People usually go nuts over things that have been used in movies, especially if said movie was a hit. And no one can argue that the 2019 Ford v Ferrari film was anything but a hit, so we were kind of expecting a plane briefly seen on screen to take full advantage of that.
Ford v Ferrari is, well, all about how Ford took on Ferrari to climb to the top of the Le Mans endurance race. More importantly than that, though, we got to see, perhaps for the first time on the same screen, the big names of the automotive industry from half a century ago: Henry Ford II, Enzo Ferrari, Carroll Shelby, Lee Iacocca, Ken Miles, and many, many others.
It also featured many of the cars that shaped the industry back then, including the Ford GT40, Corvettes, Ferraris, and AC Cobras. There was even a plane in the flick, a Beechcraft Model 18 (aka Twin Beech).
It appears in the scene where Carroll Shelby is about to arrive on location for the launch of the new Ford Mustang, together with a bunch of Ford executives. All are coming by air, and at one point Shelby (Matt Damon) convinces the plane's pilot to let him "take a shot at the landing" to the dismay of all those on board.
In the real world the plane is a veteran of public attention. First used by the Royal Canadian Air Force, it arrived in the U.S. in 1966, when it was converted into a haunted house to scare people on Halloween.
In 1985 the Twin Beech got its first role on film, starring in an episode of the TV series Crime Story. From there, it went on to be used in a number of movies, including Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994), Terminal Velocity (1994), Man on the Moon (1999), and even House. And there's a good chance you've seen it in commercials by Pepsi, Honda, and Bud Light.
The plane surfaced earlier in January as being for sale. It went under the hammer during the Barrett-Jackson auction which took place late last month, hoping to use its star status to snatch a lot of money.
By most accounts, it did exactly that, but perhaps not to the level the owners were expecting: the plane sold for $253,000.
That's a lot more than many of us can afford to spend on a whim, but still far less than it could have earned. Just consider the fact that many of the custom cars present in Scottsdale sold for a lot more than that.
It's unclear what the future fate of the plane will be now that it is under new ownership. We'll keep an eye out for it, both on the screen and on the auction block.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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