# Are those real planes in the movie "Hot Shots"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-real-planes-in-the-movie-hot-shots/161001
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 13, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-real-planes-in-the-movie-hot-shots/161001 "2003-03-13T01:57:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-real-planes-in-the-movie-hot-shots/161001/1 "2003-03-13T01:57:39Z")
I’m talking about the 1991 Charlie Sheen comedy.
I feel incredibly dumb asking this. In some scenes the planes look like cheap props, while in others it appears to be really flying. It’s idetified as the “Oscar EW5894 Phallus tactical fighter bomber.” 🙂 It looks vaguely like the French Jaguar, but isn’t. Twin scoops on either side of the fuselage, rocket pods on wing pylons.
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### Author:  [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-real-planes-in-the-movie-hot-shots/161001/2 "2003-03-13T02:33:47Z")
I believe that the airplanes were F-5 Tigers, built by Grumman, but it has been a long time since I have seen that movie. In some of the scenes, the planes probably are models. Is this the airplane? [http://www.history.navy.mil/planes/f-5.html](http://www.history.navy.mil/planes/f-5.html)
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### Author:  [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-real-planes-in-the-movie-hot-shots/161001/3 "2003-03-13T02:34:52Z")
Correction, it was Northrop who built the F-5.
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### Author:  [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-real-planes-in-the-movie-hot-shots/161001/4 "2003-03-13T02:51:30Z")
I think they were Hawker Siddley Gnats.
[http://www.skytamer.com/photos/gallery08/g0817.htm](http://www.skytamer.com/photos/gallery08/g0817.htm)
[http://www.warbirdalley.com/gnat.htm](http://www.warbirdalley.com/gnat.htm)
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### Author:  [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-real-planes-in-the-movie-hot-shots/161001/5 "2003-03-13T03:01:04Z")
Doh, I went to paste another link and hit submit instead. Anyway, they’re old British trainer aircraft.
The bad guy planes were F-5. Actually, IIRC, it was footage of F-5s directly lifted from “Top Gun”, which were posing as "Mig-28"s.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-real-planes-in-the-movie-hot-shots/161001/6 "2003-03-13T03:03:28Z")
Oh cool, they are indeed the Hawkers.
The f-5s were flown by the bad guys.
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### Author:  [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2003, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-real-planes-in-the-movie-hot-shots/161001/7 "2003-03-13T06:34:42Z")
Ah, my claim to fame.
A friend of mine did the model work for _Hot Shots_ and _Hot Shots: Part Deux_. I got to work for him for a while and the model of the Gnat with the pilot’s legs sticking out from the bottom was hanging in the shop.
I’m still trying to get back to work for him, but so much is done digitally these days. Still, I can hope.