page_title: Blue Thunder (helicopter)
section_title: Blue Thunder helicopter
hierarchical_section_title: Blue Thunder (helicopter) / Blue Thunder helicopter
caption_attribution_description: English: Blue Thunder, MGM Studios Back-lot tour. (Right 3/4 view)
context_page_description: Blue Thunder is the helicopter in the 1980s American titular film and television series. The aircraft itself was a modified Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopter.
  To film Blue Thunder, the producers employed two examples of the French-made Aérospatiale SA-341G Gazelle light utility helicopter, serial numbers 1066 and 1075, both built in 1973. After the film and TV series was made, both helicopters were sold to Michael E. Grube, an aviation salvage collector in Clovis, New Mexico. Sometime after, around 1985, one of the helicopters had a small role in the pilot episode of MacGyver, which featured the helicopter in a different paint job, the microphones were removed, the video surveillance package removed leaving empty mounting pylons in place, and the number on the side being changed from "02" to "51".
  Grube then leased s/n 1066 to a film company that was shooting Amerika, an ABC television mini-series about Soviet occupation of the United States; the helicopters were painted black with red tail stripe and numbering, missile launchers were installed on the pylons, and the surveillance microphones were removed on both. After Grube got 1066 back, it was dismantled and sold for parts.
context_section_description: For the movie SA-341G Gazelles were modified with bolt-on parts and a canopy patterned after the AH-64 Apache. Two helicopters were used in the filming of the movie, one for the actual stunts (a "stunt mule"), one as a backup in case the other was grounded for maintenance. Stunts were flown by Jim Gavin.
  The helicopters were purchased by Columbia Pictures and flown to Cinema Air in Carlsbad, California, where they were heavily modified for the film. These alterations made the helicopters so heavy that various tricks had to be employed to make it look fast and agile in the film. For instance, the 360° loop maneuver at the end of the film was carried out by a 1/6-scale radio controlled model. (This aircraft was built and flown by modeller and RC helicopter manufacturer John Simone Jr.)
caption: Right close-up
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