At the end, when Charlton Heston is lying on the stretcher, he looks up and sees a Boeing 727 flying overhead. It was my understanding that Russia flew only Soviet-built airliners. So who could have been flying a 727 over Moscow?
By the way, I love movies about commercial aviation, and this is one of my very favorites.
Is it possible he may have imagined it? I kind of understood it that way.
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Disclaimer: if I'm talking about a reality TV show: "As far as the edit showed us."
I may be wrong, but I thought that plane looked like Russian.
shareRussians had a triple-engined jetliner the Tupolev TU-154 that closely resembled the 727.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-154
British also had the Trident which could've flown in and out of Moscow. It was also possible that a Scandanavian airline might've had 727s on their Moscow run.
It was definitely a 727. Although the Tu-154 and Trident are rear mounted tri-jets like the 727, their profiles are distinctly different than the 727's.
Also, the Soviet Migs, are repainted F-100 Super Sabres. There are no actual Russian aircraft in the movie.
This was during the Cold War, and none of this film, or any other film would have had access to any actual Soviet aircraft.
I'd have to check some old timetables, but I don't think there were any airlines from the western world that had flights into Moscow. I know no U.S. based carriers did. Aeroflot gained access to JFK at some point, but that was much later than 1972. U.S. based airlines didn't gain access to Moscow until the 1990's after the U.S.S.R. collapsed.
Could be intended to represent a TU-154... but also you are wrong that only soviet airliners were allowed... western airlines did flights to Moscow in the 70s .. Pan Am for example flew there regularly with their jets until 1976 where the agreetment fell until 1986 when they resumed service..
It was totally possible that a 727 was there in that year.. but as said it could meant to be a TU-154
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Pan Am had an interchange agreement with Aeroflot, which functioned as a service for diplomats and other dignitaries. Joe Public couldn't just go and buy a ticket. I don't qualify that as airline service.
It was flown with a 707 and later a 747. The 727 didn't have transatlantic range.
Furthermore, it's highly unlikely the filmmakers would time filming to coincide with the infrequent arrival/departure of a Pan Am flight for a movie seen largely by the aviation illiterate public.
Making the entire discussion moot, is that Heston in his TV talk show promotional tour at the time, plainly stated the "Russian" scenes were shot in Alaska,
Stuttgart Ballet cultural exchange on a chartered Lufthansa B727. One of the Soviet commandos makes a remark in Russian that they're holding its departure until the situation is resolved, but the film makers didn't subtitle it. Possibly a subplot that got cut?
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