Rambo helicopters

[Simon Beck]

I've done a search but no luck, has anyone ever come across
anything on the helicopters used for Rambo II and III?

Quite surprising, I would have thought there would be
quite a number of sites / material on the Super Puma
conversion to Mi-24 Hind standard?

[Old SAR pilot]

Weeellll, there's this one (which also has helos in other movies):
http://www.rotaryaction.com/pages/rambo3.html

But you've probably seen that site. Not much else.....

[quicksilvermustang]

We built BOTH rambo III helicopters. The first was a modified puma, not a hind like its supposed to resemble. And the second was a modified gazelle. The gazelle didnt get as much screen time as the puma but both helicopters were designed, modified, and test flown in 4 months. Both helicopters also were fitting with XYZ or triple axis camera mounts which we also built by designing on a napkin in the airport restaurant in Palomar Airport (So was the helicopter we made for the movie Blue Thunder). Once they both were built, we went with the production company to Isreal where most of the movie was filmed and performed on site maintenance on the helos

[Roger Cain]

How about the "Russian" helos in the movie "Red Dawn"? Same type?

[John Dupre]

How about the "Russian" helos in the movie "Red Dawn"? Same type?

I remember the Red Dawn (Go Wolverines!!!) helicopters being Bell 222s or was that another movie?

[Rob Mears]

I remember back in 1985 or so when the 'Blue Thunder' helicopter was for sale at the EAA air show in Oshkosh for what I though was an ungodly LOW price at the time (maybe $55K?). I always wondered what became of it. Someone rumored that it was bought and rebuilt back to it's stock civvy configuration.

[CAPFlyer]

Red Dawn used Pumas to emulate the Mi-24A "Glasshouse" Hind, just as was done for Rambo. They were also the first time I can remember where they showed the real capability of the Mi-24 to deliver troops to the field in addition to being an attack helicopter, even if it wasn't really a Hind that they were jumping out of.

[P51Mstg]

There is a Blue Thunder on the backlot at Universal or MGM in Orlando. Looks pretty ratty. I sort of doubt it was the flyer that would have been at OSH...... I'd say this one was more for the ground shots.

Of course, back in 1985 a Gazelle wasn't worth a lot (they are not worth much now either), but I'd say a low price reflected the effort that had to have been made to turn it back into something that you could fly regularly. It would have been pretty expensive to keep it as "movie collectable".........

Mark H

[Fouga23]

I heard Blue thunder flew like crap, unlike airwolf who actually flew better with the additions. Blue thunder was converted back to a normal gazelle I think. The one on the universal backlot was a mockup for ground shots. It's just a cockpit section.
The Red Dawn Hind looked really good! They also built Russian tanks who looked so convincing they got a visit from the CIA of FBI asking how they got real Russian tanks

[quicksilvermustang]

Well, as I said before, even though the puma looks like a conversion it was the brain child of Bill Yoak and the rest of us here at Aerospace Specialties (formally The Metal Cage). There might be a "conversion" for a puma to look like a hind, but this one was on the fly, I know becuase the "blueprints" are framed and hanging in our office. As for Blue Thunder helicopter no, It fly amazing according to ross reynolds who did the test flight on it. It flew so well Bell Helicopters came to us and asked what we didto make a Gazelle so fast. Ross reported that at normal cruise it was almost 25 knots faster and a whole hell of a lot lighter on the controls

[cozmo]

I sure would like to hear more on that Blue Thunder conversion.

[famvburg]

Back in the late '80s when the US Army was pursuing an aggressor helo program, there version of Top Gun & Red Flag, one proposal they had was to modify Super Pumas to the Hind-D or other double-bubble Hinds. The drawing I saw of it looked as good or better than the "Red Dawn" Hind-As. What you're saying about Blue Thunder is interesting, as the only thing I read before in a magazine article was that it could only carry about 25 gallons of fuel due to the extra weight from its mods & it really didn't fly all that well. The comment that Murphy makes about it being "nose heavier than the ayatollah" supposedly reflected a true fact that the mods did make it nose heavy. ISTR the article mentioned they couldn't get more than 100 or knots out of it due to the mods. I did read something about the Puma / Hinds, tho, that the winglets & new nose made the Pumas handle much better.

Well, as I said before, even though the puma looks like a conversion it was the brain child of Bill Yoak and the rest of us here at Aerospace Specialties (formally The Metal Cage). There might be a "conversion" for a puma to look like a hind, but this one was on the fly, I know becuase the "blueprints" are framed and hanging in our office. As for Blue Thunder helicopter no, It fly amazing according to ross reynolds who did the test flight on it. It flew so well Bell Helicopters came to us and asked what we didto make a Gazelle so fast. Ross reported that at normal cruise it was almost 25 knots faster and a whole heck of a lot lighter on the controls

[famvburg]

The movie "Firefox" used RC model Bell 222s converted to Hinds for use on the Riga, where the first is taken out by a missle & the next one by the 'rearward defense pod'.

How about the "Russian" helos in the movie "Red Dawn"? Same type?

I remember the Red Dawn (Go Wolverines!!!) helicopters being Bell 222s or was that another movie?

[quicksilvermustang]

What your thinking of was the fact that we took out the old fuel tank and replaced it with a entirely new one. It was nose heavy but early reports were that it was "too slick" and couldn't slow down fast enough

[famvburg]

I can't believe that with all that crap hanging off the sides, like the electronics pods & whatever the pods by the engine were supposed to be, & the belly pod & all that under the nose it was even as fast a Gazelle, much less faster. Or was that with the 'turbo-boost' activated?

What your thinking of was the fact that we took out the old fuel tank and replaced it with a entirely new one. It was nose heavy but early reports were that it was "too slick" and couldn't slow down fast enough