Talk:Airwolf (helicopter)

Clearing up the Weapons List

I am taking this opportunity to clear up not only the weapons list on the article itself, but also a lot of confusion and mi-information. I have read and taken into account the discussions above.

Firstly, the Guns. They are 30mm Chain Guns and 40mm Cannons, respectively. ORIGINALLY, they were .50 cal machine guns and 30mm cannons, this is true. HOWEVER, when the prop guns were deemed to be too small and were enlarged, the ammunition sizes were changed as well, to account for the larger guns. Marella's verbal reference to the 30mm cannons in the 'Pilot' and the original ammo sizes present in the 'File A56-7W' briefings at the beginning of some Season 1 episodes are errors; they were left over from the original script and specifications of the helicopter. The corrected '30mm guns, 40mm cannons' specifications are listed in the 'Flight Manual' which was produced by Andrew Probert and Carol Gillson for Season 2, and are therefore the official sizes.

Season 1:

The missile quantities given in the 'File A56-7W' briefings are unreliable, at best. Again, they are based on the Pilot script and specifications (it is assumed by the Airwolf fan community that the quantities given are what Airwolf was stocked with when it began its demo flight in the 'Pilot'), and are not standard; missile quantities would vary depending on mission requirements. The missile types mentioned in 'A56-7W' do not represent all of Airwolf's weapons, either.

The 'Offensive Weapon Deployment' panel (which was replaced when the instruments were redesigned for season 2) lists the following weapons:

Sidewinder, Hellfire, Shrike, Agile, Bullpup, Sunburst, Paveway Bombs, Air to Air, Air to Surface

The last two are not assigned and are probably mission-variable. Sunburst is grouped with the offensive weapons because originally it was a type of missile, NOT the name of the IR missile decoys (the 'Offensive Wing Deployment' panel which controls the gun pods has a seperate button marked 'Infared Decoys'). The use of the term 'Sunburst' for the decoys was coined during production of the 'pilot'. The other problem here is that the panel is ambiguous and does not give any clue as to which weapons are launched from the ADF Pod and which are launched by other means. There is no reference on the panels to either the ADF Pod or to any other auxiliary bays.

Other notes: The ADF Pod's deployment method (slide open belly door, pod drops into place) is not as originally intended. The original blueprints show that it was supposed to drop out from under the tail and slide along a set of rails to the belly. This is partially evident on the real flying Airwolf. But it was too difficult/costly to do in miniature.

Season 2:

The 'Flight Manual' gives a standard load of:

HELLFIRE -- 6 Short-raged air-to-surface, REDEYE -- 12 Short-ranged air-to-air, COPPERHEAD -- 6 long-ranged air-to-surface

Note, that only these three are named on the ADF Pod panel; presumably an effort to trim down Airwolf's arsenal to make it more believeable, although verbal references to the '14 offensive weapons' continued thanks to the script writers (a holdover from the first season). It is assumed that the three listed missile types can be replaced with other types if needed.

The ADF Pod was only capapble of 180 degree rotation from Season 2 onwards (the Flight Manual is very specific: The ADF Pod is now capable of 180 degree rotation port/starboard); it was not considered in Season 1 due to the original ADF Pod deployment method mentioned above.

Airwolf also has two auxiliary missile bays, either side of the ADF Pod, which carry a standard load of FOUR Falcon missiles (again, these can be replaced by other types). The bays were never seen in the show (impossible to build onto the flying Airwolf, difficult/costly in miniature) but are described in the 'Flight Manual' and are considered canon. (In 'Firestorm', the Falcon missile was launched from the ADF Pod.)

Airwolf has 'Chaff' decoys from Season 2 onwards (in season 1, radar guided missiles were thrown off by manually varying the frequencies emitted by the Radar Jammer)

I am a long-time fan of the show (13 years and counting!) and this information is based upon 'canon' sources and hard research and is considered accurate by the Airwolf fan community.The Legendary Shadow! (talk) 03:49, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

-I have made the relevant changes; removed unreliable missile quantities from season 1 weapons, added in missing weapons and chaff decoys, and missile quantities from season 2. Still need to add refs to the 'Airwolf Flight Manual' for the 30/40mm gun sizes, and the season 3 weapons. I'll do that when I've had some sleep!The Legendary Shadow! (talk) 05:25, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

This Flight Manual appears to have been an official book for the show. I had not heard of it and found some links on it. [1] [2] -Fnlayson (talk) 13:08, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

-The Flight Manual was an official publication made for use by the show's writers. Originally (for season 1), the writers had a 'series bible,' but Andrew Probert had also drawn up a book showing all of the instrument panels and what they do, this was primarily intended for Ernest Borgnine so that he would be able to press 'the right buttons' (neatly undone by shoddy editing!). The leftover copies were quickly snapped up by the writers. SO the Flight Manual was written and produced in a large quantity. It contains large diagrams of all the rear cabin instrument panels (copied from Probert's blueprints) and carries explanations of what they do, as well as all of the Airwolf technical data. There are no diagrams for the season 1 panels avaiilable anywhere (yet), all that exists is the original studio blueprints (and a pile of reference photos).The Legendary Shadow! (talk) 14:29, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

What evidence do we have that the Flight Manual is in any way official? I'm not saying it is not interesting or cool, but I've always assumed it was an unofficial fan production (like so many of the Star Trek manuals). —MJBurrage^(T•C) 05:10, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Blue thunder

Anyone thought about making one of these articles for Blue Thunder (helicopter) ? 70.29.210.242 (talk) 15:14, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Ever think about asking that at the TV or Aviation projects (linked above)? TREKphiler ^{any time you're ready, Uhura} 15:39, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Actually, another editor and I have been working on one, but really haven't haid the time to get it ready for mainspace yet. - BilCat (talk) 16:30, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

What has TV got to do with it? It's from a film. 70.29.210.242 (talk) 04:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

The sandbox article is at User:Fnlayson/Blue Thunder (helicopter), and the article's probable mainspace title is Blue Thunder (helicopter). Also, the helicopter was in the TV series too. - BilCat (talk) 04:23, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

It's from both the Blue Thunder movie and brief TV series. Trek, if you will work on it, you can move or copy to your user space. I mainly have it because it looked like Bill was leaving a couple years ago. -Fnlayson (talk) 04:57, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Unit price

According to article, it is equal to ~$1 billion. Is it true? If yes, then what are the sources of this information?

Airwolf II/Redwolf: Airwolf's "evil twin"

Airwolf II is an inanimate object of which its actions are entirely at the whim of it's pilot, so therefore cannot be "evil". Spartan198 (talk) 06:33, 20 January 2013 (UTC)

Fate of the major helicopters

In case anyone more experienced with aircraft registration databases wants to verify and add this, Redwolf was later purchased by the University of Southern Alabama and crashed in 1987: http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=42644

Last time I checked, the Jet Ranger still served as a news helicopter http://www.helis.com/database/cn/36479/ and HX-1 had ended up in Brazil http://www.helis.com/database/cn/21327/

Airwolf itself was lost in the line of duty when the ambulance helicopter she had been converted into crashed in Germany, but that's already referenced in the article. http://www.helis.com/database/cn/28336/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.195.197.179 (talk) 19:59, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

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knockoff models

how important is it that the knockoff models mentioned are asian? it seems at the very least biased. is it certain that there aren't any european or north american knockoffs? is the origin of the knockoff models actually important? is the inclusion of knockoff models even necessary at all? most toys have knockoffs, and it seems if not racist than at least iffy to include that they were asian knockoff toys specifically. the goal is to be impartial. Phairplane (talk) 09:01, 29 March 2024 (UTC)