Raiders of the lost ark nazi bomber

[Justo Miranda]

From Australian plastic modellers association APMA 4-96

 

[Avimimus]

Funny, I thought it was a transport aircraft.

It would be interesting to see a "corrected" version of this design that better fits with German design philosophy from around the beginning of the war and some real calculations of performance figures (using X-plane?)

 

[Jschmus]

The original Ron Cobb concept art showed a much larger aircraft, sort of like a prop-driven version of the Arado E.555. I'll have to see if I can locate that artwork somewhere.

Edit: Found it! If you scroll halfway down this page, you can see the Cobb sketch. The rest of the page is devoted to the Horten/Gotha flying wing designs.

http://www.greyfalcon.us/The%20Horten%20Ho%20229.htm

 

[fightingirish]

I wonder from which movie this flying wing is from? ???

 

[Jschmus]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that at some point there was a "Raiders of the Lost Ark" live show at one of the theme parks. That could be a prop from such.

 

[Orionblamblam]

"Indana Jones Stunt Spectacular." It's apparently been running daily at Disney Hollywood Studios since '89, so the "flying wing" had to be made to last.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/guides/mgm/st-indiana.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_Epic_Stunt_Spectacular

 

[Just call me Ray]

I always wonder why they went with such a weird design, but hey, that's George Lucas for you!

 

[archipeppe]

I'd really loved this aircraft, since I saw the movie in (far away) 1982.
And I've always wondered about such particular aircraft, when the most logical candidate to play the part was (obviuosly) the Ju 52-3m.

Of course Lucas & Spielberg was struck by some Horten projects of WWII, but for sure nothing similiar was in project in the 1936 depicted by the movie (as also the absurd presence of Afrika Corps in Egypt at that time).

Any suggestion would be really appreciated.

Anyway the Disney prop is very far from the movie ones.
It seems to be less "fictional" and more concrete, heavily based upon Arado aircrafts.
But still less consistent with mid '30s aircrafts.

The mystery still resists....

 

[Barrington Bond]

I think the film was going to originally feature some more s/f elements. I have seen designs for a villain with a mechanical hand with built in machine gun and a jet not unlike the He 162 with 2 jet engines...

Regards,
Barry

 

[Justo Miranda]

From Finescale Modeler September 2003
story and photos by Louis Armour

 

[RIPPER]

I think the film was going to originally feature some more s/f elements. I have seen designs for a villain with a mechanical hand with built in machine gun and a jet not unlike the He 162 with 2 jet engines...

Regards,
Barry

Gday this is my first time posting so hope that I do everything OK. Is this the He 163 lookalike that you were meaning. Its from Sci-Fi & Fantasy Magazine page 30+31 do not know the date.

 

[fightingirish]

Yes, I saw that 'He-155 V3' a few years ago on a Indiana Jones website. A few weeks ago I could not find it.
But I remember reading on that website, that on first movie scripts, the jet fighter should be an escort fighter for the flying wing. A dogfight scene and a inflight battle scene onboard the flying wing between Dr. Jones and the crew were also planned.
The design was later rejected by historians on the movie set for 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' because it looked more like 'Luftwaffe 1946' than 'Luftwaffe 1937'.
Then Spielberg and Lucas were impressed of the movie 'Das Boot', so the used the movie sets (u-boat pen, scaled down UVII-class models etc.) in Germany and France.
Unfortunally this time, I can't give you any source for the info. Just my memory!

IMHO, this jet looks more like if it was from the game 'Return to Castle Wolfenstein'. ;D

 

[Just call me Ray]

Gday this is my first time posting so hope that I do everything OK. Is this the He 163 lookalike that you were meaning. Its from Sci-Fi & Fantasy Magazine page 30+31 do not know the date.

Yup, very George Lucas-y indeed!


Looks like they raided the Rebel's supply cache when they weren't looking

 

[Barrington Bond]

Hmmm, I seem to remember they didn't build the big wing because it would cost too much! I think also they got to use the sub before Das Boot and it sunk...

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

Hasbro has just put out a new replica of The Wing. Check it out:
http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/ProductsByAge.htm?ID=22006&CD=12

Funny how they left out the swatikas.

 

[Jemiba]

"Funny how they left out the swatikas."

Below is a cut-out from a Me 323 drawing from the latest Flugzeug Classic issue,
you see, there's something missing ....
But it's a german magazine and the german administration of law cannot decide
between the use of this symbol in a historical sense, or the abuse by Neo-Nazis.
Even using the shown pictogram (from: http://www.mediengestalter.info/forum/54/suche-piktogramm-hakenkreuz-in-muelleimer-werfen-89820-1.html
was legally forbidden for a while, although the
meaning of it should be clear to even the most dumb people.
Well, some german officials are thinking in a different way, than ordinary people :-\

 

[Justo Miranda]

Hi,

This is the Eric Heuvel version in the "January Jones" comic

 

[Just call me Ray]

Hey look everybody! It had a growth spurt and now has VSTOL!

 

[Abraham Gubler]

The same plane also appears in Family Guy, watch here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LozR_MFodHk

 

[Just call me Ray]

The same plane also appears in Family Guy

Well yeah, it was obviously meant to parody the RotLA scene

 

[Abraham Gubler]

But of course and what great parody, made my day to see it appear...

I always thought watching RoTLA that the German 'Cairo Bomber' was based on Northrop's N-1M with the dropped wing tips?

 

[thehortenlead]

I remember this thing. Never would fly.... Hollywood fools some of the people some of the time. The Horten 229, now thats the real deal....

Tim

 

[AeroFranz]

I remember this thing. Never would fly.... Hollywood fools some of the people some of the time. The Horten 229, now thats the real deal....

Tim

Define "never would fly". Any flying wing with far forward enough cg, and enough sweep will fly. Just not very well.

 

[Avimimus]

I seem to remember a page of quotes in the "flying pumpkinseed" book. One of them was "You can make anything fly, you could make the brooklyn bridge fly if you put enough engines on it".

 

[zerstorer1946]

this aircraft is what got me into the whole ww2 german xplanes lark, ever since i was a kid seing this awesome plane, i was hooked on german xplanes and weird prototypes! im gonna build a model of this beast one day! just looks so cool!

 

[Abraham Gubler]

This aircraft can't stay out of the entertainment limelight. Now in Lego:

http://indianajones.lego.com/en-us/Products/IndianaJones/7683.aspx

 

[zerstorer1946]

ha ha the lego one is awesome! hes even fighting the big skinhead nazi, just before the prop chops him up! brill!

 

[saturncanuck]

I saw a book a while back refer to it as the Kobb Ko 83 Fliegenflügel. Now the cool thing about this is that Ron Cobb designed it, so they have "Germanized" his name. Also, the RLM designator of 8-83 was not assigned, but would have been around 1933 when the aircraft would have been under development to be flying in 1936. Fliegenflügel means "Flying Wing".

Neat, huh?

 

[Lauge]

I saw a book a while back refer to it as the Kobb Ko 83 Fliegenflügel. Now the cool thing about this is that Ron Cobb designed it, so they have "Germanized" his name. Also, the RLM designator of 8-83 was not assigned, but would have been around 1933 when the aircraft would have been under development to be flying in 1936. Fliegenflügel means "Flying Wing".

Neat, huh?

Yes, but last I checked, the German term for "flying wing" was "Nurflügel-flugzeug" ("Wing-only aircraft"). Any native German-speakers out there are of course wellcome to correct me

Regards & all,

Thomas L. Nielsen
Denmark

 

[zerstorer1946]

Id like to see a proper model kit of it.

 

[Triton]

Five-engined Nazi "Flying Wing" production design artwork by Ron Cobb.

Fistfight under Nazi Flying Wing pre-production painting by Jim Steranko.

Color image of a Nazi jet designed by Ron Cobb (now higher resolution)

 

[Stargazer]

Jim Steranko has always been a great illustrator for action. He did a fantastic job on the Nick Fury, Agent of Shield comic-book in the late 1960s for Marvel, illustrated a Raymond Chandler thriller novel, and even wrote a 2-volume encyclopaedia of American comics! I wonder what he is up to now.

 

[saturncanuck]

Yes, I saw that 'He-155 V3' a few years ago on a Indiana Jones website. A few weeks ago I could not find it.
But I remember reading on that website, that on first movie scripts, the jet fighter should be an escort fighter for the flying wing. A dogfight scene and a inflight battle scene onboard the flying wing between Dr. Jones and the crew were also planned.

Nice design. Trouble is RLM designation 8-155 was assigned to the Bv 155 (formerly Me 155).

 

[agricola64]

I saw a book a while back refer to it as the Kobb Ko 83 Fliegenflügel. Now the cool thing about this is that Ron Cobb designed it, so they have "Germanized" his name. Also, the RLM designator of 8-83 was not assigned, but would have been around 1933 when the aircraft would have been under development to be flying in 1936. Fliegenflügel means "Flying Wing".

Neat, huh?

actually - "Fliegenflügel" has the literal meaning of "(a singlular) wing of a fly"

Markus (native speaker)

 

[Triton]

SS Obersturmbannführer Arnold Ernst Toht concept art by Ron Cobb.

Fistfight under Nazi Flying Wing pre-production painting by Joe Johnston.

 

[Just call me Ray]

Hehe, ahh, that George Lucas

 

[fightingirish]

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1670875990178820098

View: https://twitter.com/exoticaviation/status/1670875990178820098?s=20

Website:

Ron Cobb - "RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK"

Ron Cobb, Cartoonist, Film Designer, 300 cartoons, 40 films, Artwork and Design!

roncobb.net

I especially like the "Über-Stuka"!

 

[bagera3005]

dont post it on Facebook they will give you 30 day ban

 

[bagera3005]

Horten He-155​

 

[Stargazer]

The flying wing bomber as conceived by Cobb and as it appears in the movie.
I'm also adding a completely different (and much less realistic for the era) VTOL design.