The Aviator

[lampard10]

I watched the film 'The Aviator' last night, and I'm sure I detected a major boob. Can any of you aviation buffs back me up? When Lockheed presented a mock up of the Constellation to Mr Hughes, it sported the familiar three fin tail section. I was under the impression that the original design had only one fin and this was modified when they found they could not get the prototype into T.W.A.'s hangar. Rather than re-build the hangar, they re-designed the tail of the Connie. I may be a little fickle, but to me that represents a major breakthrough in aircraft design which should not have been missed. Or maybe I've just got the story wrong.

[Abandon]

Geek !

[Rags]

Mmmmmm......never had you pegged for an anorak Lampard.....

[chownah]

I watched the film 'The Aviator' last night, and I'm sure I detected a major boob. Can any of you aviation buffs back me up? When Lockheed presented a mock up of the Constellation to Mr Hughes, it sported the familiar three fin tail section. I was under the impression that the original design had only one fin and this was modified when they found they could not get the prototype into T.W.A.'s hangar. Rather than re-build the hangar, they re-designed the tail of the Connie. I may be a little fickle, but to me that represents a major breakthrough in aircraft design which should not have been missed. Or maybe I've just got the story wrong.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you mean it is a major breakthrough in aircraft design that an airplane should be designed around the building it will be stored in?

[Tornado]

Im keeping the answer to myself.....

[udon]

Aviador may be able to help you.

Wake him up.

[Boon Mee]

Im keeping the answer to myself.....

[Rags]

Im keeping the answer to myself.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

....42....?

[lampard10]

Oh dear...........I do seem to have been slated...........I must have caught the p1ssartists before they turned in for the night.

[JimGant]

From Google:

For better control, a large tail surface was required, but the height of a single, large tail would not fit most airport hangars of the day. A triple-fin design solved the problem.

[Thetyim]

I do not think anyone will argue with why it had a triple fin but I cannot find any reference to building a single fin model.

Maybe the problem was sorted at an early stage.

[Sir Burr]

lampard10,

Bit of an aviation buff myself, but, don't know the answer to your question.

I think the super constellation was the most beautiful airliner to ever grace the skies.

[lampard10]

Mmmmmm......never had you pegged for an anorak Lampard.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not so much that, it's just where aviation is concerned I do like them to get it right. For example in a film where they take off in a 707, seen flying along in a DC10 and then landing in a 737, that really riles me. The audience are being duped. I think the worst example I have seen was going up in a 747 and coming down in a lear jet.

[Abandon]

you should report it.

http://www.moviemistakes.com/

[Rags]

Mmmmmm......never had you pegged for an anorak Lampard.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not so much that, it's just where aviation is concerned I do like them to get it right. For example in a film where they take off in a 707, seen flying along in a DC10 and then landing in a 737, that really riles me. The audience are being duped. I think the worst example I have seen was going up in a 747 and coming down in a lear jet.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Understood.

To be honest I would hope that even I (a complete aviation dullard) would have spotted a 747's transformation into a lear jet - sounds like the continuity role is getting dumbed-down a little in tinsle town...!!!

[lampard10]

Mmmmmm......never had you pegged for an anorak Lampard.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not so much that, it's just where aviation is concerned I do like them to get it right. For example in a film where they take off in a 707, seen flying along in a DC10 and then landing in a 737, that really riles me. The audience are being duped. I think the worst example I have seen was going up in a 747 and coming down in a lear jet.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Understood.

To be honest I would hope that even I (a complete aviation dullard) would have spotted a 747's transformation into a lear jet - sounds like the continuity role is getting dumbed-down a little in tinsle town...!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, it was almost beyond belief. I also remember that old war film, the bridges of somewhere, where you could clearly see the strings holding the model aircraft up.

[Sir Burr]

The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1955) starring William Holden. Korean war flick.

[stumonster]

lampshade - I think you are a sucker for actually watching the movie - it is typical of the sort of &lt;deleted&gt; that hollywood passes off as historical fact ( based on a true story , GTFOOH ) and then proceeds to win awards for it.

som nam na

[Thomas_Merton]

...

- sounds like the continuity role is getting dumbed-down a little in tinsle town...!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What makes you think that?

[lampard10]

lampshade - I think you are a sucker for actually watching the movie - it is typical of the sort of &lt;deleted&gt; that hollywood passes off as historical fact ( based on a true story , GTFOOH ) and then proceeds to win awards for it.

som nam na

     

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I fully agree................................I should have said to my mum and dad at the time ' I say old chums,but this film beggars beyond belief,the bounders are held up with jolly old string' but little boys don't usually use that type of language. It must have been around that time that I decided I was going to have a career in Aircraft and that scene has stuck in my mind since. And you're right. I was a sucker. My thumb.

Edited May 31, 2005 by lampard10

[Thomas_Merton]

Just been looking at http://www.moviemistakes.com/

Apparently there are 23 registered errors in Aviator:

Continuity: When Hughes is with his staff and they're watching the Jane Russell movie (while Hughes is trying to talk to them about his ideas for the plane), the same part of this movie is played twice during this scene.

Visible crew/equipment: When Hughes is flying the new and faster airplane, you can see the filming crew reflected in the side of the plane. You can see it at full speed but you can see it better if you slow playback down a bit.

Factual error: While in the air shooting scenes for ######'s Angels, a camera mounted on a wing breaks and film flies out. The film is brown in color, the hue of undeveloped color film, and ######'s Angels was obviously filmed in black and white. The film should've been grey or blue as this is the color of undeveloped black and white film.

Continuity: After Ava Gardner shaves Howard, she instructs him to wash off his face. He looks at the sink and all of the water drains out. Then there is a shot over the sink as he is about to rinse off his face with a lot of water in the sink. It should still be empty.

Continuity: After talking about the plane orders and plans with Juan Trippe, Howard goes to the bathroom to wash his hands. Notice the dish he takes the soap out of. From the shot to shot above the sink, the soap dish on the right hand side of the sink constantly changes position and the interior of the soap dish is sometimes brown and sometimes aluminum.

Mistake Continuity: Near the beginning of the film where Howard Hughes flight tests the silver monoplane (the H-1), the close up shots show an open cockpit while the longer shots show a closed cockpit.

Mistake Continuity: In the dining scene where Howard Hughes' girlfriend has a sundae sitting in front of her, the cherry which is on top of the sundae changes positions in several different shots. First, the stem is turned towards the left, a few shots later, it is turned towards the right, then left again. It also shows up in the bottom of the dish, then in the next shot, it is back on top of the sundae.

Mistake Audio problem: Towards the end of the scene where L.B. Mayer is dismissing Howard's request for some cameras, the audio does not match at all with the way his lips are moving.

Mistake Revealing: Early in the film, when Hughes and another guy are walking past one of the replica WW1 aircraft used for the "######'s Angel" scenes, you can see the ends of the cylinders of the modern air cooled engines they used to power it. The original aircraft (SE-5A) used a water cooled V8 which wouldn't have been visible.

Mistake Continuity: In the final scene of the movie, as Hughes walks forward with Gardner, they stop walking in the head on shot. When the shot changes to a side profile, they are still walking forward.

Continuity: When Howard Hughes is having a shave with Katharine Hepburn, he has shaving foam left on his chin from the shave. In the next shot when Hughes goes to wash his face, all the foam has disappeared.

Mistake Continuity: In the scene when Howard Hughes and his young girlfriend Faith Domergue are in the Coconut Grove meeting with Juan Trippe, Faith is seen with a sundae in front of her. In one shot, she's eating the sundae, and in the very next shot her hands are suddenly in her lap.

Mistake Continuity: While having dinner at Kate's house, Howard Hughes yells out a comment about money, and after that the roses on the table have totally changed position from before.

Mistake Factual error: When Hughes flies the open cockpit H-1 at over 350mph he isn't wearing goggles. There isn't a sign of any wind at all in the cockpit. Even with a windscreen, the wind would cause your eyes to water well before 350mph.

Mistake Continuity: Immediately after the screening of "######'s Angels", Noah Dietrich (seated right behind Hughes) begins applauding, and others join in. In the next shot of Dietrich, he begins applauding again.

Mistake Revealing: During the filming of '######'s Angels' Howard gets the idea to build a single wing mono plane. He and another take an axe and smash the support holding up the upper wing. If you notice the upper wing is already broken, hinged and a very poor covering has been laid over the joint. It is very obvious and noticeable in a few shots leading up to this.

Mistake Factual error: When Howard Hughes is starting the Spruce Goose his engineer says "A-OK." It is well documented that this expression was first used during the Mercury space program, over a decade later.

Mistake Continuity: When Howard and Katherine Hepburn are eating dinner, Errol Flynn comes by to talk. The waiter delivers Howard's dinner, a steak, twelve peas and a jar of milk with the cap on. Errol reaches over a takes one of the peas off of Howard's plate. In slow motion we can see that Errol indeed removes a pea from his plate. Howard then looks at his plate. When paused we can count that there still twelve peas on the plate. There should only be eleven peas. Howard then pushes his plate away from him. A few shots later the peas have moved position and then there are only ten peas on the plate.

Mistake Factual error: The actual flight of the Spruce Goose was only up in the air and then down - it did not soar across Long Beach. It was simply to prove the thing could become airborne.

Mistake Continuity: At the end of the scene in the Coconut Grove, with Howard Hughes and his young girlfriend, Faith, eating a sundae, Howard's arm switches between shots from being over Faith's shoulder, to in front of him. He is seen in one shot removing his arm from her shoulder and wiping his hand because he shook Juan Trippe's hand. In the next shot his arm is over Faith's shoulder again, and in the shot after that, he is wiping his hand again.

Factual error: In the 1940ish Connecticut scenes of the Hepburn family, one member was taking movies with a Bolex reflex movie camera not manufactured until the late 1950s.

Mistake Factual error: Some of the glasses in the film are too thin and modern to belong to the time period, such as the ones that Robert Gross wears. As well, his lenses, as well as those of Senator Brewster, reflect light with the distinctive iridescent green/purple of non-reflective coating, which was not available back then.

Mistake Revealing: When Leonardo DiCaprio is wiping blood off his hands in the bathroom scene, you can tell the blood doesn't really come from cuts. It's just fake blood they put on his hands for that scene.

Edited May 31, 2005 by Thomas_Merton

[Boon Mee]

Every DiCaprio movie I ever saw sucked so this one can't be any different.

[bkkmadness]

"The Basketball Diaries" was a good film.

[lampard10]

"The Basketball Diaries" was a good film.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've got that on VHS.................................might give it a try,I've never seen it yet.

[BaanOz]

I watched the film 'The Aviator' last night, and I'm sure I detected a major boob. Can any of you aviation buffs back me up? When Lockheed presented a mock up of the Constellation to Mr Hughes, it sported the familiar three fin tail section. I was under the impression that the original design had only one fin and this was modified when they found they could not get the prototype into T.W.A.'s hangar. Rather than re-build the hangar, they re-designed the tail of the Connie. I may be a little fickle, but to me that represents a major breakthrough in aircraft design which should not have been missed. Or maybe I've just got the story wrong.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maaaate, the Connie is one of the sexiest aircraft built!!

Designed specifically for Transcontinental and Western Airlines (TWA) in 1939, the Lockheed Model 49 "Constellation" (formerly "Excalibur A") was first flown in 1943 and almost immediately commandeered by the US Army Air Force for use as a VIP transport. When first flown as the USAAF C-69, the four engine, 40 ton Connie was faster than the Japanese "Zero" fighter!

Connie Info...

Cheers BaanOz

[Sir Burr]

Never liked DiCaprio since he became a leading man, but as supporting actor with Johnny Depp in "What's eating Gilbert Grape", he was mind-blowing.

[Boon Mee]

The SR-71 Blackbird is the sexiest and fastest aircraft ever built but it's not economical to ride on a family vacation.

[BaanOz]

The SR-71 Blackbird is the sexiest and fastest aircraft ever built but it's not economical to ride on a family vacation.

Boon Mee,

Yeah yeah OK ...not bad! ...but it still doesn't have the sexy curves of the beautiful Connie!

Cheers BaanOz

[maerim]

Not so much that, it's just where aviation is concerned I do like them to get it right. For example in a film where they take off in a 707, seen flying along in a DC10 and then landing in a 737, that really riles me. The audience are being duped. I think the worst example I have seen was going up in a 747 and coming down in a lear jet.

Oh I don't know though, you never heard of people changing planes?

[lampard10]

The SR-71 Blackbird is the sexiest and fastest aircraft ever built but it's not economical to ride on a family vacation.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Especially not after what happened on it's maiden flight to Farnborough. It missed England completely and was over France by the time it slowed down. Originally called the YS11 A12 Lockheed Interceptor, Revell managed to make a scale model for sale while it was still on the Top Secret list.

Keep them coming, it seems I've started two decent topics for the price of one here.

Edited May 31, 2005 by lampard10