Plane from Temple of Doom: 1929 Ford 5AT Tri-Motor

I had the privilege of seeing this in person, at Florida's Fantasy of Flight museum. This is the actual plane used in the movie.















It looks like the museum takes passengers on flights , too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnsyI6wAZFI

Nice pics. It's still in mint condition. It would be a nostalgic flight. But this article might be better off in another thread, like the one discussing the tanks and cars from the other movies: Indy vehicles and museums in the general discussion thread.

Any egg residue on the floor?

Lance Quazar said:

Any egg residue on the floor?

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Funny.

The only thing this thread is lacking is a pic of a Ravener asleep with his fedora down over his eyes.

Niiiiiice. What a flight that would be. They probably don't carry a lifeboat in it. That would just be too tempting. "Hey, it worked on Mythbusters."

JD2008: Very cool that you were able to see the actual one! (Another Tri-Motor makes the airshow circuit around the U.S. and one Raven member reported going for a ride in California a few years ago.)

Mickiana: I think this rare aircraft should have a thread of its own. There weren't very many made, it's a reputable machine and there aren't any threads dedicated solely to it. Plus, some of the great, aviation pioneers piloted one of these; Earhart, Lindbergh, etc.

Of course, that needn't stop JD2008 from posting in the other thread: Indy vehicles and museums

Lance Quazar: There wouldn't be any egg residue because:
1) Indy caught the egg!
2) The interior scenes were filmed on a set.

Goodeknight: Yeah, it would be nice if there was a dinghy onboard. Too bad the owner/s painted over the "Lao Che Air Freight".

Nice, thanks for sharing, although it looks in mint condition, did they mention anything about the restoring process, or the 'downgrade' process they did for the movie? It almost looks like a different plane, it's in such good condition.

Funny how the interior is so different. In the movie it almost looks like the inside of a buss they have so much space, but in reality you see how much little space there is in there. Definitely not much space for "poultry" and falling eggs.

Also the control panel reminds of that great line, "airspeed...ok, Fuel...Fuel!!??", anybody else do that while they are driving, and have a fellow Indy fan in the car?

I'm here in Florida, where is this ?? I mean, I'll go on the internet and find out but .... WOW !!! Last Ford Tri-Motor I saw in person was at the Air and Space Museum in D.C. in 1992 !! This thing looks like it's in immediate flying condition. I'm very impressed. Thanks for sharing.

russds said:

Also the control panel reminds of that great line, "airspeed...ok, Fuel...Fuel!!??", anybody else do that while they are driving, and have a fellow Indy fan in the car?

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I haven't used that line before, but I will from now on! I always wait for the "ding" and the fuel light before filling up, so it will work often.
Speaking of which, I mentioned this years ago -- In LC, when Henry Sr. says, "I didn't know you could fly a plane," and Indy responds, "Fly, yes -- Land, no." Is he referring to this instance in TOD? Willie asks if he can fly, and he says, "No. Can you? How hard could it be?"

Fantasy of flight museum

micsteam said:

I'm here in Florida, where is this ?? I mean, I'll go on the internet and find out but .... WOW !!! Last Ford Tri-Motor I saw in person was at the Air and Space Museum in D.C. in 1992 !! This thing looks like it's in immediate flying condition. I'm very impressed. Thanks for sharing.

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The Fantasy of Flight musuem is at 1400 Broadway Blvd. S.E. Polk City, FL 33868 (863)984-3500 - (http://www.fantasyofflight.com).

russds said:

Funny how the interior is so different. In the movie it almost looks like the inside of a buss they have so much space, but in reality you see how much little space there is in there. Definitely not much space for "poultry" and falling eggs.

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As a matter of fact, some Tri-Motors were later stripped of their passenger seats and converted into cargo carriers. They were also used by the military (Ex. Royal Canadian Air Force) with similar modifications.

Goodeknight said:

Speaking of which, I mentioned this years ago -- In LC, when Henry Sr. says, "I didn't know you could fly a plane," and Indy responds, "Fly, yes -- Land, no." Is he referring to this instance in TOD? Willie asks if he can fly, and he says, "No. Can you? How hard could it be?"

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Without any doubt, it's an obvious reference. Due to his near-death situation in "Doom", Indy must have familiarized himself with the basics at some point before 1938. (The Young Indy, "Attack of the Hawkmen", episode kind of throws a wrench into things. He should have picked up SOMETHING back then.)

For you ground-bound folk, flying is easy (relative to what is being flown). LANDING is the difficult part!

P.S. I'm glad that you've changed your username to have a capital "G".

Stoo said:

Without any doubt, it's an obvious reference. Due to his near-death situation in "Doom", Indy must have familiarized himself with the basics.

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But did he get some training (familiarize himself with the basics), or does he consider that brief experience in TOD as "flying?"

Stoo said:

P.S. I'm glad that you've changed your username to have a capital "G".

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Once again, Stoo, your attention to detail amazes me.

Goodeknight said:

But did he get some training (familiarize himself with the basics), or does he consider that brief experience in TOD as "flying?"

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Unless he was lying in "Crusade", Indy must have had some proper training beforehand because his brief seconds of experience in "Doom" were negligible. He didn't do any flying there.

Goodeknight said:

Once again, Stoo, your attention to detail amazes me.

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Details, Goodie, details are everything. They make the world go 'round.

---
Back to the Tri-Motor: I was very surprised to learn that the shot of it flying over the Great Wall of China was done with a model. How incredible is that? ILM did an amazing job!

Stoo said:

Unless he was lying in "Crusade", Indy must have had some proper training beforehand because his brief seconds of experience in "Doom" were negligible.

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When I saw that scene on the big screen back in '84, I took Indy's "No (I can't fly), can you?" as a quip as he seemed familiar with several of the controls when checking the dash of the cockpit before finding the fuel running out. Because of that I had a feeling if there had been fuel he could have flown but landing would have been another issue.

Back in the mid 90s, a cousin of a former friend took me on a flying lesson at Scarborough Airfield at North Brisbane in a single prop and he was quite brazen in giving me the controls even on several landings where we touched down and took off again. The landings were indeed the difficult part.

TBH, the fella was a real a-hole and he did dives to see if I would throw up and I wasn't far off from doing so. It literally felt like my stomach was in my throat as we were plummeting and pulling up. I had to ask him to finally put down as I would have made a mess of the cockpit.

At this time he flew Qantas International but later ended up losing his pilot's license when he contracted a virus that wrecked his pancreas inducing diabetes. Overall though, I found the flying was quite exciting.

Ford and aviation

Unless he was lying in "Crusade", Indy must have had some proper training beforehand because his brief seconds of experience in "Doom" were negligible

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Of course, Harrison Ford is a longtime aviation enthusiast. He finally made time to acquire his Private Pilot License at age 53, in 1996 (well after TOD was shot). He is Instrument, Multi-engine, and Type rated.


A nice little article about Ford and aviation:
http://tvrphoto.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/harrison-ford-aviations-greatest-advocate/

JD2008 said:

A nice little article about Ford and aviation:
http://tvrphoto.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/harrison-ford-aviations-greatest-advocate/

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That's more than a nice little article. If you're interested in Ford's history with aviation, that's a great read.