Why did they built a Lysander and not use the shuttleworth example? Is it unavailable? Seems like a huge effort to go to when an aircraft exists.
Most of that final scene of Allied was shot indoors in a studio, under a rain machine. Many operators of rare and precious aircraft won’t have an appetite for what the film industry wants to do. Wings off, road transport to a studio, pop it on a gimbal mount for movement etc etc.
The aircraft was also shown landing in a field with BP at the controls. Maybe the field they want to land in isn’t suitable for real aircraft ops. Maybe the owner / studio / insurers really don’t want to leave BP alone in there with the prop turning.
In addition a big feature film could be 120 crew running at well over £300k per shoot day, with each day of a 4 month schedule mapped out well in advance. What if the weather on the day isn’t suitable? Way too scary for them when you start saying “well if the cloud base is this, or the wind is that, or if the 70 year old machine doesn’t start…”
They also love good camera access. The movie replicas have “floating” sections, so the fuselage might break apart in front of the pilot so we can get a big camera hero face on. It might break behind so we can shoot his POV. A movie camera with lens can be about 4ft long.
Finally they have control. If they need to do reshoots they have little control over a real aircraft, someone might crash it or sell it or the initial experience have been so grim that the owner no longer has a desire to do another lap. With their own replica they can pop it in a shipping container and hold it until what’s known as picture lock. That being they have the final edit complete and ready for distribution.
You can see it doesn’t take long before even a costly replica becomes the way to go.
Attached image is copyright Steven Hall
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