The flying boat used in The Expendables is a Grumman HU - 16 Albatross , currently used for firefighting missions .
The flying boat used for filming is a Grumman HU-16 Albatross and the ship used as a setting in the opening scene was a Russian SA-15 class Arctic cargo ship Igarka .
The Expendables -LRB-2010 film-RRB-