![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Animation-Trails-logo.jpg\"){kind=logo}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Flintstone-Flyer-600.jpg\")
\n\n
Writing about aviation in the television era is, to say the least, a bit daunting. (It may require that I fly in on a Navy Douglas SBD Dauntless.) By this time, commercial aviation had become commonplace, was the regular subject of major ad campaigns in print and over the airwaves, and was being accepted as the new high-speed substitute for rail or bus. It was, however, not without risks of occasional and well-publicized crashes. (I personally recall as a child tales of a Lockheed L-199 Electra whose tail broke off in flight, with all on board killed. Shortly thereafter, from an observation deck at Logan International Airport, I observed a group of nuns boarding such a plane, and could not help thinking they were one a one-way trip to meet their maker.) Thus, appearances of aircraft in cartoons became commonplace, as routine as appearances of trains in cartoons of the \u201830’s, 40’s, and 50’s, as a simple way to get from point A to point B, often adding no particular humor or situations to the films in which they appear. Comprehensive coverage of all such appearances would be both overwhelming and largely pointless for our survey of the development of gags and stories deriving from such craft. So instead, we\u2019ll attempt to focus on selected highlights and high points, when an aircraft meant something to a plot or to a funny or recurring gag situation, for a brief potpourri of favorites, or in some instances, infamous, uses of winged wonders in small screen cartoons, and in straggler theatrical shorts and big-screen features which appeared alongside of them.<\/p>\n\n
\n
We\u2019ll also take a different approach than strict chronological to conserve time on research, and my own brain power, and instead attempt to present an overview studio-by-studio of air-minded output of significance. A natural starting point for such a review is the studio which essentially made TV cartoons a viable and profitable mega-industry while other small studios were floundering and faltering. As Yogi Bear might say, \u201cWho else?\u201d – Hanna-Barbera.<\/p>\n
The Helicopter – a favorite mode of flying transportation at Hanna-Barbara<\/p><\/div>Hanna and Barbera quickly established a decided preference for use of helicopters over planes, featuring the whirling vehicles in numerous of their early productions. This decision was likely a conscious move in the development of \u201climited animation\u201d. A plane could not be easily drawn in a few frames and really look like something moving, as the body would remain motionless while only jet exhaust could be affordably drawn behind the engines. Adding streaks or speed lines would cost more money – prohibitive in early animation. Moreover, cockpit windows tended to be smaller on a plane, not allowing for ready view of characters within. A helicopter, on the other hand, could seem to be exhibiting greater movement, despite leaving its body motionless, by use of the large whirling prop above, which could be effectively animated in a repeating cycle of three to four cels. Its large glass semi-dome cockpit also allowed for a more panoramic view and greater visibility of the characters – also conducive to better camera work and more effective use of character poses. Thus, in the second Ruff and Reddy story arc, \u201cWestward Ho Ho Ho\u201d, our heroes and a sheepdog they are trying to assist in locating a rustled flock of sheep discover a plot whereby sheep are stolen at night with the use of a metal claw device lowered from a helicopter. (A bit of a dumb plot, as nobody figures upon the sound of the whirling blades arousing anybody below.) As the Western outlaws Killer and Diller make off with a truck loaded with the stolen lambs, they leave behind their helicopter in a boarded-up warehouse in a ghost town. Our heroes find it, and commandeer it to pursue the rustlers. Reddy of course knows nothing about flying, but gets the craft aloft on sheer dumb luck – with the caveat that his take-off has the machine flying upside down. He soon adjusts to get the ground back where it belongs, and a chase over the desert is on. Reddy drops from a rope ladder onto the bandits\u2019 moving truck, and when one of the Texas twins pops out a roof hatch to investigate the thud, Reddy grabs his six-shooter and gets the drop on him. Unfortunately, Reddy is facing in the opposite direction from the truck\u2019s progress, and fails to see a low tunnel approaching. The bandit ducks back inside, while Reddy gets clobbered by the tunnel archway. Ruff and the sheepdog descend to pick up the woozy Reddy, while the bandits exit out the other end of the tunnel and disappear into a box canyon hideout, shielded from view by a sliding boulder. When our heroes get their copter aloft again, they are no longer able to spot the truck, now concealed in the crooks\u2019 compound. However, one of the stolen sheep, hearing the approaching helicopter, whispers commands to the flock, and surprisingly possess the knowledge of how to spell. The sheep shape themselves into a formation which from overhead spells the word \u201cHelp\u201d. Our heroes spy the message, and are about to close in, when their gas gauge spells E-M-P-T-Y. The engine stops, and the craft begins to fall. By now, the bandits below have spotted the aerial intruders. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind them crashing\u201d, says the meaner brother Killer, \u201cBit it\u2019s our helicopter.\u201d \u201cThe dopes. Don\u2019t they know about the safety button?\u201d, asks Diller. What they don\u2019t know won\u2019t hurt \u2018em\u201d, responds Killer, \u201cIt\u2019ll kill \u2018em!\u201d But the wise little lamb is listening in, and with a few more whispers to the flock, the sheep rapidly change formation, to spell in succession the words, \u201cPush Button\u201d. With only one button left on the dashboard Reddy hasn\u2019t pressed, the boys take their chance and push – causing the copter to sprout a giant parachute, bringing them in for a soft landing.<\/p>\n \n \tKiller and Diller\u2019s helicopter would figure into the series once again, in a second-season arc, \u201cEgg Yeggs\u201d dealing with the prehistoric Chicken-Hearted Chickasaurus. In a land that time forgot, the villains use the copter for various aerial assaults on the giant prehistoric bird, as well as descent into its world via an extinct volcano crater. Settling for newly-laid eggs instead of the bird, the villains use the copter for a raid in the bird\u2019s nest, but face an aerial counter-attack by the Chickasaurus and Reddy hanging underneath her by means of a rope. Reddy performs an aerial drop that clobbers the villains, preventing their escape, and all ends happily, with one of the new eggs as a museum attraction, not likely to hatch for another million years.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/ruff_and_reddy_gang344-300x171.jpg\")
Aerial acrobatics would figure early into H-B product, providing recurring cliffhangers for their first TV venture Ruff and Reddy<\/em>. In their first serial arc, Planet Pirates<\/strong>, the cat and dog duo are abducted by robotic aliens from the planet Muni-Mula (that\u2019s Aluminum spelled backwards). Held captive inside the metal planet, their moves are observed by a flying eyeball camera supported by helicopter blade, known as the Hocus Pocus Focus. They make a getaway from the planet in a rocket ship provided by one Professor Gizmo (another prisoner from Earth, hailing from Mount Cucamonga). But Reddy misses the flight when he has to get out to give the rocket a start-up push. He is pursued by the Muni-Mula troops, and ducks into a hangar where legions of the robots are taking off upwards into space as the planet\u2019s air force, by means of \u201ccopter caps\u201d- beanies with helicopter propellers on top. (Of course, such prop caps had prior animation connections, receiving wide popularity in former animator Bob Clampett\u2019s famous Time For Beany<\/em> puppet show, and had appeared at least once in cartoon form, in a random gag in Tex Avery\u2019s Drag-a-Long Droopy<\/em>, where a Western wolf\u2019s Stetson is reduced by bullet barrage down to a propeller beanie.) Reddy acquires one of the caps from a supply shelf, and takes off once the robots have left. Ruff and Gizmo, returning for Reddy, elude the robot fliers, but spot Reddy as a lone straggler lagging behind, mistaking him for one of the robots. They draw a bead on him with a large gun, and shoot his prop off. Reddy falls like a stone, but Ruff and Gizmo discover their mistake, and use a second gun loaded with a plunger to grab hold of Reddy\u2019s rear, then reel him in with an attached rope. The robot flying squad returns on patrol, but Gizmo produces a secret weapon – launching a surprise package strung to a parachute, with a label reading \u201cDo Not Open Until Christmas\u201d. Knowing the robots to be \u201cNosey ones\u201d, Gizmo watches as they cluster around the mystery package – then BOOM, as an explosion rocks them from a $5.00 firecracker inside left over from the Fourth of July. Their copter cap straps are shattered, and the air force is quickly placed in Reddy\u2019s former position – out of commission, while only the caps remain hovering in air.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jellystone-helicopter.jpg\")