Hollywood Takes to the Air Event

Aero Telemetry was honored to have their Hughes H-1 Racer on display in the front lobby of The Academy's Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood two weeks ago. The 4 night event was a celebration of Aviation and Cinema.  The first night was a presentation given by Oscar winners Craig Barron and Ben Burtt called The Illusions of Flight: Behind the Scenes of Hollywood's Aviation Classics.  For those in attendence it was a packed house and an amazing presentation!

Below are some pictures of our H-1 Racer display.

Aero Telemetry's Spruce Goose built for the movie The Aviator

The Spruce Goose flew several times over two days in the Long Beach Harbor. The first test flight took place on the afternoon of Sunday November 23, 2003.
Joe Bok's rendition of the Hughes Flying Boat made its' Hollywood Film debut on November 24, 2003. The airplane was loaded onto a barge and moved into a location near the Queen Mary.  Several vintage Navy boats were moved into a position that would align them with the camera and the model's anticipated flight path.  The Aero Telemetry Spruce Goose made several breath-taking flights that day.

 

Part of the crew launched and recovered the huge model from a floating barge, while the flight crew were positioned on a vintage World War II US Navy Patrol boat. Academy Award winning visual effects director, Rob Legato, filmed the amazing footage of the Spruce Goose as it passed by the stern of the PT boat to recreate the famous flight of the Spruce Goose.

To read more about this incredible build and flight check out the website http://www.h4hercules.com/ for all things Spruce Goose!

New H-1 Racer Website

Check out this new website about the Hughes H-1 Racer.
http://www.h1racer.com/

Hughes XF-11 Flight at Catalina Island

9 years ago on Feb 29, 2004 Aero Telemetry flew its Hughes XF-11 for the Academy Award winning movie The Aviator at Catalina Island Airport.

Aviator H-1 Racer

The H-1B Racer

Howard Hughes built the H1-B Racer in 1935 solely to become the fastest airplane in the world. His first attempt resulted in a world record speed of 352 mph.

Originally, “The Aviator” planned on using a full-scale replica of the H-1B. Before it was filmed, however, the pilot and plane were tragically lost while flying back from an air-show. The Aero Telemetry team was already involved with the design of two of the worlds largest flying scale aircraft, the Hughes XF-11 and H-4.

The compressed time schedule necessitated the use of many carbon fiber composite structures and parts for the H-1. In addition, the engine would have to be powerful enough to propel the heavy airplane to speeds fast enough to simulate the world record speed set by the real Hughes H-1 Racer. The airplane required that the team design and manufacture from scratch a miniature high-pressure hydraulic system to actuate the retractable landing gear. In addition, we employed the use of much of our own radio electronics equipment for the command and control systems on the airplane.

DIMENSIONS

WINGSPAN: approximately 16 feet

LENGTH: approximately 16 feet

WEIGHT: approximately 350lbs

ENGINE: 2-cylinder, 2-stroke, modified to 360cc high compression, gear reduction

PROPELLER: 3-blade, carbon fiber adjustable pitch 48 diameter

 

ACTING ABILITY

The H1-B Racer was flown and filmed to simulate the World Speed Record attempt that Howard Hughes had made in 1935 at Santa Ana, California. For the film sequences of Hughes’ record attempt, the Aero Telemetry team tried to recreate something totally amazing.  The Aero Telemetry H1 Racer provided the cameras and all those who witnessed the flights with some very realistic and believable flight sequences. 

The Hughes XF-11

The XF-11

The Hughes XF-11 used two of the most powerful airplane engines on earth, had a 100 + foot wingspan and weighed nearly 58,000 lbs. It was flown by Howard Hughes in 1946 to try and become the highest flying and fastest reconnaissance airplane in the world. His first test flight resulted in a crash because of a propeller failure and nearly cost Hughes his own life. The flight and crash of the airplane are well documented in The Aviator.  

For the flyable sequences in The Aviator it was required that a very convincing and flyable airplane had to be built. The Aero Telemetry XF-11’s mission was to fly safely at extended ranges such that realistic flight sequences could be viewed and filmed. The mission would require that the airplane fly at speeds in excess of 100 mph and at ranges of up to 5 miles. Flyable scale models lend themselves to production flexibility with respect to filming locations and cost. The models are less expensive and far more believable than CG, plus they can be operated at various areas and altitudes that are not normally available to their full-scale counterparts. 

 

The fuselage sections were made of fiberglass. The fuselages, center cockpit pod, and many of the other composite parts and components used on the flyable XF-11 were laid up by Aero Telemetry personnel. This process required that the parts were reinforced with carbon fiber and HexCell materials in a manner that was consistent with acceptable Aerospace structural design. Fortunately, this process was well documented.

The airplane required the use of a “one of a kind” high-pressure hydraulic system to actuate the retractable main and nose landing gear. The uplink control system featured many of Aero Telemetry’s own electronics subsystems such as RF Amplifiers and antennas. For the structural pieces of the airplane, we used carbon fiber and 7075 Aluminum reinforced wing structures.  The fuselage sections contained both the fuel tanks and the back-up electrical and hydraulic systems. 

DIMENSIONS

WINGSPAN: approximately 26 feet

LENGTH: approximately 24 feet

WEIGHT: approximately 550 lbs

ENGINE: Two, twin cylinder 2-stroke drone engines modified to 273cc 

ACTING ABILITY

The plane was flown several times by the Aero Telemetry team at San Bernardino Airport and Catalina Island Airport in California. For some of the aerial shots, the XF-11 was also filmed while flying in very close proximity to a helicopter.  Due to its size, speed, and excellent flying characteristics, Aero Telemetry’s XF-11 airplane made the flying sequences very believable. The background at Catalina Island provided a historically accurate picture of the way Los Angeles looked in the 1940’s.