Sikorsky S-38 airplane model for the film The Aviator

Aero Telemetry built the Sikorsky S-38 model airplane that was used to digitally recreate the flying sequences in the Academy Award winning film The Aviator. The scene depicted Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes flying with Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn. This little airplane was shot against a green screen and digitized to simulate flying conditions over Los Angeles at night. There are several other scenes in the movie which include our S-38 model airplane, as well. Another interesting Hollywood movie behind the scenes fact!

Aero Telemetry's Hughes H-1 Racer

Great Article as featured in FLY RC MAGAZINE:

AERO TELEMETRY’S HUGHES H-1 RACER      By Tom Atwood

An extraordinary crew works at Aero Telemetry Corporation. Founded by Joe Bok, the Aero Telemetry Corporation (ATC) has been providing airborne electronics and custom built unmanned air vehicle (UAV) systems to the military since the early 1990s. Many of our readers also know that this remarkable company specializes in scale aircraft for movies and in UAV’s. Remember the movie, The Aviator? Joe's team provided 11 different models for the production. Notably, the giant scale Hughes XF-11 (30-foot wingspan), H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose), and Hughes H-1 Racer were all flown safely and successfully.  As noted at the company's website, these models “are still considered to be some of the largest flyable scale airplanes ever built for use in a movie. Long hours of hard work, perseverance, and technical know-how by the Aero Telemetry team made these extraordinary airplanes possible.”

But many may not know the diverse additional areas of expertise Aero Telemetry has expanded into over the last decade, building on robust project successes in military based UAV programs. One of the coolest projects in aerospace today is the Boeing X-48 Blended Wing Body aircraft or BWB. Aero Telemetry was contracted by The Boeing Company to build the front landing gear for the X-48 blended wing body unmanned air vehicle. “The design and fabrication of the landing gear required the Aero Telemetry team to perform dynamic load testing with data acquisition sensors to match deceleration rates to acceptable airframe load limits.”

            

Aero Telemetry also specializes in vintage engine restorations. Joe Bok and his team took great pride in restoring an Allison V-1710-27 engine. That engine was once a starboard engine mount on a Lockheed P-39 Lightning during WWII. It was shipped back to the United States for overhaul in late 1943. It is an incredible piece of American history that has survived the years to be brought back to life once again by the ATC team—see the projects pages at www.aerotelemetry.com  for more on this and the other diverse programs at ATC. Their technology is also used at academic institutions and in one project, ATC designed a package to detect the impact energy of football helmets, while in use, on the playing field.

H1 RACER

As the AMA planned its 75^th anniversary celebration, which will be held in Muncie this July, it inquired with Joe whether ATC might do something special for the gala event. Joe’s team came up with a 50 percent scale H-1 Racer. The H-1 in The Aviator, designed based on countless photos of the original at the Smithsonian, weighed 450 pounds. The new model looked to weigh in at 225 pounds ready to fly. “Too heavy,” said the AMA. It would have to top out at 125 pounds to be legal at the event. Joe’s indefatigable team went back to the drawing board—a 3^rd plane had to be designed and built!
 

 And true to form, ATC developed new technology. Precisely engineered resin-infused carbon fiber cloth would comprise the new H-1’s skin. This will be the largest and perhaps the most sophisticated 50 percent scale model in the world, with custom engineered retracts and sophisticated electronic control systems. The 5-cylinder, 4-stroke radial initially envisioned for the project may have to be replaced with a lighter mill. But Joe, an aerospace engineer with a can-do attitude, is not fazed. He says this has been a useful challenge that has expanded ATC’s markets. 

We applaud this magnificent project, and also the contributions of the ATC team in other arenas. Joe and his people are making a difference by providing electronic systems to the military, and for this reason this aerospace group also wears a badge of honor.


Photos by Aero Telemetry

Designing the XF-11

Completing the XF-11 airplane in less than 3 months proved to be one of the biggest challenges for the Aero Telemetry team.  Joe and his team had to design, build, and test a custom set of hydraulic, retractable landing gear, fabricate an ultra-strong airframe, coordinate a complex airborne flight control system, and integrate all of these systems seamlessly to overcome the aerodynamic stresses of high speed and heavy payload.

The primary scale models for The Aviator were the Aero Telemetry XF-11 and the H-4 Hercules or Spruce Goose. Both of these airplanes would be designed and fabricated over a period of 3 months by Joe Bok and his Aero Telemetry team. At the time, they were the worlds largest (unmanned) flyable scale aircraft ever flown for a big budget Hollywood movie.

The aerodynamic profile of the wing, engine thrust-lines, CG location, main airfoil angle of attack, incidence angles (between wing and horizontal stabilizer), counter-rotating propellers, and vertical stabilizer offset angles were just a few of the critical design criteria addressed and implemented correctly by the Aero Telemetry engineering design team. All these specific details contributed directly to the success and margin of safety exemplified in all the flights of the Aero Telemetry XF-11.

Hughes XF-11 website

Click below to see all things XF-11!

http://www.aviatorxf11.com

New H-1 Racer Website

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

10 Year Anniversary H-1 Racer - Mystery Mesa

10th Anniversary fo the Aero Telemetry's H-1 Racer flight at Mystery Mesa for the Academy Award winning film The Aviator.  11-17-13

10 Year Anniversary H-1 Racer - El Mirage

Making aviation history with our H-1 Racer built for the movie The Aviator. 10 Year anniversary of the first flight at El Mirage Dry Lake Bed. 11-4-13

Unique Model Aviation Covers

The AMA included Aero Telemetry's cover as one of the Top Ten Unique Model Aviation Covers. You can view the full list here. http://amablog.modelaircraft.org/modelaviation/2013/10/07/10-unique-model-aviation-covers/

July 2005

Martin Scorsese utilized model airplanes to achieve realistic flight scenes for his hit movie The Aviator. He contracted Aero Telemetry—a company owned by AMA member Joe Bock—to design, construct, and operate models of Howard Hughes’ airplanes on camera. This issue contains the first of three articles about how Joe and his crew successfully completed the project.
On the cover, Joe and fellow crew member John Keefe load up the Hughes H-1 racer after its record-setting flights during filming for the movie.

Read the full issue at https://library.modelaviation.com/ma/2005/7/1

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.

Design Challenges of the Spruce Goose Part 1

Joe discusses the design challenges of building the Spruce Goose for the Academy Award winning movie The Aviator.

The Hughes H-4 Spruce Goose

The Hughes H-4, or Spruce Goose, was test flown by Howard Hughes only once on November 2, 1947. It was the largest seaplane ever built at that time. The H-4 used eight of the largest and most powerful radial seaplane engines in the world. It’s 320-foot wingspan tipped the scales at more than 300,000 lbs. Joseph Bok and his Aero Telemetry team were tasked with designing and building the world’s largest flyable Spruce Goose replica. Bok’s unmanned version would have to be both large and powerful enough to take-off from the water of Long Beach Harbor, Calif. and fly steady.

Aero Telemetry provided the latest technology for the electronics and telemetry (command and control) systems needed on both the seaplane and shipboard control station. For the composite sections of the seaplane, we used carbon fiber and Hex Cell with resin to build and strengthen both the fuselage and wing structure. Our Spruce Goose required 160 Nickel Metal Hydride batteries wired together in packs to power each of the eight electric motors. Once the engines were started and run up to full throttle, they could operate for about 15 minutes of total flight time before we had to land and re-charge them. Each time the H-4 landed in the harbor, a “recovery” barge pulled alongside to swap out the battery packs located in the forward compartment of the seaplane, in addition a bilge pump was utilized to pump out seawater which got into the fuselage during extended periods in the water between flights.

DIMENSIONS

WINGSPAN: approximately 25 feet

LENGTH: approximately 25 feet

WEIGHT: 275 lbs

ENGINE: 8- electric motors with custom gear reduction propeller drive units.

ACTING ABILITY

The plane was flown several times at Long Beach Harbor, in Hughes’ original flight test area. The H-4 only flew for a little while back in 1947 but we flew our “unmanned” version (UH-4) for about an hour during all the flights. At times, we piloted the UH-4 from a converted Navy PT boat. The use of the radio controlled Spruce Goose provided The Aviator with exceptional flying sequences. The background at Long Beach Harbor provided a very realistic and historically accurate setting for the flights of the Aero Telemetry Spruce Goose, the world’s largest flyable replica of the Hughes H4 Hercules.  

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.