Was the kind of fighter plane that attacked kong on the top of the Empire State Building in the 1930’s movie an actual aircraft type? If so, what kind of plane was it?
Are there kits that contain the markings of those aircraft from the movie in the box?
Thanks for any info.
Were they not P-12’s?
I haven’t seen that movie in eons, but I think Tom may be correct. P-12’s & F4B-4’s were kinda state of the art when the original was filmed.
Regards, Rick
They were probably late-model Curtiss Falcons- they were two-seaters, remember!
Larry, for some reason, I find this one of the more intriguing question posed here in a long time, and now I won’t be satisfied til I find an answer. Would make one helluva diorama. There was a company some years ago, and I sure wish I’d snatched it up, which made a mixed media model of the Akron and Macon with the tiny airplanes made of PE brass. The kit was about 130 bucks as I recall, and the planes would have been microscopic, but perfect for a diorama of King Kong on the ESB (which reminds me: I’ve lived here almost 12 years and never gone up there. Only been in the lobby. Never been to the Statue of Liberty either. I should get on the ball.)
TOM
If I remember, I’ll make a video capture of the aircraft tonight and post it here. I am not up on my interwar aircraft at all, and have not the first clue what the planes you guys are referring to are!
This was discussed a long while back, here’s the thread:
Identify this (From old,well known ,movie)
The images I had posted are long gone but I think that these may be helpful:
Fade to Black…
I always thought the aircraft was a Vought Corsair
I read somewhere that they were F4B4 and that the two guys that you see closer in one of those planes were Schoedsack and Cooper themselves.
I think we’ll need to see actual screen captures from the movie- these are rather fanciful publicity shots- see how the wings on the FG plane have been airbrushed and made single-bay, short structures? I’ve seen the flick a million times- it’s my favorite! I’ve never really nailed down the type- there’s the usual Hollywood mixed bag of stock footage, studio props and custom aerial photography. Boeing P-12s and F4B-4s were single-seat "Pursuit"planes. Curtiss Falcons were two-seat heavy fighters/observation/light bombers. just the thing for fighting giant urban guerr-, um gorillas… 
Peter Jackson’s remake is supposed to be faithful to the original, can’t wait to see the CG aeroplanes…However, if I remember correctly (I was about 6 or 7) when the remake came out I believe the movie posters showed what looked to me (memory has been effected by about 2,000 scrums and a dozen concussions) like F101’s…does anybody recall this? Just for s$%^'s and giggles…
I’m going by my encrusted memory here, but didn’t they use Huey gunships or something similar in the 1976 Dino DiLaurentiis remake, which most people agree was utterly awful, and whose only redeeming feature was that it gave the world Jessica Lange. But it spawned a famous Hollywood anecdote: Jon Peters, producer of the umteenth remake of “A Star is Born,” an execrable vanity project for Barbra Streisand, was razzing DiLaurentis because ASIB was doing so much better box office than King Kong, which came out at the same time. Retorted DiLaurentiis: “Yeah, but my monkey can’t sing.”
TOM
Well put, Mr. DiLaurentis…heh heh
Alrighty, here’s a page on a King Kong site which seems to answer some questions, and maybe raises a few more…
King Kong FAQ (You may have to scroll up a line or two…)
Specifically mentioned are the Curtiss O2C-2 (Fledgling) and the Consolidated NY. Whether this information is reliable or not, I cannot say. But they do mistakenly refer to both types as being trainers; the O2C-2 was certainly not used in a training role at the time King Kong was filmed.
The aircraft in the foreground of the second photo above is undoubtedly the mockup and, as such, probably doesn’t truly represent a real aircraft type. Although it does seem to have some characteristics which are similar to those of the airplanes mentioned as having been used in the film.
Speaking of the two images above, I wouldn’t discount them so readily. They do give clues as to what was used for the aircraft in the film. They are certainly retouched, (the second moreso than the first) I don’t think that there was ever any doubt about that; a good majority of the photos appearing in print in the 30’s were retouched and that kinda thing is hard to miss, actually. And ‘fanciful’ may be the word, but so was the movie itself and the special effects used for the movie were not much more sophisticated than what was done to produce those images.
I’d say that, although these may not be actual stills from the film, they probably show the same combination of models, possibly real aircraft, and the full-scale mockup which were used in the film. Perhaps not the real aircraft, but certainly the models and mockup.
Something else I’ve come across is this photo of noted aviator Frank Hawks next to an aircraft at Bennet Field in 1933.
The real aircraft in the film are said to have been based at Bennet Field and the insignia on this plane is quite similar to the one on the side of the mockup. This doesn’t mean that this particular aircraft was used in the film, but it’s an interesting detail, especially if one is looking to build a model representing the aircraft in the film. I dunno what unit this is, however. Still looking on that…
Fade to Black…
Thanks for all the input, guys – I will try to remember to do the grabs tonight.
(Assuming I am remembering correctly and actually do have a copy of King Kong on DVD! If I don’t, I … er … won’t be able to do the grabs tonight. [(-D])
Oh no! The monkey wrench is thrown in the works, pardon the expression! What is this O2C-2 of which you speak? At least there is a model or two around of the F4B-4!
i remember reading/seeing somewhere, they were marine a/c predecessors to helldiver SBC, something by vought?
Who made the monkey???[:D][:D][:p][:p][:D][:D]
LOL…
was it ray harryhausen ?
frosty[:)]
So, anyways, guys, what’s the plane in the foreground in this pic? (Remember you can click on the pic to see it better.)
Sure don’t look like an O2C-2 to me, but also nothing like the other planes mentioned in this thread.