# Raiders of the Lost Ark
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark/9538
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 1, 2000, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark/9538 "2000-04-01T02:42:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Breckinshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Breckinshire)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2000, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark/9538/1 "2000-04-01T02:42:00Z")
I love that movie!
My question is: What type of plane is it that Indy is fighting on after he’s found the Ark? You know, the Nazi one? Or is it just creative license?
* * *
_“A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.” – George Bernard Shaw_
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### Author:  [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2000, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark/9538/2 "2000-04-01T02:57:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> “The futuristic Flying Wing was chosen by director Steven Spielberg to represent the ominous and advanced state of aeronautics in Hitler’s Germany Production designer Norman Reynolds used a Northrop Corporation prototype of the Flying Wing and drawings by Ron Cobb to design for Raiders of the Lost Ark this strange plane that has no tail and no fuselage. The plane was built in England by Vickers Aircraft Company and painted at EMI Elstree Studios in London. In order to ship the elaborate prop to Tunisia for filming, it had to be disassembled and sent in parts, then rebuilt on location. In the film the Flying Wing is in Egypt (the Tunisian location) for the top secret mission of transporting the sacred Ark of the Covenant. But before the Ark is even aboard the plane, a series of dramatic events results in the fiery destruction of the Flying Wing.”
From: [http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.indygear.com/planes.htm](http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.indygear.com/planes.htm)
There’s a picture on that page, too.
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### Author:  [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2000, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark/9538/3 "2000-04-01T02:59:00Z")
Oops! I didn’t answer your question.
Creative license.
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### Author:  [@Stonecutter912](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonecutter912)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2000, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raiders-of-the-lost-ark/9538/4 "2000-04-01T05:29:00Z")
Both Germany and the US had designs similar to this, but not at the time of Raiders…(1936, I think it was…)
I always figured it had to be a prop…you don’t blow up vintage planes.