APPEARANCEAirwolf: Bell 222Blue Thunder: Aérospatiale Gazelle The sleek appearance of Airwolf was actually intentional, because the original premise of the show was that it could appear to be a civilian copter. This was reflected in the Airwolf badge logos worn on the flying suits, which featured a flying wolf in sheep’s clothing. Ironically, the changes that they made to Blue Thunder also made it nose heavy and reputedly very difficult to fly. Many of the stunts seen in the movie finale were done with models, as they where considered too dangerous to try in the real hardware.   FIREPOWER Airwolf: 30 mm Cannon (×2), .50 BMG Chain gun (×4) firing up to 40 rounds per sec. AGM-12 Bullpup missiles (×2), AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles (×12), AIM-95 Agile missiles (×4), AGM-45 Shrike missiles, M712 Copperhead shells, FIM-43 Redeye missiles, AGM-65 Maverick missiles, AGM-114 Hellfire missiles.Blue Thunder: 20mm electric cannon which can fire 4000 rounds of ammunition per minute Given a straight fight, I’d suggest that poor old Blue Thunder would be toast before it got within range to use its gun. Winner: Airwolf (2/0) CREW AND CAST Airwolf: Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent),  Dominic Santini (Ernest Borgnine), Michael ‘Archangel’ Coldsmith Briggs III (Alex Cord), Caitlin O’Shaughnessy (Jean Bruce Scott)AirWolf II: Major Mike Rivers (Geraint Wyn Davies), Saint John Hawke (Barry Van Dyke), Jason Locke (Anthony Sherwood), Jo Santini (Michele Scarabelli)Blue Thunder Movie: Frank Murphy (Roy Schneider), Capt. Jack Braddock (Warren Oats)Blue Thunder TV Show: Frank Chaney (James Farentino), Clinton ‘JAFO’ Wonderlove (Dana Carvey), Lyman ‘Bubba’ Kelsey (Bubba Smith), Richard ‘Ski’ Butowski (Dick Butkus), Captain Braddock (Sandy McPeak), J .J. Douglas (1 Ann Cooper) Blue Thunder’s crew choices went from the sublime to plain bizarre. In the original film Roy Schneider takes the controls as the post traumatic combat vet ‘Frank Chaney’, who’s so impressed with the helicopter that he ultimately destroys it by placing it in front of a train. Warren Oats, in one of his last every performances gives some crusty support and moustache twirling villainy is provided by his nemesis, Col F E Cochrane, played by Malcolm McDowell. What football has to do with assault helicopters isn’t obvious, or at least not to me. This was almost certainly a marketing lead exercise, where they even gave Bubba’s character the same nickname, so people would realise it was him! Airwolf was initially piloted by Jan-Michael Vincent, who is either considered monolithic or of limited acting ability, depending on how generous a mood you are in. But, and this was clearly in Donald Bellisario’s mind when he created the show, he balanced the flat presentation of Vincent with the wonderfully expressive and passionate Ernest Borgnine. Sadly Jan Michael Vincent’s growing problem with alcoholism ended his involvement, and the shoestring fourth series was filmed with relative unknowns. It was also compromised by the fact they no longer had the helicopter, and were forced to use only stock footage from the earlier episodes and the Airwolf mock-up. The cast of season 4 was bravely piloted by Geraint Wyn Davies, who is undoubtedly the only Welsh person to fly Airwolf. It was an unmitigated fiasco that lasted for 24 episodes. Winner: Neither, half a point each (2.5/0.5) SPECIAL FEATURES Blue Thunder: ·    Jet turbine engine with boost capability, enabling 360° loops·    Heat sensing infra-red filter for night vision·    Closed circuit TV-camera with a 100:1 zoom-lens·    ¾” code-numbered video-system; the tapes can be erased on signal·    Wide-band scanner·    “Whisper Mode” for silent flights·    Three TV-monitors. The centre monitor is connected to a vast array of data-banks·    Twin long-range, high-sensitivity shotgun microphones·    Cabin microphone; records cockpit conversations·    A Harrison helmet-mounted fire control/targeting system Historically Blue Thunder came first, and Airwolf was a development of the same concept, so the fact they then added all sorts of features wasn’t unexpected. The one feature that made Airwolf truly different was the turbo boost, enabling it implausibly to travel supersonically. There is a very good reason why helicopters can’t fly faster than about half the speed of sound, and they never actually explained in Airwolf how it was achieved. Because Blue Thunder had more factuall- based technology I’m going to award it this round. LIFESPAN Airwolf: 79 episodes over four seasonsBlue Thunder: 1 Movie, 11 episodes over a single season The quality of the writing and characters in the first 55 Airwolf episodes is very high for TV from that period, and so for that and overall longevity, it’s got to be Airwolf. Winner: Airwolf (3.5/1.5) This isn’t the obvious no-brainer that you might expect. If you can find the Arthur B Rubenstein’s score for Blue Thunder it’s a really excellent theme, which uses a complete range of the The Synclavier II, Jupiter, the Prophet and the Moog analogue synthesizers to full effect. However, ask anyone to hum it and you’ll get blank looks. On the other hand most people remember the electro-pop Airwolf theme built around the rotor sound, and it’s now synonymous with the show and helicopters in general. Musically, it’s got to be Airwolf. Winner: Airwolf (4.5/1.5) Postscript: After The Productions Ended The sad fact is that Airwolf no longer exists. Only one real chopper was made for this production, and after the end of the show it was returned to its original appearance and sold to a German company. The Bell 222 was then modified to be an air ambulance, until in 1991 it crashed during a thunderstorm, killing all three people on board. A number of fans have since started to convert another Bell 222 into a static replica, a salute to this bygone TV star. For the movie two Blue Thunder helicopters where fashioned, one main and a backup. One of these was sold to a helicopter salvage company after the TV show folded, and after being hired for a number of productions was ultimately dismantled and sold for spares. This was also the destiny of second Blue Thunder, so disappointingly from either franchise not one single helicopter actually survived.