In the 1941 short film Aeronutics, near the beginning we can see the twin booms of an aircraft. It appears to be about the size of a Cessna 337 Skymaster – and indeed, the tails resembled a 337’s – but that didn’t appear until 22 years after the film was made. So I’m moderately sure it was not a military aircraft. (e.g., not a P-38 – which had different tails in any case.)
Any idea of who was making a twin-boom civil aircraft in or before 1941?
Can’t find any pictures of Aeronutics on-line to see what you’re looking at. Could it be a Beech 18? That’s my favorite aircraft of all-time.
Ah, one of the classics, but not what Johnny is looking for. That’s just a twin tail; the aircraft in question has a twin-boom tail.
Like the Abrams P-1, perhaps? First flew in 1937, according to Wikipedia.
Or a Burnelli UB-14 (1934).
If it’s neither of those, try this list of twin-boom aircraft, and back it up with a google image search in another window.
Can you get us a photo? I’m not coming up with any ideas.
Maybe I’m reading too much into the OP, but a late 1930s design would have had rounded vertical fins, not at all like the 337’s angular double-swept fins. So it might be a fake movie prop intended to look futuristic or some such.
Where’s the Internet Movie Aircraft Database when you need it? (I see there’s talk of one on the IMCD forum, but it hasn’t “taken off” yet.)
This is an 11 minute movie. Where on Earth did you see this?
The guys in the Trivia Forum at Mission4Today are pretty amazing. It is WWII era military oriented mostly, but they tend to know their civil aircraft as well.
Duggy in particular there has a truly astounding image library, and would probably have your aircraft. If you cant get an answer here I would recommend PMing him at that message board, (I dont think the format of the forum is really meant for true unknowns).
Can you expand on the description? Is a single engine or twin? Tractor or pusher? Land or Amphibious?
It was on TCM between movies. I saw it in the schedule and set my DVR.
As I said earlier, the tails resemble those on the Cessna 337’s in shape. Only, they’re not as sharply swept, the upper and lower halves are about the same size, and the horizontal stab extends beyond them.
The ‘aeronut’ is leaning on a chain-link fence, watching a four-engined airliner taxiing. The airplane in question is parket behind him. There’s another gent with his arms on the fence about three feet to the right of the lead actor. We can’t see his face, as he’s at the edge of the frame and is half out of the frame. The airplane’s wingtip can be seen in the upper-right corner of the frame.
The wingtip is rounded. Given its height, I assume the airplane is a high-wing.
There is an NC-number on the tail, but I can’t make it out.
Judging by the man on the right, I estimate the wingtip is about 6-1/2 feet or so above the ground. The starboard boom probably extends another four feet or so beyond the frame. (I estimate the camera to be about 30º off-center.) This leads me to believe the airplane is about the same size as a Skymaster.
No propeller(s) are visible. Could be a pusher, could be a tractor, or it could be a CLT (‘push-me/pull-you’).
Since the footage is at an airport (probably Los Angeles Airport, the future Los Angeles International Airport, or LAX) I assume it is a land plane.
Sorry, not much to go on.
I found a site that’s all about twin-booms, but I didn’t find the aircraft there. I’ve sent an email to the webmaster, and also to Duggy.
Thanks for the lead.
The review says the movie’s about the first flying lesson in a biplane. It’s not a twin-boom biplane, is it?
No, I didn’t attempt to identify the biplane, but it was typically-configured. The twin-boom was just coincidentally in one shot. The composition was a head-on shot of what appears to be a Fairchild 24G in the background screen-left, the ‘aeronut’ leaning on the chain-link fence at center-screen, the right half of a man standing at the fence at the right edge of the screen, the booms and tails of the mystery aircraft behind the second man, a couple of other light aircraft in the farther background, and a large open hangar spanning the far background.
Its possible it was not a production aircraft, but a one off that was not picked up by the army air corp or a test plane that was rented for the movie.
Declan
Sure it’s not an early P38? There was a prototype flying in 1939.
The only other twin boom planes I could find from that time were a few German and Dutch military recon planes.
There’s this one, pretty good but it’s military only.
There were far more twin-boom aircraft in that era than I imagined.
No, it definitely wasn’t a P-38. On first glance the booms and tails looked so much like a Skymaster that that’s how it registered – until I went, ‘Hey, wait a minute!’
I received a reply from the French site, and also from Duggy. Neither could identify it based on my description, and unfortunately Aeronutics exists online only in three very short clips that do not feature that scene. Duggy did suggest this Stearman though. It’s not the plane, but it’s quite cool. 
For values of “cool” that include “plug ugly”.
If you still have it on DVR than freeze the scene, take a picture, and post it.
Aw, you’d make fun of Dumbo!
