The James Bond 1983 adventure Octopussy opens with Bond flying through a hangar in a Bede BD-5 and generally causing carnage. One of the planes I cannot identify.
It is possible that it is a smorgasbord of aircraft bits, of course.
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2 Answers
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There is such thing as the Internet Movie Plane Database which has a page for Octopussy
It includes this picture:
which it lists as:
Modified nose section of a Dutch built Hawker Hunter, serial N-202. Also seen in The Man with the Golden Gun.
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4$\begingroup$ A quick google will show that those are not the inlets of a Hawker Hunter -- unless substantial modifications were done. The inlets look quite small - and the splitter plate seems very close to the side of body. Maybe it is a bit of Hollywood magic. $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 28, 2023 at 17:39
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$\begingroup$ I was unaware of the IMPDB, thank you. There's a IMcarDB and a IMfirearmsDB in addition to the original IMDB; I wonder what other databases of movie "things" there are.... $\endgroup$– CriggieCommented Jun 29, 2023 at 2:43
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1$\begingroup$ @RobMcDonald I agree it looks nothing like the inlets of a hunter. Just repeating a piece of evidence I found. I suspect its just the props department making it look more aeroplane-y $\endgroup$– Jamiec ♦Commented Jun 29, 2023 at 6:25
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$\begingroup$ The inlets bear a passing resemblance to a Jaguar, which was a bit newer at the time. Wouldn't be a surprise if the props guys "updated" it with plywood and filler, as long as it was never going to fly again. $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 29, 2023 at 12:12
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I think the short answer is it's not a real aircraft. It looks like a prop. It bears the closest resemblance to me to the McDonnell Douglass F-4 Phantom II, but shares a few commonalities with the Hunter also (might be a prop built around the remains of N-202 as suggested above?).
One indicator it might be a F-4 is the inverted-teardrop-shaped flat front cockpit glass which was common on US fighter aircraft of the era such as the F-4, A-6 Intruder (in a distinctive side-by-side pair) and F-14 Tomcat which allowed a clear FoV for the HUD, but this glass shape was also fitted on a lot of Hunters for the same purpose, and the cockpit itself looks very Hunter-shaped and is only a single-seater.
Another is the large side intakes on the fuselage with the 'barge board' up against the cockpit (I don't know the actual term). The scale and proportion of these are not particularly accurate to the F-4, but the shape is very distinctive.
The nose also has the wrong profile and taper for a Hunter, but it might have been altered to look more 'modern'. It looks a lot more like a F-4 Phantom nose with the black nose cone being a common feature on early F-4s.
In the lower picture it also looks like it has a catapult bar on the nose gear (although the gear itself doesn't look carrier grade!)
Obvious 'not and F-4' things are lack of the tandem 2-seater cockpit, I can't see well in the screen-grab but it looks like the wing profiles are way off.
EDIT: Looking more deeply into it, it may also have drawn inspiration from the Avro Arrow and British TSR-2 prototypes.
Definitely a 'smorgasbord of aircraft bits' and a lot of imagination that's sort of an F-4 but not really!
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$\begingroup$ Note the super-realistic glowing u-shaped tube in the radar dish! $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 29, 2023 at 15:34
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$\begingroup$ That’s so the technician can see in the super-dark poorly lit hangar xD $\endgroup$– MDBensonCommented Jun 30, 2023 at 22:19