Casino royale 747

In the new James Bond adventure SPECTRE, two major set pieces revolve around irresponsible but thrilling feats of aerial derring-do. In the first, Bond goes toe-to-toe with two assailants inside (and outside of) a Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo helicopter as it zooms over Mexico City’s Zócalo, or central public square. (One of the guys he’s fighting is the helicopter’s pilot, which seems like a doomed enterprise, but hey, he’s James Bond.)

In reality, the helicopter was flown by Red Bull aerobatic pilot Chuck Aaron, who’s been flying choppers for more than 40 years, but didn’t do his first loop until In the movie, Aaron performs his signature barrel rolls and dives, trying to shake out of the chopper’s open doors. He descended as low as 30 feet above the crowd of extras while the two stuntmen standing on one of the landing skids exchanged blows. Inevitably, Bond gets the better of his two opponents and takes control of the helicopter, flying into SPECTRE’s typically elaborate opening-title sequence.

Later on, in a sequence set in the snowy paradise of Sölden, Austria, Bond commandeers a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander to chase down a convoy of Range Rovers driven by his enemies. Designed in the s, the prop-driven Islander remains in service with the British Army and various U.K. police forces. The sequence, where Bond deliberately crash-lands the airplane, clipping its wings off before plowing the now-skidding-on-snow fuselage through a barn, required eight Islanders in various stages of distress to shoot. Only two of them were fully operational.

A sequence in North Africa involves a McDonnell Douglas MDE. Finally, SPECTRE’s London-set climax involves its mysterious villain’s attempt to elude capture in an Airbus AS Dauphin helicopter. Bond pursues him in a motorboat speeding along the Thames. If you think that places at a disadvantage, you’ve clearly never seen a Bond movie.

The Airplanes of James Bond

AFTER 52 HOURS, 22 bags of popcorn, and a trashcan-size soda, the editors at Air & Space have finished watching all of the Bond flicks, counting more than aircraft and spacecraft (both fictional and non-). Bond and company have flown just about everything from “Bird 1” (Ernst Blofeld’s fictional two-stage rocket used to capture U.S. and Soviet spacecraft) in You Only Live Twice to the Aerospatiale/Eurocopter helicopter operated by psychopath Xenia Onatopp (who uses her thighs to crush her opponents to death) in GoldenEye to the hot-air balloon blown up by the Cigar Girl assassin in The World Is Not Enough to the fictional “Skyfleet S prototype” (the world’s largest passenger aircraft targeted by terrorist banker Le Chiffre) in Casino Royale.

Here’s our list.  If we left something out, let us know in the comments.

Dr. No ()
Boeing
Mercury spacecraft

From Russia With Love ()
Hiller UH helicopters
Boeing

Goldfinger ()
Lockheed L JetStar/C
British United Carvair
Lockheed VCB (the military VIP version of the JetStar)
Piper PA Cherokee (5)
Hiller UHE4 helicopter
Parachute
DC-3
Ejection-seat-equipped Aston Martin DB5

Thunderball ()
Avro Vulcan bombers
Bell 47J helicopter (with pontoons)
Bell Aerosystem rocket belt
Boeing B Flying Fortress
Sikorsky S Seaguard
Skyhook rescue system

You Only Live Twice ()
Aerospatiale Alouette III B helicopter
Kawasaki/Bell 47G-3 (5)
Bird 1 (Blofeld’s fictional two-stage rocket used to capture U.S. and Soviet spacecraft)
Wallis WA “Little Nellie” autogyro
Kawasaki-Vertol KV helicopter
Meyers A
“Jupiter 16” U.S. two-man capsule and launch missile
Two air-to-air missiles
Parachute
Redstone rocket with Gemini capsule (for fictional Soviet spacecraft)
Japanese version of the AC
Convair B Hustler
Boeing B Stratofortress
Republic F Thunderchief
MiGs
Russian Bear bombers (Tupolev Tu)

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service ()
Bell Huey helicopter (3)
Bell JetRanger helicopter

Diamonds Are Forever ()
Bell B JetRanger helicopter
Bell UH-1H Huey helicopter
Hughes OH-6A Cayuses
Blofeld’s diamond satellite weapon (ficitonal)
sided silver pod parachute
ballistic missile
Seaspeed hovercraft
Surface-to-surface missiles

Live And Let Die ()
Boeing
Bell JetRanger helicopter
Cessna
Various civil aircraft parked at the “Bleeker Flying School”
Hang glider

The Man With the Golden Gun ()
AMC Matador X Coupé (fictional)
Fuselage of a Chinese MiG
Republic RC-3 Seabee seaplane

The Spy Who Loved Me ()
Bell JetRanger helicopter
Westland HH-3 Sea King and Wessex HC Mk 2 helicopters
Parachute
Undersea-to-air missile
Polaris missile

Moonraker ()
Bell JetRanger helicopter
Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde
Boeing shuttling space shuttle
Handley Page Jetstream turboprop
Prop-powered hang glider
Rockwell International Space Shuttle (the “Moonraker” space shuttle)
Parachutes
Men in EVA suits
Globes filled with nerve gas heading for Earth
Drax’s “space station” (fictional)

For Your Eyes Only ()
Agusta/Bell AB helicopter
Cessna UG Stationair amphibian seaplane
PZL Swidnik (Mil) Mi-2 helicopter

Octopussy ()
Aerospatiale helicopters SA Alouette III
Aerospatiale helicopters SA C Dauphin
Bede BD-5J “Acrostar” Microjet
Beech Model 18
Hot air balloon
Parachutes
Rapier surface-to-air missile
General Dynamics F
Various aircraft in opening scene, including an F-4

Never Say Never Again ()
XT-7B flying platform (fictional)
Rockwell B-1A Lancer
Lockheed C
Additional cargo aircraft
Cruise missiles
Sea-to-air missiles

A View to a Kill ()
Aerospatiale SA / Gazelle helicopter
Eurocopter (MBB) BO helicopter
SkyShip (Max Zorin’s flying boardroom)
Smaller airship, designated G-BIHN (this airship is hidden inside Zorin’s Main Strike mine)
Parachute

The Living Daylights ()
British Aerospace Harrier
Lockheed C Hercules (M’s mobile headquarters—actually a C Provider)
Transall C
Bell UH-1H Huey helicopter
Parachutes
Two missiles shot from Bond’s car
British Airways Convair
Miscellaneous civil aircraft

Licence to Kill ()
Aerospatiale HHA Dauphin helicopter
Eurocopter B AStar
Cessna seaplane
Cessna Skyhawk
Piper PA Super Cub cropduster
E-2 Hawkeye
Learjet
Various civil aircraft at airfield
Parachutes
Stinger missiles

GoldenEye ()
Aerospatiale/Eurocopter Ecureuil II helicopter
Airbus Tiger helicopter
Bell Huey helicopters
Robinson R22 Beta
Pilatus PC-6/B2-H4 Turbo-Porter
Cessna Skyhawk
MiGs
British Airways Airbus
GoldenEye satellite weapons system (fictional)
Bond!
Air-to-air missiles

Tomorrow Never Dies ()
Aero Vodochody L Albatros
Aerospatiale/Eurocopter AS B A-Star helicopter
Aerospatiale/Eurocopter EC helicopter
Eurocopter AS Panther attack helicopter
Sikorsky CH Super Stallion
Transall C
Parachute
Surface-to-air missile
Air-to-air missile
Chinese MiGs
Various satellites
Stinger missile
Car missiles
McDonnell Douglas F

The World Is Not Enough ()
Eurocopter EC helicopter
Aerospatiale/Eurocopter AS N Dauphin
Eurocopter AS F1 Ecureuil II helicopter
Hot air balloon
Parahawk hybrid ultralight vehicle/snowmobile
CASA C Aviocar
Surface-to-air missiles

Die Another Day ()
Mil Mi-8 helicopter
Antonov An
MD N helicopter
Griffon TD hovercraft
Bell-Textron rocket belt
Bede Microjet
Boeing CH Chinook
“Personal jet gliders, known as switchblades” (based on the PHASST glider)
Icarus satellite (fictional)
Parachutes
Heat-seeking missiles in Bond’s Aston Martin Vanquish V12
ASAT (anti-satellite missile)

Casino Royale ()
Boeing
MD N helicopter
“Skyfleet S prototype” (fictional world’s largest passenger aircraft targeted by terrorist banker Le Chiffre) (Virgin Atlantic Airbus A)
De Havilland Canada Twin Otter Seaplane

Quantum of Solace ()
Douglas DCGA
Canadair Challenger
SIAI-Marchetti SFTP
Bell
Gulfstream V
Piper PA
British Aerospace BAE Series A

Skyfall ()
Eurocopter EC (MBB-BKK C-2)
AgustaWestland AW Wildcat
AgustaWestland AW

Spectre ()
Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Bo helicopter
Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander
McDonnell Douglas MDE
Airbus AS Dauphin 2
Ejection-seat-equipped Aston Martin DB10