Hey, remember this, you were settling into your easy chair or maybe looking up from you Hot Wheels on the floor when on the television screen you saw it. THE helicopter coming up out of a extinct volcano crater with that awesome sound. Airwolf
The television series was on from 1984-1987 and starred Jan-Michael Vincent as Stringfellow Hawke and Oscar winner, Ernest Borgnine, as Dominic Santini. Hawke, a former test pilot, stole the high-tech helicopter from the FIRM, a CIA under-organization, and uses it on secret missions of national significance. The series was created by Donald P. Bellisario who also created Magnum, P.I., Quantum Leap, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Black Sheep Squadron, JAG, and NCIS. There are quite a few similarities in these examples of episodic television. The helicopter depicting Airwolf was a Bell 222 helicopter with added pods, gun mounts, etc. to create the high-tech look of the helicopter. Airwolf had the top speed of Mach 3 but, in reality, the top speed of helicopters is about .5 Mach. Mach 1 is the speed of sound. The last season of Airwolf was on the USA tlelvision network, filmed in Canada, and at one-third the CBS budget with only Jan-Michael Vincent of the original cast. I really enjoyed the first three seasons on the show. The ABC television network's Blue Thunder, a series about a high-tech helicopter, was no match for Airwolf. Unfortunately, Airwolf left the small screen and the main human star drifted into alcoholism.
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It is interesting to note that many of the features of the Airwolf helicopter which were considered fiction in 1984 are considered the norm today.
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