The Internet Movie Plane Database

Bell 206B JetRanger III (or II, depending on which of the logos is "real"), Registration N230CA. Should we make a complete list of all the movies this helicopter has appeared in? I am also reasonably confident I even recently found its serial number (2779, by the way) on its 2005 New Orleans crash report.

So far I have seen it in:

-Blue Thunder (the civilian helicopter Murphy and Lymangood fly)
-Commando (General Kirby's helicopter, repainted in Army colors)
-Lethal Weapon (Shadow Company helicopter, repainted to its Blue Thunder colors)
-Darkman (Strack Industries helicopter used by Durant)

Granted, four movies isn't all that impressive but it's still funny it's the same helicopter each time and plays a major role in three out of its four appearances (most memorably in Lethal Weapon and Darkman), and it has to have appeared in other films and RotaryAction.com claims it was in an episode of MacGyver as well.

Then there's the fact it came to such a tragic end. So I figured that it deserved a thread. Which of its appearances is your favorite? For me, it's Darkman. It's put to great use there.

It does appear in the pilot of MacGyver.

I'm adding the page as we speak and when I googled the registration to find out more the second result was this thread!

Interesting that it appeared in Blue Thunder as a Gazelle similar to the one from that flick appears in the same episode of the show.

So wild how that registration gets around. I wish I owned it.

Sandie wrote:I'm adding the page as we speak and when I googled the registration to find out more the second result was this thread!

That is awesome!

It just occurred to me I forgot my actual question in the original post: namely, that, given its multiple appearances in film and television, should N230CA get its own special page? Not a category, mind you, just a page; with the same applying to other helicopters known to appear in more than two movies or shows?

Perhaps a single page listing aircraft by registration with their movie appearances listed and links to those?

I understand where you're coming from - but for now i don't think it really warrants it. If there are multiple aircraft that are used frequently in movies then its definitely possible but until there are are a reasonable number of these aircraft, maybe just a page on the forum will suffice.

You can always put a link in the talk page.

As it turns out, the civilian 'copter flown by Murphy and Lymangood briefly in Blue Thunder isn't N230CA; I rewatched the film and it bears the registration N200NP, which I discovered is a JetRanger III and not a JetRanger II; odd considering the runners. Odder still is that the registration number does crop up in the film on the police helicopter flown by Murphy's friend Montoya:



The problem here is (and you can't tell this from this screenshot), it has longer runners than N230CA has in later appearances (Commando and onwards) and strikes me as clearly being a JetRanger III, not the II most sites peg N230CA as being. This is very confusing to me. Is this is a misapplied registration or did something happen to make them give N230CA shorter runners in later movies? Do the runners even matter in determining a JetRanger II from a JetRanger III?

Does it still look to have the 250-C20B engine there?

Is N230CA a III and not a II? Confusion abounds!

EDIT: After some angsting I'm going with the original assertion that it is a II and not a III, based on Bthebest's evidence that N230CA's registred engine matches that model JetRanger, and that its longer runners in Blue Thunder mean nothing.

It can also be seen in Misfits of Science season 1 episode 12 towards the end of the show.