page_title: The Aviator (2004 film)
section_title: Aircraft depicted and used
hierarchical_section_title: The Aviator (2004 film) / Aircraft depicted and used
caption_attribution_description: English: Linmhall, own photo.
context_page_description: The Aviator is a 2004 American epic biographical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by John Logan. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner. The supporting cast features Ian Holm, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law as Errol Flynn, Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow, Kelli Garner as Faith Domergue, Matt Ross, Willem Dafoe, Alan Alda, and Edward Herrmann.
  Based on the 1993 non-fiction book Howard Hughes: The Secret Life by Charles Higham, the film depicts the life of Howard Hughes, an aviation pioneer and director of the film Hell's Angels. The film portrays his life from 1927–1947 during which time Hughes became a successful film producer and an aviation magnate while simultaneously growing more unstable due to severe obsessive–compulsive disorder.
  The Aviator was released in the United States on December 25, 2004, and grossed $214 million on a budget of $110 million.
context_section_description: Numerous aircraft were depicted and/or actually used in the film, and were organic to the story. These included aircraft that Hughes had built, airliners that his airline (TWA) used, and other aircraft. Among these were:
   Hughes H-1 Racer, a pioneering single-engine race plane that set early speed records, including the 1935 international speed record of 352 mph, and the 1937 U.S. transcontinental record of seven hours, 28 minutes. It featured many relatively new innovations in aircraft design, and was the "state of the art" aircraft of its time, briefly. The original is in the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum. A replica planned for the movie crashed, and a model was used instead.
  Hughes XF-11, an interceptor / spy plane—a twin-engine, twin-tail-boom, fast, high-flying aircraft designed during World War II to fly faster and higher than enemy fighters. Its development was originally commissioned by the U.S. government during World War II, in a contract with Hughes' aircraft company. The war ended while the aircraft was still in development. Hughes crashed it on its first test flight (as depicted in the movie), killing a person on the ground and critically injuring himself. A second prototype flew well, though the military chose other aircraft for its purpose. As the movie shows, Hughes was subsequently accused of duping the military, and failing to deliver—leading to a Congressional investigation of Hughes. Models replicated the plane for the movie.
  Hughes HK-1 / H-4 Hercules (nicknamed the Spruce Goose for its all-wood construction), a giant flying boat transport—one of the largest and most famous aircraft ever built. Its development was originally commissioned by the U.S. government during World War II, in a contract with Hughes' aircraft company. As with the XF-11, the war ended while the aircraft was still in development, and the contract was canceled. As depicted in the movie, Hughes was subsequently accused of duping the military, and failing to deliver—and the Hercules was one of the topics in the resulting Congressional investigation. Hughes responded that he would prove the Hercules could fly—and subsequently did so in a short hop in Long Beach Harbor (though historians note that the aircraft never escaped the "ground effect" cushion of air, near the surface, to fly completely free and at altitude). The airplane never flew again, and became a floating museum display, dockside in the harbor—eventually moved to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in Oregon. The real aircraft was used sparingly in the movie, but only models of it actually move in the film.
  Sikorsky S-38 amphibian—a "flying yacht" for the wealthy. This medium-sized, twin-engined flying boat, with retractable wheels, was among Hughes' personal aircraft. Though several were built for wealthy fliers in the 1930s (including Hughes), none survive, today—except for two replicas that were built in recent years at a cost of well over $1,000,000 apiece (these were used in the film).
  Lockheed Constellation airliner, one of the first pressurized-cabin, ocean-spanning airliners, largely developed for Hughes' airline, TWA. Conspicuous for its triple-tail, and shapely curving fuselage, and powered by four of the largest piston engines ever built, it became the most advanced airliner in the world at its inception—capable of transcontinental flights in half the normal time (as little as seven hours). It was used by the military in World War II, and became one of the world's principal airliners of the 1950s, instrumental in making TWA the world's largest airline. The film used a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation in TWA markings, C/N 4830 Star of America, a Constellation restored to airworthiness, and stored at the National Airline History Museum in Kansas City, Missouri (TWA's former home base).
caption: replica Sikorsky S-38
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