The Last Sad Days of Airwolf

For anyone who grew up in the 80's, TV dominated most of our time instead of the internet (didn't exist then) and a lot of us were captivated with a wide selection of TV programs, including Knight Rider, Magnum PI, Automan, A-Team, McGyver .... and then there was Airwolf.

A hit favorite after the movie "Blue Thunder" in terms of helicopter hero ships, Airwolf was an advanced supersonic helicopter with stealth capabilities and a formidable arsenal. She also had fictional features that included stratospheric ceiling, stealth noise signature and even supersonic speed. Airwolf was in fact just a conventional Bell 222 helicopter modified by attaching some film props.

More after the jump.



According to Airwolf's's wiki, The look of the modifications was designed by Andrew Probert and they were first applied to the non-flying mock-up (built from the body of the very first Bell 222, serial number 47001. From this mock-up molds were made so that parts could be made to FAA specifications before they were added to the flying helicopter. After the maiden flight with the modifications, primary pilot David Jones told the producer that "It flies better now than before!".

After the first season, the producers were advised that "chain gun" is a registered trademark of McDonnell Douglas, and they were not referred to as such again. The machine guns mounted on the side of the landing gear sponsons were mock-ups that used spark plugs and fuel to simulate gun firing. Other modifications were implied with Foley and sets; the interior sets were of a fantastical high-tech nature, and there were implied "stealth" noise-reducing capabilities with creative use of sound effects. On the show, the deployment of the weapons systems were usually shown via close-ups of the action; in reality, these close-ups were produced on props off-site, while the non-moving prop components were attached to the aircraft by a technician in the field or at the JetCopters hangar.

The concept behind Airwolf was a super fast and armed helicopter that could "blend in" by appearing to be civilian and non-military in origin, a "wolf in sheep's clothing". Airwolf's insignia patch (also designed by Probert) as worn by the flight-crew was a snarling wolf's head with gossamer wings that appears to be wearing a sheepskin complete with the head of lamb over the wolf's forehead. Airwolf is sometimes referred to in-show as "The Lady" by Santini and Hawke.

In the show, Airwolf was an armored, stealthy aircraft. It could perform impossible maneuvers and stunts, including traveling at mach speeds (the theoretical maximum speed of a helicopter is significantly below Mach 0.5, or half the speed of sound), flying upside down, and flying into the stratosphere. Some of these impossible capabilities are explained in the show by such features as auxiliary jet engines (visible at the roots of the landing gear sponsons), rotor blades that can be disengaged for supersonic flight and a lifting body fuselage.



Sound effects were also associated with many of the aircraft's abilities. When Airwolf bolted across the sky in "turbo boost" mode, one would hear it "howl like a wolf" as it made a glass-shattering sound effect. When sitting idle, the aircraft made a mechanical trilling sound, and while hovering the rotor blades made a ghostly wind drone.

The show ran from 1984 until 1987 encompassing 4 seasons and 55 episodes with an additional 24 episodes with an entirely new cast.  The distinctive musical score, which was originally orchestral but shifted to more synthesizer-based arrangements early in the second season, was composed and mainly conducted by Sylvester Levay. Udi Harpaz conducted the scores for many later second and third season episodes.

The USA Network funded a new fourth season in 1987, to be produced in Canada by Atlantis and The Arthur Company (owned by Arthur L. Annecharico) in association with MCA. This was intended to increase the number of episodes to make the show eligible for broadcast syndication. The original cast was written out of the fourth season: Jan-Michael Vincent appears in a first transitional episode; a body double for Ernest Borgnine seen only from the back represented Santini, who was killed off in an explosion; Archangel was said to have suddenly been assigned overseas. "The Firm" was replaced by "the Company"; no mention was made of Caitlin. St John Hawke, played by Barry Van Dyke, was suddenly revealed to be alive, having been working for many years as a deep undercover agent for American intelligence, contradicting characterizations in the previous three seasons. St. John replaced Stringfellow as the central character. Production moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with a reduced budget, less than one-third of the original CBS budget. The production crew no longer had access to the original Airwolf helicopter, and all in-flight shots were recycled from earlier seasons; the original full-size studio mockup was re-dressed and used for all interior shots. Actress Michele Scarabelli, who played Jo Santini, said in a Starlog magazine interview that all 24 scripts were in place before the cast arrived, leaving the actors little room to develop their characters.

Airwolf's Fate

At the conclusion of the series' run, the copter was repainted, its body kit modifications removed and sold, and the copter sold to the German helicopter charter company, Hubschrauber-Sonder-Dienst (as known as HSD Luftrettung and Blue Helicopter Alliance) in June of 1987, and assigned the registration number D-HHSD becoming an ambulance helicopter.

On the afternoon of Saturday, June 6th, 1992, D-HHSD was flying a little girl suffering from heavy burns on a mercy mission from Berlin to the Cologne University Burns Unit in Köln. After safely delivering the girl, the helicopter and its crew of three was returning to Berlin when they encountered unexpected weather. With the visibility reduced to nearly 100 feet due to fog amidst a brewing thunderstorm, the copter's 42 year old pilot must have struggled to navigate the wooded German mountainsides.

Unfortunately, at 2:30 in the afternoon, at a speed of nearly 100 miles an hour, the helicopter impacted near a rock quarry near Halbeswig. It's rotor blades clipped the tops of several tree, and then struck the mountainside. A nearby farmer heard, during his work, a big bang, and alerted emergency services. But, given the weather conditions, it took about an hour before the rescuers could find the wreck site. When they arrived, they found the helicopter was broken in half in the middle, the engine destroyed, and the 3 occupants, including a 38 year old doctor and his 31 year old assistant, all had been killed in the impact.

The forested area around the crash site was locked down for nearly 7 hours. The fire department had to close several roads near the site because not enough police. The police Dortmund and the Federal Air Transport Authority Braunschweig started their investigation on late afternoon, which continued into the following day. Afterwards, the crash site was released the helicopter's owners, who salvaged the wreck.  However, due to the impassable terrain, some parts of the helicopter could only be snug out by air.

Three days after the crash, the Federal Air Transport Authority concluded that human error was the cause of the crash.

Source

As season four had no access to the real Airwolf, an actual motorized model was made to replace some the aerial footage for the show. It was however only used in one episode.  You can read more HERE but I am sharing the model images below:

Another mock up of the helicopter was made for the now-defunct Halson's Helicopter Museum of Pigeon Forge. Haynes had previously purchased a decommissioned Bell 222 airframe and components, which ironically had also been scouted for this purpose by airwolf tv's own Clark Van Hoten and Roy Nelson. The airframe would then be transported by truck to Stull's workshop in Dawsonville, Georgia to begin its transformation into the new Airwolf. Thus, on Thursday April 6, 2006, airframe serial number 47042, previously registered as N414WW, arrived at Stull's lakeside shop to begin the conversion. With access to original Airwolf plans and components, and in collaboration with other subject matter experts, Stull began to create the first true Airwolf replica.

Once completed, the Airwolf helicopter hung from the Halson's Helicopter Museum ceiling at eye level with the second floor. Here, on airwolf.tv, see the step by step creation of the mock-up helicopter and its trip to the museum, as well as its subsequent move to the Tennessee Museum of Aviation in nearby Sevierville.

As for the original stars, we lost Ernest Borgnine in 2012, a truly versatile actor. We also found out that Jan Michael Vincent struggled with drugs and alcohol addictions after Airwolf. An infection in 2012 from a previous car accident cost him a leg as well. His third wife, Anna, bless her, is now taking good care of him. Source HERE

There had been some talk about rebooting the TV series but to date, nothing much has progressed beyond the dicussion table. Hence Airwolf will still remain as we see her in all 4 seasons of the old series.

Wiki Source - Airwolf,