What happened to the second Blue Thunder prototype?
In the 1983 film Blue Thunder, Roy Schneider plays a LAPD helicopter pilot who gets his hands on Blue Thunder - a new prototype helicopter designed for surveillance as well as urban assault missions. Schneider's character must outwit corrupt government forces who wish to use the helicopter for their own purposes, given that it is one of only two such prototypes to exist. In the climax of the film, the antagonist (Malcolm McDowell)
comes after Blue Thunder in a modified Hughes 500, and the two engage in an aerial dogfight that Schneider wins due to Blue Thunder's advanced features.
Afterwards, he destroys Blue Thunder, feeling that such a powerful vehicle cannot fall into the wrong hands. And this leads me to my question... what happened to the other prototype?
Best Answer
I cannot find any reference to a second helicopter in the original 1983 movie.
Indeed, all of the references are in the singular... "it" instead of "them", "a prototype" rather than "prototypes".
The only reference to a second prototype appears, as far as I can tell, only on the movie's Wikipedia page and there is no source/reference for this assertion.
It may be that this is inferred from the existence of the Blue Thunder TV series which, essentially, re-invents / re-imagines the movie premise.
There is no indication in the first episode of the TV series that this is a sequel and indeed covers a lot of the same ground (using footage from the movie) as the start of the movie.
It seems likely that there was only a single prototype helicopter constructed else it would have been logical for Cochrane (the villain) to use that, instead of the Hughes 500 he actually does, to take on Scheider's character.
It should, perhaps, also be noted that destruction of the physical helicopter would in no way stop another bring built. Construction plans and schematics would have been retained by the military to easily move the project along.
Pictures about "What happened to the second Blue Thunder prototype?"
What happened to the Blue Thunder helicopter?
After the film and TV series was made, both helicopters were sold to Michael E. Grube, an aviation salvage collector in Clovis, New Mexico.Does the Blue Thunder helicopter exist?
Blue Thunder helicopterThe helicopters used for Blue Thunder were French built A\xe9rospatiale SA-341G Gazelles modified with bolt-on parts and Apache-style canopies. Two modified Gazelle helicopters, a Hughes 500 helicopter, and two radio-controlled F-16 fighter models were used in the filming of the movie.Is Airwolf better than Blue Thunder?
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Movie Info Frank Murphy is a courageous and honorable Los Angeles police officer who is chosen to test run Blue Thunder, a high-tech experimental attack helicopter. While flying Blue Thunder, Murphy and his partner discover that the government intends to use the helicopter for corrupt crowd control and surveillance.Blue Thunder (1983) \
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