 2000Beacon PicturesdocudramaThirteen Days as the aircraft that initially detected Soviet missiles being deployed in Cuba in October 1962, and was later shot down, killing pilot Maj.Rudolf Anderson, Jr. (played byCharles Esten),^[462] the only combat casualty of theCuban Missile Crisis.^[463]

In the 1980s television seriesCall to Glory, the U-2 was the "main ride" of U.S. Air Force Colonel Raynor Sarnac from the October 1962 Cuba Crisis to 1979.^[464]

ALockheed Vega DL-1B Special, one of only two that remain in flying condition, was used in the 1976 television miniseriesAmelia Earhart, starringSusan Clark as Earhart.^[465]

AStinson Reliant stood in forLockheed Vega DL-1 Special, G-ABGK, c/n 155,Puck, race number 36,^[466] in the 1991 Australian mini-seriesThe Great Air Race, about the 1934 London toMelbourneMacRobertson Trophy Air Race.^[182] It is also known asHalf a World Away.^[183]

The 1927William Wellman filmWings featuredMartin MB-2s among many types depicting World War I aircraft.^[323]

InMichael Crichton'sAirframe, one of the characters uses the crash ofAmerican Airlines Flight 191 which involved aDC-10 to describe how a highly publicized accident can destroy a good airplane's reputation because "a media industry that has grown hostile and shallow with the ascendancy of television always jumps to the wrong conclusion."^[467]

James Bond fights the crew of theMBB Bo 105 helicopter as it flies overMexico City'sDay of the Dead parade in the 2015 filmSpectre^[468]

TwoMesserschmitt Bf 108 Taifuns depictedMesserschmitt Bf 109 fighters in the 1962 filmThe Longest Day,^[469] and the type substituted for unavailableLuftwaffe fighters again in the 1964 film633 Squadron.^[470]

27 SpanishHispano Aviación HA-1112 M1L 'Buchon' single-engined fighters,Messerschmitt Bf 109s built under license in Spain, were used in the 1969 filmBattle of Britain. The Buchons were altered to look more like correct Bf 109Es, adding mock machine guns and cannon, redundant tailplane struts, and removing the rounded wingtips.^[471]

Computer-generated images of Bf 109Gs appear in the 2012 Second World War aerial filmRed Tails directed byAnthony Hemingway and produced byLucasfilm.^[472]

A computer-generated Bf 109 also appears in the 2002 war filmHart's War which starredColin Farrell andBruce Willis and was based on the 1999 novel of thesame name byJohn Katzenbach. In the film, a Bf 109 engages in a dogfight with a P-51 above the POW camp where the film is set and the former is shot down, crashing into one of the camp's guard posts.^[473]

AMesserschmitt Bf 110 appears in the 1952 British war filmAngels One Five. In the film, the Luftwaffe raids 'Pimpernel' Squadron's airfield at Neethly. During the attack, Pilot Officer 'Septic' Baird (John Gregson), although not yet an operational pilot, runs to a spare Hawker Hurricane fighter and takes off. He engages and shoots down a Bf-110 over the airfield and is later seen proudly inspecting the crashed aircraft although Baird is later reprimanded by his CO because during the battle, he carelessly left his radio stuck on 'transmit', preventing other pilots from communicating.^[474] The Messerschmitt used in the film was a captured Bf-110G-4 which was later scrapped after filming.^[475]

As was common in the 1950s, "MiGs" (presumablyMiG-15s, as the story is set in Korea) appear in the 1956 novelThe Hunters byJames Salter about USAF fighter pilots.^[286] As was common in the 1950s, the MiGs are portrayed byRepublic F-84F Thunderstreaks in the 1958 filmThe Hunters^[287]

MiGs (called MiG-28s in film) were also played on screen by theF-5 Tiger II in 1986'sTop Gun^[218][219] and the 1998JAG episode 3.24.^[476]

MiGs appear in the 2007 novelAscent by UK authorJed Mercurio, a fictional work about a Soviet pilot Yefgeni Yeremin covertly flying MiGs during the Korean War.^[477] The book was later adapted into a graphic novel in 2011, illustrated by Wesley Robins.^[478]

A flyableMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 appears in the 2022 Korean War drama filmDevotion.^[215][216]

TheBollywood filmsSilsila (1981),Border (1997) andRang De Basanti (2006) depicted theMikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21.^[479] Prior to its retirement with theIndian Air Force, it appeared in 2025 filmPeace and War.^[480]

TheMikoyan MiG-29 is the alternate form of the figureDreadwing as well as itsredecosOvercast andFearswoop from the 2007 and 2009Transformers film toy lines.^[481]

The MiG-29 also appears as Big Jet, the main antagonist in the children's showLittle Einsteins.^[482]

AMil Mi-17 is used in the 2001 filmBehind Enemy Lines as aNATOcombat search and rescue (CSAR) helicopter that makes an attempt to rescue a downed airman.^[483]

At the beginning of the 2002 filmDie Another Day, aMil Mi-8T is commandeered byJames Bond, to infiltrate the antagonists' base.^[484]

The aircraft also appeared in the 2006 filmBlood Diamond, directed byEdward Zwick; it was used by the protagonist to reach a refugee camp.^[483]

A Mil Mi-8 helicopter appears in a major sequence in the 2019 Netflix filmTriple Frontier directed byJ C Chandor and starringBen Affleck. It is portrayed as an insufficient, shabby old helicopter, and the only thing that the protagonists could get their hands on in short notice, despite the Mi-8's rarity in the west and notable reliability.^[485]

Mi-8s appear in the 2019 HBO mini-seriesChernobyl.^[486] Mi-8s were among the Soviet helicopters used to firefight and monitor the exploded reactor in 1986.^[487] In the series, helicopters are seen dropping sand-bags onto the fire and one helicopter is destroyed in a crash. The series portrays the incident as taking place shortly after the initial explosion at the reactor but in reality, the crash occurred some weeks later.^[488]

AMil Mi-24 helicopter appears in the 1997 filmAir Force One. The aircraft is used to retrieve a Russian prisoner in exchange for theUS President, who is being held captive.^[489]

The Mi-24 appears numerous times in theMetal Gear video game series, starting from the 1987 MSX original.^[490] Its appearance as a boss battle in the 1998 gameMetal Gear Solid is probably the most famous instance.^{[491][492][493][494][495][496]}

The helicopter is used extensively in the 2005 filmThe 9th Company, which fictionally depicts theBattle for Hill 3234 whereSoviet Army paratroopers defend their post againstMujahideen fighters. It was especially employed to eliminate the Mujahideen's last wave of attack in the film's climactic battle.^[429]

In the 2006 filmBlood Diamond, a Mi-24 is employed to attack a rebel village.^[483]

The 2007 filmCharlie Wilson's War portrays the Mi-24 as used in theSoviet–Afghan War.Mujahideen useFIM-92 Stinger missiles supplied through US CongressmanCharlie Wilson's efforts to shoot downSoviet Mi-24s.^[402][497]

The helicopter is used by the antagonist to flee a Moscow rooftop in the 2013 filmA Good Day to Die Hard.^[498]

In the 2022 filmTop Gun: Maverick, a Mi-24 is used by the enemy in an attempt to kill Pete "Maverick" Mitchell after his aircraft was shot down, only for the hostile Mi-24 to be shot down by Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw.^[499]

In the 2013Bruce Willisaction filmA Good Day to Die Hard, aMil Mi-26T, leased from theBelarus Ministry for Emergency Situations and painted in washable military camouflage, was used in various scenes.^[500]

For the 1991 Australian mini-seriesThe Great Air Race, about the 1934 London toMelbourneMacRobertson Trophy Air Race, also known asHalf a World Away,^[183]Miles Falcon, VH-AAT, played Miles M.3 Falcon, G-ACTM, the prototype fitted with extra fuel tanks, race number 31.^[182]

TheMitsubishi A5M Type 96 fighter, known to the Allies as the "Claude", features prominently in the 2013Studio Ghibli animated featureThe Wind Rises directed byHayao Miyazaki. The film is a semi-fictionalised lyrical portrayal of Japanese aircraft designerJiro Horikoshi and depicts him designing the A5M in the 1930s.^[24]

TheMoller M400 Skycar appears in the 2010 telemovieThe Jensen Project withLeVar Burton andKellie Martin.^[501] It also appears inClive Cussler's novelAtlantis Found, where it is flown byDirk Pitt.^[502]

TheMorane-Saulnier MS.230 appears as the fictional "new monoplane" in the 1966 World War I epicThe Blue Max and was the aircraft in which the central character Bruno Stachel (George Peppard) meets his demise.^[503] Peppard purchased the aircraft and took it back to the US where it joined the collection of the San Diego Aerospace Museum.^[504] The plot, which has Stachel wringing-out a new design until it sheds its wings, is based on the experience with the late-warFokker E.V, a parasol design, three of six of which crashed within a week of being delivered toJasta 6 in August 1918. Grounded for investigation, the problem was traced to shoddy workmanship at theMecklenburg factory where defective wood spars, water damage to glued parts, and pins carelessly splintering the members instead of securing them were discovered. Upon return to service two months later, the design was renamed theFokker D.VIII in an effort to avoid the type's reputation as a killer.^[505][506]

Naval Aircraft Factory N3N Canarys were shown in the 1941 Warner Bros. filmDive Bomber.^[203]

Nakajima Ki-27s, lifted from Japanese film, appeared in the 1942Republic filmFlying Tigers.^[507]

A replica of aNakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa appeared in the 2007 Japanese motion pictureFor Those We Love,^[508] a drama about WW2 Kamikaze pilots.^[509]

TheNieuport 17 was one of the main aircraft in the 2006 filmFlyboys.^[510][511]

An authenticNieuport 28 was provided and flown byFrank Tallman, a Hollywood film pilot, forThe Twilight Zone episode"The Last Flight" in which a World War I Royal Flying Corps pilot is transported in time in a cloud to the 1960s.Norton Air Force Base, California, was the filming site. The episode first aired on 5 February 1960.^[185]

Canadian-built variants of theNorth American T-6 Texan are seen in the 1943RKO filmBombardier, filmed atKirtland Field, New Mexico.^[369]

TheNoorduyn Norseman appears in scenes in the 1942 Warner Bros. filmCaptains of the Clouds, withJames Cagney as a Canadianbush pilot at the start of World War II.^[512]

The 1994Stephen Coonts novelThe Intruders mentions theNorth American A-5 Vigilante where the main character Jake Grafton described it as themost beautiful airplane the navy owned and regardedthe Vigie pilots were supermen, the best of the best.^[513]

The 1941Paramount Pictures filmI Wanted Wings featured flights of more than 50North American T-6 Texans fromKelly Field, Texas.^[514]

An SNJ-5 Texan, a naval variant of the AT-6, appeared in several television productions. It was modified to play the role of a JapaneseZero in the TV seriesBaa Baa Black Sheep (1977) and the mini-seriesPearl (1979) and it played the roles of both a Zero and anSBD Dauntless in the 1987 mini-seriesWar and Remembrance.^[515] T-6 Texans, one piloted by World War Two Marine AceArchie Donaue represented Japanese Zeroes in the 1980 science fiction filmThe Final Countdown (film)

North American Harvards, the British Commonwealth name for the AT-6, appear prominently inCaptains of the Clouds, starringJames Cagney.^[311]

North American BT-9 and BT-16 basic trainers were filmed atRandolph Field, Texas, for the 1941Paramount Pictures filmI Wanted Wings, based on the 1937 novel of the same title by 1st Lt.Beirne Lay, Jr.^[514]

On 5 November 1959, a small engine fire forced pilotScott Crossfield to make an emergency landing onRosamond Dry Lake,Edwards Air Force Base, California, in aNorth American X-15. Not designed to land with fuel on board, the X-15 landed with a heavy load of propellants and broke its back, grounding it for three months. Footage of this accident was later incorporated inThe Outer Limits, episode "The Premonition", first aired 9 January 1965.^[516]

The rocket craft is also the subject of the 1961 Essex Productions filmX-15, a fictionalized account of the program, directed byRichard Donner in his first outing, and narrated by USAF Brigadier General (Reserve)James Stewart in an uncredited role.^[517]

The X-15 is portrayed as the FFE Space Fighter (宇宙戦闘機 Uchū Sentōki, lit. Space Fighter) armed with atomic heat cannons to fight the Natarl UFO's in the 1959 movieBattle in Outer Space.^[518]

In the opening scene of the 2018 filmFirst Man,Neil Armstrong, played byRyan Gosling, pilots aNorth American X-15 during a test flight.^[519]

Test flights of the X-15 are the background story of aBuck Danny Album byJean-Michel Charlier andVictor Hubinon.

TheNorthrop A-17 makes an appearance atMarch Field at the conclusion of the 1941Paramount Pictures filmI Wanted Wings.^[514]

TheNorthrop M2-F2, a NASA research aircraft, appears in the 1970s TV seriesThe Six Million Dollar Man, starringLee Majors. In the first episode, protagonistSteve Austin crashes the aircraft during a test flight and is severely injured. The footage used was from a real M2-F2 accident that took place on 10 May 1967 in the California desert.^[520] The clip of the crash was also used in the opening titles of each episode. The opening titles also used footage of the laterNorthrop HL-10 aircraft.

Paramount Pictures' 1953 film,The War of the Worlds incorporates color footage of aNorthrop YB-49 test flight, originally used in one of Paramount'sPopular Science theatrical shorts. In theGeorge Pal film, the Flying Wing is used to drop anatomic bomb on the invadingMartians.^[521]

In the filmThe Final Countdown (1980) aGrumman E-2 Hawkeye is used byUSS Nimitz as an airborne command and radar facility to track the Japanese Fleet heading to attackPearl Harbor.^[522]

In the 2022 filmTop Gun: Maverick, the E-2 plays an important role in the topical air attack operation, conducting the strike pack (consisting of fourF/A-18) and detecting enemy aircraft.^[523]

The 1990 filmAir America, which loosely recounted the exploits of theCentral Intelligence Agencyproprietary airline in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and early 1970s, featuredCessna O-1 Bird Dogs.^[134]

United States NavyCurtiss O2C-2 Helldivers fromFloyd Bennett Field were used in filmingKing Kong in 1933, but asCarl Denham observed, "Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast." Writer and directorMerian C. Cooper portrayed the pilot who kills Kong, while directorErnest B. Schoedsack plays his gunner, in uncredited roles.^[168] In the 2005remake of the film, directorPeter Jackson plays one of the gunners while the pilot is portrayed byRick Baker, who played Kong (in a rubber suit) in the 1976 remake.^[524]

The 1927William Wellman filmWings featuredCurtiss P-1 Hawks among many types depicting World War I aircraft.^[323] The P-1s were used to portray GermanAlbatros D.V fighters.^[525]

A civilianizedSeversky P-35, the Seversky S2, which won the 1937Bendix Trophy race, appeared as the "Drake Bullet" in the 1938MGM filmTest Pilot.^[526]

A Guy Named Joe (1943) hasSpencer Tracy returning as a guiding spirit looking after youngLockheed P-38 Lightning pilotVan Johnson.^[388]

The 1944 short featureP-38 Reconnaissance Pilot, starringWilliam Holden as Lt. "Packy" Cummings, dramatises the work of photoreconnaissance pilots in World War II.^[527]

The 1965 filmVon Ryan's Express begins with main protagonist, USAAF Colonel Joseph Ryan (Frank Sinatra), crash landing a P-38 Lightning in World War II Italy and being held as a prisoner of war.^[528]

P-38s appear in the 1968 novelOrder of Battle byAlfred Coppel, a work that portrays US P-38Fs in the fighter-bomber role over Europe in WW2.^[529]

In the 1992 action filmAces: Iron Eagle III, the main character, Brig. Gen. Chappy Sinclair (Louis Gossett Jr.), pilots a P-38J as part of a mission to field old Second World War airshow aircraft against a drug cartel in Peru.^[530] The aircraft, registration N38BP, came from the Planes of Fame museum.^[514]

TheCAPCOM game1942 for the arcades and theNintendo Entertainment System features the P-38 as the default plane of choice.^[531]

In the 1942John Wayne filmFlying Tigers, realCurtiss P-40 Warhawks are featured.The New York Times critic called the P-40s "the true stars" of the film.^[532] Republic Studios also built replicas for the film due to material shortages during the war. These can be identified by the fairings hiding the cylinder heads of the automotive V-8 engines installed in them, and the lack of elevators on the horizontal stabilizer.^[533]

Future US PresidentRonald Reagan appears in theRecognition of the Japanese Zero Fighter (training film, 1942) as a young pilot learning to recognize the difference between a P-40 and a Japanese Zero. In this film Reagan mistakes a friend's P-40 for a Japanese Zero and tries to shoot it down. In the end, Reagan gets a chance to shoot down a real Zero.^[534]

A P-40 featured in the 1973 made-for-TV filmDeath Race (also known asState of Division) which starredLloyd Bridges andDoug McClure.^[535] The film featured a damaged Allied fighter, unable to take off but still able to taxi, being pursued across North Africa by a German tank.^[536]

Steve Earle's 1988 song "Johnny Come Lately" from the albumCopperhead Road is about an AmericanP-47 pilot in World War II; it contains a verse "My P-47 is a pretty good ship. She took a round comin' cross the channel last trip."^[537]

ModifiedT-6 Texans depicted P-47s in the 1977 filmA Bridge Too Far.^[34]

P-51 Mustangs featured in the 1948Warner Bros. filmFighter Squadron which was directed byRaoul Walsh and starredEdmond O'Brien &Robert Stack. In this film, P-51Ds belonging to the California Air National Guard played the role of German Bf-109 fighters to which the P-51 bore some resemblance from certain angles. For the production, P-51s were coated with acrylic Luftwaffe paint schemes. The aerial sequences were filmed nearVan Nuys in Los Angeles, California.^[538]

A P-51 Mustang piloted byJimmy Leeward features as an antagonist in the 1980aerobatics movieCloud Dancer.^[539][540]

TheSteven Spielberg filmEmpire of the Sun (1987), based on theJ. G. Ballard novelof the same name, featured models and restored Mustangs in an attack on a Japanese airstrip next to the internment camp where the story's protagonist is imprisoned. This was the most complex and elaborately staged sequence of the film, requiring over 10 days of filming and 60 hours of aerial footage of Mustangs. Film historians and reviewers regard the scene as a significant cinematic achievement: "Spielberg's most emotionally reverberant moment, and one of the rare movie scenes that can truly be called epiphanies."^[541]

In the 1998 filmSaving Private Ryan, a flight of P-51s save embattled American troops from German ground forces.^[542]

Red-Tailed P-51s play a central role in the 2012 filmRed Tails when the332nd Fighter Group is assigned to bomber escort duties, finally replacing their aging P-40s.^[543]

A P-51 Mustang, privately owned byTom Cruise, is repaired and flown by his characterPete Mitchell, in the final scene ofTop Gun: Maverick.^[544]

The Transformers character Darkwing disguises itself as aPanavia Tornado.^[545]

TheRoyal Air Force's ground attack aircraft, the Panavia Tornado, featured extensively in the television pilotStrike Force, produced in the 1990s for ITV in the UK.Strike Force did not enter series production.^[546]

RAF Tornadoes featured in the 1998 BBC science fiction TV mini-seriesInvasion Earth written & co-produced byJed Mercurio. In the series, Tornado jets are scrambled to intercept a UFO.^[547]

The Tornado was the subject of the 1985 video gameTornado Low Level, in which the titular aircraft was used to destroy enemy target markers. The markers could only be destroyed when the Tornado's wings were fully swept back, and moving at full speed.^[548]

APBY Catalina features in the 1947 filmHigh Barbaree (also released under the titleEnchanted Island) which was directed byJack Conway, starredVan Johnson and was based on the 1945 novel of the same name byCharles Nordhoff &James Norman Hall. The film portrays a PBY crew during WW2 in the Pacific. During a depth-charge attack on a Japanese submarine, the PBY is damaged and crash-lands in enemy waters, leaving only two survivors, pilot Lt. Brooke (Johnson) and navigator Lt. Moore (Cameron Mitchell).^[549]

A formerRoyal Danish Air Force PBY-6A Catalina appeared in the 1976 filmMidway.^[550]

A PBY-5A Catalina appeared in the opening sequence of the 1989Steven Spielberg filmAlways as afirebomber picking up a water load and bearing down on two startled fishermen.^[550]

In the 2002 submarine filmBelow, theUSS Tiger Shark is directed to pick up three survivors of a torpedoed hospital ship by a Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina, marked as AH545, WQ-Z ofNo. 209 Squadron. The PBY-5A was marked as the Catalina that had a decisive role in the sinking of theBismarck.^[551]

United States NavyPB4Y-2M Privateers ofVP-23, based atNaval Air Station Miami, Florida, were filmed at the close of the 1948 hurricane season and the footage used in the 194920th Century-Fox filmSlattery's Hurricane.^[552]

The most prominent of the real aircraft inNevil Shute's 1951 novelRound the Bend is a war-surplusPercival Proctor, which is used by the protagonist Constantine Shak Lin (also known as Connie Shaklin) to tour Asia to spread his teachings. At the end of the book the Proctor is the basis of a shrine to Shaklin and his new creed, laid up in a hangar in a state of uncompleted maintenance for pilgrims to view.^[553]

In 1968, three Proctors were remodelled withinverted gull wings and other cosmetic alterations to representJunkers Ju 87s in the filmBattle of Britain but, in the event, radio-controlled models were used instead.^[554]

A pair of flying replicaPfalz D.IIIs were constructed to appear in the 1966 epic First World War filmThe Blue Max, based on the novel of the same name byJack D. Hunter. The aircraft subsequently appeared inDarling Lili (1970) andVon Richthofen & Brown (1971).^[318]

APfalz D.XII which is now in theNational Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., was flown inThe Dawn Patrol (1930),Hell's Angels (1930), andMen with Wings (1938).^[555] Footage of the Pfalz fromThe Dawn Patrol also featured in the1938 remake withErrol Flynn.^[556]

The STOL-capablePilatus PC-6 Porter was depicted in the 1990 filmAir America, loosely recounting the exploits of theCentral Intelligence Agency proprietary airline in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and early 1970s.^[134] The PC-6s in this film were actuallyFairchild AU-23A Peacemakers, the US-built version of the aircraft. Five examples were used in the production, four of them belonging to the Royal Thai Air Force and a fifth which was a hybrid re-constructed from a number of derelict Porters. The latter was used for the filming of a landing on a hill-top airstrip because the Thai Air Force refused to risk one of their own Porters in the filming of that scene.^[557]

A Pilatus PC-6 Porter was used for the first jump and training scenes in the 1994 filmDrop Zone.^[558]

The characterPussy Galore in the 1964James Bond filmGoldfinger is the leader of "Pussy Galore's Flying Circus", a group of women who flyPiper Cherokees, trained acrobats turned cat burglars, in thenovel of the same name byIan Fleming. In the film the arch-villain uses the Cherokees in his plan to deprive the US government of the gold inFort Knox.^[559][560]

Mark Haddon's 2019 novelThe Porpoise starts with the flight en route toPopham Airfield in Hampshire and subsequent crash of aPiper PA-28 Warrior caused when the pilot crashes into a silo betweenGapennes andYvrench inSomme department resulting in four deaths including a pregnant woman, the only survivor being an unborn baby saved by a passing doctor. The baby becomes the protagonist of the novel.^[561]

Pitts Special S-1S and S-2A airplanes feature prominently in the 1980 filmCloud Dancer, in which flying scenes were filmed with cameras adapted to resist up to 12 g, mounted on the planes. The story follows acompetition aerobatics champion through his show season, starringDavid Carradine. The role ofCurtis Pitts was played byWoodrow Chambliss in a short scene; the movie had the participation both in performance as in advice of pilotsTom Poberezny,Charlie Hillard,Leo Loudenslager, andJimmy Leeward. The movie is dedicated to pilot Walt Tubb, who died a few months after the filming, coincidentally while doing the same maneuver that in the movie causes the death of one of the characters.^[539][540]

The cancelledBoeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche appeared in directorAng Lee'sHulk film in 2003.^[562]

The 1993 shooter gameJungle Strike has the main character flying the RAH-66 Comanche to complete various missions.^[563]

The 2013 military simulation gameArma 3 depicts the Comanche's real-world cancellation as something that almost happened, and the design brought back from the edge of being shut down and adopted as the "AH-99 Blackfoot".^[564]

TheRepublic RC-3 Seabee is an amphibious aircraft whichJames Bond uses in the 1974 filmThe Man With the Golden Gun, to get to the island lair of villainFrancisco Scaramanga. Bond lands the plane at the island, but it is later destroyed by Scaramanga's solar-powered laser gun.^[565]

The RF-8 is a reconnaissance version of theVought F-8 Crusadercarrier-basedair superiority aircraft. In the 1980 filmThe Final Countdown an RF-8 is used byUSS Nimitz to overfly thePearl Harbor naval base.^[566] The photos taken during that mission of the US Navy Fleet prior to the 1941 Japanese attack, convinceNimitz's commanders that somehow they have gone back in time from the 1980s to the 1940s.

The RF-8As that played a pivotal role in obtaining low-level reconnaissance photographs of Sovietmedium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) in Cuba during theCuban Missile Crisis were depicted in the 2000 filmThirteen Days. The aircraft were portrayed by ex-Philippine Air Force F-8H airframes refurbished for use in the movie.^[567]

A replicaRoyal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c was used in the production of the BBC Great War drama seriesWings which aired in 1977–1978.^{[568][569][570]} The replica was originally commissioned in 1969 by Universal Studios for a proposed big-budget filmBiggles Sweeps the Skies but the project was cancelled after the aircraft was built. The replica was constructed by engineer and pilot Charles Boddington who was later killed during the making of the 1971 filmVon Richthofen & Brown. His son Matthew recently rebuilt the aircraft (after it was badly damaged in an accidental crash in the US) and it flew again at Sywell aerodrome, UK, in 2011.^[571]

The 1927William Wellman filmWings featured aRoyal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a among many types depicting World War I aircraft.^[323]

The 1938Paramount filmMen with Wings, starringRay Milland, featured a reproduction of theSpirit of St. Louis fashioned from aRyan B-1 Brougham.^[572]

A recreation of theRyan NYP was used for the 1957 Warner Bros. filmThe Spirit of St. Louis, starringJimmy Stewart asCharles Lindbergh.^[573]

In the 2019 anime seriesGirly Air Force, Gripen is one of the main fighter aircraft featured in the series along with Kei Narutani, the main protagonist of the series.^[574]

ADouglas SBD Dauntless was used in the production of the 1976 motion pictureMidway. An SBD-5, which had formerly served in the RNZAF and which was (in 1976) non-airworthy and wingless, was used in the filming of the cockpit close-ups for actors such asCharlton Heston.^[575][576]

Later in 1987, the same aircraft (BuNo 28536), now in airworthy condition, was used in the production of the epic 1988–1989 TV mini-seriesWar & Remembrance. The aircraft appeared in the sequence depicting the Battle of Midway and during filming, was flown off theUSS Lexington the first time an SBD had taken off from a carrier in 42 years.^[577]

Douglas SBDs are a major feature in the 2019 filmMidway directed byRoland Emmerich. The aircraft were recreated digitally and at least one full-scale static replica was built.^[578][579]

The loss of a US NavyCurtiss SB2C-1 Helldiver, BuNo 00154, ofVB-5, during launch nearTrinidad on 28 May 1943^[580] during the shakedown cruise of theUSS Yorktown was incorporated by20th Century Fox into the 1944 filmWing and a Prayer: The Story of Carrier X.^[581]

Two USAAFCurtiss RA-25A Shrikes collided during aflypast for an air show nearSpokane, Washington, on 23 July 1944, the accident filmed by aParamount Pictures newsreel crew. This footage was used in the 1956 filmEarth vs. the Flying Saucers, apparently being shot down by a saucer.^[582]

Vought SB2U Vindicators were featured in the 1941 Warner Bros. filmDive Bomber.^[203]

TheShort Sunderlandflying boatpatrol bomber takes a key part inIvan Southall's autobiographical 1974 novelFly West, where the writer tells his life as aRAF Coastal Command Sunderland pilot duringWorld War II. Many details about the aircraft's looks, performance and procedures are given throughout the book, and as almost the entirety of the book is set inside Sunderlands, the warplane practically becomes a character. Other aircraft, both fromAllied andGerman origin, are also featured and mentioned.^[583][584]

A Short Sunderland was the setting for much of the 1980 novelThe Flying Porcupine by Richard Haligon. The novel takes its title from a nickname reputedly given to the Sunderland by German pilots thanks to its defensive armament of as many as 16 machine guns.^[585]

CIA officerJack Ryan (played byAlec Baldwin) is flown from an aircraft carrier to the submarineUSS Dallas in aSikorsky SH-3H Sea King in the 1990 filmHunt for Red October, based on theTom Clancy'snovel of the same title.^[586]

At the end of the successful rescue mission forApollo 13, two SH-3 Sea Kings, historically painted as Helos 66 and 406, retrieve the astronauts from their spacecraft after splashdown in the 1995Ron Howard film.^[489]

The 1954 filmThe Bridges at Toko-Ri, based on the 1953James A. Michener novella of the same title, opens and closes with scenes of a US NavySikorsky HO3S-1 of utility helicopter squadron HU-1 operating from anEssex-classaircraft carrier in pilot rescue and recovery during theKorean War.^[514]

In the 1954 science fiction filmThem!, a Sikorsky S-51 is used to spot giant ants in theNew Mexico desert.^[587]

AWestland Widgeon, a UK-built version of theSikorsky S-51, appears in the 1971 British filmWhen Eight Bells Toll, starringAnthony Hopkins, directed byÉtienne Périer and based on theAlistair MacLean novel of thesame name. Aerial scenes were filmed over the Scottish islands of Staffa and Mull.^[588]

ASikorsky HO5S-1 is featured in the 2022 Korean War drama filmDevotion. When the film was made, the helicopter was one of the few flyable examples remaining in the world.^[215][216]

The 1955 Warner Bros. filmThe McConnell Story, about Capt.Joseph C. McConnell, Jr., the top American ace of theKorean War, includes footage of aSikorsky H-19 Chickasaw rescuing a downedB-29 crew in that conflict, while under heavy fire. A Chickasaw was furnished by the48th Air Rescue Squadron,Eglin AFB, Florida, for seven days of filming atAlexandria AFB, Louisiana, in February 1955.^[589]

The character of "Harold the Helicopter" from the British children's book series,The Railway Series and its TV program adaptation,Thomas & Friends is based on theSikorsky S-55, built in the UK as theWestland Whirlwind.^[590]

The Sikorsky S-55 appeared inIrwin Allen's 1960 film,The Lost World.^[591]

The book,Retreat Hell, byW. E. B. Griffin, takes place inKorea during theKorean War. It centers on the use of a Sikorsky H-19A helicopter during the fall 1950. Much of the action is driven forward by the abilities of the helicopter.^[592]

ASikorsky S-58T appears as the "Screaming Mimi" in the 1980s television seriesRiptide. This S-58 is still in service as a heavy lift helicopter.^[593]

AHH-53B Sea Stallion appears in the 1974 filmAirport 1975, where a pilot is lowered on a tether from the helicopter to a damagedBoeing 747 in flight.^[594]

The HH-53C variant was used in the combined combat search and rescue and VIP delivery sequences in the 1982Malpaso Productions spy andaction filmFirefox,^[595] produced, directed by, and starringClint Eastwood, based on the 1977novel of the same name byCraig Thomas.

TheSikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion appears in the 2002 filmThe Sum of All Fears, based on theTom Clancynovel of the same title.^[93]

A CH-53E Super Stallion is featured in the 1997 filmThe Jackal, where it flies over Washington, D.C., and hovers between buildings during a fast rope sequence.^[596]

TheSikorsky MH-53J is featured in the2007Transformers film as the alternate mode ofBlackout. Production designer Jeff Mann stated "the Pave Low looks butch ... the size made it the logical choice."^[597] Toys for Blackout were MH-53 replicas, which were reused for the characters ofEvac,Spinister andWhirl.^[598]

The heavier CH-53E Super Stallion is the alternate form for theDecepticonGrindor in the 2009 filmTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen.^[599]

TheSikorsky MH-53 appears in the 2009 video gameCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, referred to simply as the "Pave Low".^[600]

An HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant appears inKong: Skull Island. Portfolio images of various CGI artists on the team show it as being gray, like a CH-53 Sea Stallion, in early stages of production, but in the final cut, it's green, lacks any USMC markings and even comes from a USAF airbase, all meaning it must be a Super Jolly. Despite this, characters repeatedly and incorrectly refer to it as "the sea stallion".^[601]

In the 1996 filmIndependence Day aSikorsky S-64 Skycrane is fitted with an array of flashing lights to communicate with an alien spaceship.^[602]

A Skycrane also appears in the 2001 filmSwordfish, near the climactic ending in which it has a bus full of hostages slung loaded underneath, and is flying through downtown Los Angeles.^[603]

In the 1994 filmClear and Present Danger, a pair ofMH-60K Black Hawks are used to insert a special ops team into a Colombian jungle.^[402]

Black Hawks were also featured in the 1997 filmAir Force One, having been rented from the US military.^[92]

TheSikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk was the title aircraft in the 2001 filmBlack Hawk Down.^[604] For this film too the filmmakers rented the aircraft, paying the US Department of Defense about $3 million to ship eight helicopters and about 100 crew members to the film location in Morocco.^[93]

In the 2003 filmTears of the Sun threeSH-60 Seahawk helicopters bring evacuated US embassy staff and their SEAL team rescuers from Nigeria to the aircraft carrierUSS Harry S. Truman. Two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters are used to retrieve a SEAL team and refugees in Nigeria.^[122]

Igor Sikorsky'sSikorsky S-29-A, previously owned byRoscoe Turner, doubled for aGotha bomber inHoward Hughes' 1930 aerial epicHell's Angels.^[605] It was destroyed during filming. At the time of the aircraft's demise it had flown 500,000 miles.^[606]

Replicas of theSikorsky S-38 were used in the filming of the 2004Martin Scorsese biopic ofHoward Hughes,The Aviator.^[607][608]

WhenMGM produced the 1959 filmThe Gallant Hours, based on the life of US Navy AdmiralWilliam "Bull" Halsey, the studio rented aSikorsky VS-44A, N41881, namedMother Goose, from Catalina Air Lines, Inc., and painted it in wartime camouflage to depict a secret flight that Halsey had made to the South Pacific in aConsolidated PB2Y-1 Coronado. Although the studio had promised to repaint the flying boat after the production, this did not happen, and the airline had to restore the civilian livery itself.^[609]