The Batmobile is the
automobile of DC Comics superhero Batman. The car has evolved along
with the character from comic books to television and films
reflecting evolving car technologies. Kept in the Batcave accessed
through a hidden entrance, the gadget-laden car is used by Batman in
his crime-fighting activities.
The Batmobile made its
first appearance in Detective Comics #27 (May, 1939). Then a red
sedan, it was simply referred to as "his car". Soon it
began featuring an increasingly prominent bat motif, typically
including distinctive wing-shaped tailfins. Armored in the early
stages of Batman's career, it has been customized over time into a
sleek street machine. Although the Batplane was introduced in
Detective Comics No. 31, the name "Batmobile" was not
applied to Batman and Robin's automobile until Detective Comics No.
48 (February 1941). Other bat-vehicles soon followed, including the
Batcycle, Batboat and Robin's Redbird.
The car's design gradually
evolved. It became a "specially built high-powered auto" by
Detective Comics #30, and in Batman #5, it began featuring an
ever-larger bat hood ornament and an ever-darker paint job.
Eventually, the predominant designs included a large, dark-colored
body and bat-like accessories, including large tailfins scalloped to
resemble a bat's wings.
Batman
No. 5 (Spring 1941) introduced a long, powerful, streamlined
Batmobile with a tall scalloped fin and an intimidating bat head on
the front. Three pages after it was introduced, it was forced off a
cliff by the Joker to crash in the ravine below. However, an
identical Batmobile appeared in the next story in the same issue.
The live action television
series was so popular that its campy humor and its Batmobile, a
superficially modified concept car, the decade-old Lincoln Futura,
owned by George Barris (pictured below with Catwoman and Batgirl)
whose shop did the work, were quickly introduced into the Batman
comic books. But the high camp and general silliness of the
television show did not sit well with long-time Batman comic book
fans. So, when the series was canceled in 1968, the comic books
reacted by becoming darker and more serious, including having Batman
abandon that Batmobile. Its replacement for a number of years was a
much simpler model with a stylized bat's head silhouette decal on the
hood being the only decoration of note. The 1960s TV style Batmobile
still appears from time to time in the comic books, most recently in
Detective Comics #850 and the issues of Batman Confidential. In the
Bronze Age of Comic Books, the source of the cars was explained in
The Untold Legend of the Batman as the work of stunt driver Jack
Edison who volunteered to personally construct Batmobiles for Batman
after being rescued from a burning wreck.
In mid-1985, a special
variation of the Super Powers toyline Batmobile appeared in both
Batman and Detective Comics. This design had a full set of front and
rear canopies, "Coke-bottle" sides, integrated fins, and
generally rounder features, just like the toy. The only difference
between this car and its toy counterpart is the nose, which was
occasionally drawn to appear longer and more pointed.
In
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the Batmobile has been modified
into a tank-like armored riot control vehicle, complete with machine
guns shooting rubber bullets, a large cannon mounted on the front,
and large tank treads in place of tires. According to Batman's
narration, the only thing that can penetrate its armor "isn't
from this planet." Batman also mentions that it was Dick Grayson
who came up with the name. The tank-like vehicle appears to take up
two lanes of traffic on a normal road, evidenced when returning from
Batman's initial fight with the leader of the Mutants, and thus is
too big for normal land travel around Gotham. In the scenes prior to
Batman's last stand with the Joker, Batman uses a motorcycle to
traverse the city, using the tank again after the attempted nuclear
strike and fires in Gotham. This Batmobile reappeared in All Star
Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #4, which shows its construction by
robots in the Batcave.
Beginning in the 1990s, the
number of comics featuring Batman mushroomed with spin-off titles,
limited series, and graphic novels. At the same time, there was
considerable experimentation with styles of illustration. With
different illustration styles in so many different books, there was
naturally a corresponding diversity of designs for the Batmobile.
This has continued with designs for the Batmobile ranging from
conservative and practical to highly stylized to outlandish. Some are
heavily armored and can morph into a harrier jet and a submarine.
In
the Batman: Hush storyline, a splash page by Jim Lee shows all the
previous Batmobiles (from comics, movies, and all TV series) in
storage in the Batcave. In addition, some incarnations of the
character, such as Batman: The Animated Series, establish that Batman
has a large ground vehicle fleet of various makes and models as well
as utility vehicles to use when the Batmobile would be too
conspicuous. In issue 9 of the third volume of Teen Titans, Robin and
his friends use a Batmobile that he shipped out to San Francisco,
hiding the expense "in the Batarang budget".
The metafictional Batmobile
Owner's Manual, released in 2008, gives theoretical specifications of
the car as if it were real. The book states that the Batmobile's five
cylinder engine is more powerful than turbine jet engines, and
capable of achieving up to 1,700 horsepower (1,300 kW).
Click the link below to
view a comic-book style infographic released by carinsurance.org that
details the evolution of the batmobile over its seventy year history.
In
the 1943 serial film Batman, a black Cadillac was used by Bruce
Wayne and Dick Grayson, as well as their secret identities Batman and
Robin. Alfred chauffeured the Dynamic Duo in both identities.
Eventually a limousine replaced the Cadillac. In Batman and Robin,
the 1949 successor to the original serial, the duo drive around in a
1949 Mercury.
In late 1965 20th Century
Fox Television and William Dozier's Greenway Productions contracted
renowned Hollywood automobile customizer Dean Jeffries to design and
build a "Batmobile" for their upcoming Batman TV series. He
started customizing a 1959 Cadillac, but when the studio wanted the
program on the air in January 1966, and therefore filming sooner than
he could provide the car, Jeffries was paid off, and the project went
to George Barris.
What became the iconic
Batmobile used in the 1966–1968 live action television show and
its film adaptation was a customized vehicle that originated as a
one-off 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car, created by Ford Motor
Company lead stylists Bill Schmidt, Doug Poole Sr., and John Najjar
and their design team at the Lincoln Styling Department.
In 1954, the Futura
prototype was built entirely by hand by the Ghia Body Works in Turin,
Italy, at a reported cost of $250,000. It made its debut in
pearlescent Frost-Blue white paint on January 8th 1955 at the Chicago
Auto Show. In 1959, sporting a fresh red paint job because the
original color didn't photograph well, the Futura was featured in the
film It Started with a Kiss, starring Debbie Reynolds and Glenn Ford.
Barris was trying to get
Hollywood's attention with the Futura, which he had purchased from
Ford for the nominal sum of $1.00 and "other valuable
consideration", but aside from its film appearance, the Futura
had been languishing in his Hollywood shop for several years. With
only three weeks to finish the Batmobile, Barris decided that, rather
than building a car from scratch, it would be relatively easy to
transform the distinctive Futura into the famous crime-fighting
vehicle. Design work was conducted by Herb Grasse, working as an
associate designer for Barris.
Barris
hired Bill Cushenbery to do the metal modifications to the car and
its conversion into the Batmobile was completed in just three weeks,
at a reported cost of $30,000. They used the primer-painted,
white-striped car in October, 1965, for a network presentation reel.
Shortly afterward, the car was painted gloss black with
"fluorescent cerise" stripes. Barris retained ownership of
the car, estimated to be worth $125,000 in 1966 dollars, leasing it
to 20th Century Fox and Greenway Productions for use in the series.
When filming for the series
began, several problems arose due to the car's age: it overheated,
the battery went dead, and the expensive Mickey Thompson tires kept
blowing. By mid season, the engine and transmission were replaced
with those of a Ford Galaxie. The most frequent visual influence of
this car is that later Batmobiles usually have a rear rocket thruster
that fires as the car makes a fast start.
This Batmobile's gadgets
include a nose-mounted aluminum Cable Cutter Blade, Bat Ray
Projector, Anti-Theft Device, Detect-a-scope, Batscope, Bat Eye
Switch, Antenna Activator, Police Band Cut-In Switch, Automatic Tire
Inflation Device, Remote Batcomputer—radio linked to the main
Batcomputer in the Batcave, the Batphone, Emergency Bat Turn Lever,
Anti-Fire Activator, Bat Smoke, Bat Photoscope, and many other Bat
gadgets. If needed, the Batmobile is capable of a quick 180°
"bat-turn" thanks to two rear-mounted ten-foot Deist
parachutes. The main license plate seen throughout the series was
2F-3567 (1966). Some changes were made during the run of the series,
including different license plates (TP-3567; BT-1), removal of the
Futura steering wheel and substitution with a 1958 Edsel steering
wheel, and the addition of extra gadgets such as a net in the trunk,
remote-controlled driving, a rear-facing camera under the turbine
exhaust port, and the Bat Ram. Other devices included: Emergency
Bat-turn Lever (releases the Batmobile's parachute that enables quick
turns), Bat-ray (capable of many tasks, such as remotely opening
quarry's vehicle doors), Automatic fire extinguisher Mobile
Batcomputer (in trunk), Bat Beam, Emergency tire inflator, Bat Smoke
Screen, Bat-tering Ram (also known as the Bat-ram, used for knocking
down reinforced doors), Voice Control Batmobile Relay Unit,
Bat-photoscope (works in conjunction with the Microfilm Crime File in
the Batcave. Through this device a photo from the crime file can be
reproduced remotely in the Batmobile.), Batphone, Police band cut-in
switch, Mobile tracking scope, Remote Bat Computer Switch and an
Anti-theft switch.
Barris
built two fiberglass copies of the original Batmobile for exhibition
on the car show circuit and a third for exhibition drag racing.
Eventually, the three copies (and the screen-used metal Futura
Batmobile) were covered with a black velvet "fuzz" paint,
presumably to hide stress cracks in the fiberglass bodies. Later, all
three were restored to their gloss black paint job. The three
replicas are all based on a 1965–1966 Ford Galaxie. The #1
Barris-built Batmobile sold at Barrett-Jackson Auctions on January
19th, 2013 for $4,620,000, of which $420,000 was paid to Barrett-Jackson
in commissions. The three Barris copies all reside in private
collections, including the exhibition drag racing version driven by
wheelstanding driver Wild Bill Shrewsberry. This car was built with a
dual-quad Holman Moody Ford 427 V8 engine, Art Carr-prepared Ford C6
automatic transmission and 5.14 gears in the rear end. Quarter-mile
times were in the mid-12 second range, primarily because Shrewsberry
would launch the car in second gear and smoke the overinflated rear
tires for show down most of the strip. The "rocket exhaust"
was made functional via a tank filled with either gasoline or
kerosene which was pumped out the exhaust port and ignited electrically.
In October, 2010, DC Comics
authorized Fiberglass Freaks in Logansport, Indiana, to build
officially licensed 1966 Batmobile replicas. These replicas have been
sold to customers in England, Italy, Canada, and across the U.S. One
of Fiberglass Freaks' 1966 Batmobile Replicas sold at an R & M
auction for $216,000. Fiberglass Freaks' owner Mark Racop has been a
1966 Batman fan since he was two years old, and he built his first
1966 Batmobile replica when he was seventeen.
Tim Burton's live-action
films Batman and Batman Returns presented a different version of the
Batmobile, which reflected those films' Art Deco version of Gotham
City, both of which were designed by Anton Furst. It was long, low
and sleek, and was built on a Chevy Impala chassis.Spherical bombs
could be deployed from its sides. An afterburner was housed in the
back. Two M1919 Browning machine guns were hidden behind flaps in
each fender. Its grappling hook, once hooked on a structure, serves
as an anchor to allow the batmobile to make an extremely sharp turn
at high speed that its pursuers typically cannot duplicate. It had
superhydraulics for course changes, and a batdisc ejector
(side-mounted) that could fire precisely 15 Batdiscs in the 1-second
pulse. Other gadgets included chassis-mounted shinbreakers, oil slick
dispensers and smoke emitters. Inside, the two-seat cockpit featured
aircraft-like instrumentation, a passenger's side monitor,
self-diagnostics system, CD recorder, and voice-command recognition
system. In Batman Returns it is shown to have a secondary mode
referred to as the "Batmissile", where the wheels would
retract inward and the sides of the vehicle would break off,
converting the car into a thin bullet train-like form capable of
squeezing through tight alleyways. Obviously, this secondary mode
would require the car to be reassembled and significantly repaired.
The
Batmobile's shields are made of ceramic fractal armor panels. They
explode outward when struck by projectiles, deflecting injurious
force away from the car and its occupants. If Batman must leave the
Batmobile for an extended period of time, he can, through a voice
command spoken into a wrist device (specifically, the word
"shields"), activate the Batmobile's shielding system. This
prevents anyone from tampering with the vehicle while it is left
unattended. Bulletproof and fireproof steel armor plates envelop the
body and cockpit entirely. While this armor is in place, the vehicle
cannot be driven. In Batman the shields were not fully functioning.
In reality, a life-size model was built, and the shield activation
sequence was created with stop motion animation technology. In Batman
Returns, the shields held the same characteristics. However, the
design was slimmer and the special effects were provided by
computer-generated imagery. In shield mode, a small but powerful bomb
can be deployed.
The only actual turbine
powered Batmobile in existence is a replica of the 1989 film car. It
is powered by a military Boeing turboshaft engine driving the rear
wheels through a 4 speed semi-automatic transmission and is street
registered. This car was designed and constructed by Casey Putsch of
Putsch Racing in 2011. Putsch Racing also created a V8 powered
replica complete with retractable firing machine guns, automated
canopy, internet, and GPS, police/military scanner. That car was also
street registered in the United States.
Replicas
of the original Tim Burton-era Batmobile are on display in front of
several Batman: The Ride roller coasters and also in the street near
Batman Adventure – The Ride 2 at Warner Bros. Movie World in Australia.
Historic auto attractions
in Roscoe, Illinois displays a replica Batmobile from Batman Returns
as well as the "Batmissile" in addition to a replica of the
Batmobile from the 1960s television series. A series of Onstar TV
advertisements featured this particular Batmobile being equipped with
the system. OnStar allowed Batman to call various Gotham characters,
summon police, remotely unlock the vehicle's doors and find the
nearest jet fuel station. This version of the Batmobile was has been
seen in various other programs and productions including: Lois &
Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Looney Tunes: Back in Action,
Animaniacs and the animated series.
As the Batman films were
handed over to director Joel Schumacher from Tim Burton, the design
for the Batmobile updated. Decorative lighting was added to the
vehicle's rims, sides and front edge, and the wing-shaped fins
reached further into the air. New abilities included a grappling hook
allowing the Batmobile to drive up walls, as well as the speed to
perform large jumps from surface to surface during chases across
Gotham City's elevated freeways and gigantic statues.
The Batman Forever
Batmobile's ability to drive up walls was displayed as Batman eludes
a dead-end provided by Two-Face and his henchmen. Later in the film,
Dick Grayson takes the Batmobile for a joy ride without Batman's
permission or awareness. Ultimately, it was destroyed when the
Riddler deposited a sack full of explosives in the cockpit. Batman
Forever is also notable for the phrase uttered by Batman to Dr. Chase
Meridian "It's the car, right? Chicks love the car." The
design of the Batmobiles of the Schumacher films have garnered
criticism for allegedly resembling giant phalli.
The
Batman Forever Batmobile had a Chevrolet 350 ZZ3 high-performance
motor. The body is made from a vacuum-bagged high-temperature epoxy
fiberglass laminate. The wheelbase is 118 in. (118 inches (3.0 m)),
the average car wheelbase measures around 103 (USDOT Data
1980–2000) inches. In all, its size was 300 in long and 126 in
high. Carbon fiber was used to build the body of this particular Batmobile.
The Batmobile depicted in
Batman Forever sought to accentuate its intricate lines. To do this,
the filmmakers equipped it with engine panels, wheels, and
undercarriage that were indirectly lit so that they appeared to glow
blue. The Batman Forever car also had a split cockpit canopy,
separate fenders, and jet exhaust. The roof fin could be opened into
a "V" shape for a more contemporary look, though the only
time this was shown is during the scene when Dick Grayson is taking
the car out for a joyride through the city. The wheels were made to
keep the bat emblems upright when the wheels are turning. The bat-emblem
hubcaps was a counter-rotating gear that transferred into a
stationary point. The two-seat cockpit featured a rear-view monitor,
system diagnostics display, and custom gauge cluster. H. R. Giger was
chosen to design the Batmobile in the very early stages of
production. He left due to creative differences. His designs are on
his official website in illustrated and 3D Graphic Art form. There
were two primary avoidance/defense features on the Batman Forever
version. First, it had the ability to lock all four wheels
perpendicular to its centerline, to allow for quick sideways
movement. Second, for more dire circumstances, the Batmobile could
reroute the jet exhaust to under its front end and launch grappling
cables at overhead anchors. With the nose up and the lines in place,
the car could climb sheer vertical surfaces like building walls as if
it were driving on flat ground.
In
episode 53 of The Drew Carey Show (right), Drew Carey won the Batman
Forever version of the Batmobile as a prize. Lewis and Oswald take it
on a joyride dressed as Batman and Robin without Drew's permission.
Oswald was played by Diedrich Bader (Batman's voice in Batman: The
Brave and the Bold). In The New Batman Adventures episode
"Legends of the Dark Knight", three teenagers discuss their
ideas about what Batman is really like. They briefly meet an
effeminate youth named Joel in front of a shoemaker's shop, whose
idea of Batman consists mainly of a fascination with the tight rubber
suits and a Batmobile that can drive up walls (as seen in Batman
Forever). The other three children treat Joel's ideas with utter
disdain. In the 2011 remake of the comedy film Arthur, Arthur (played
by Russell Brand) drives the Batman Forever version of the Batmobile.
A new Batmobile is seen in
the 1997 film Batman & Robin. It is prominently featured in one
scene in which, as Batman and Robin are in pursuit, Mr. Freeze shoots
the underside of the car for several seconds with his freeze-gun,
before the car crash-lands. However, in the next scene in the
Batcave, the Batmobile is sitting back on its pedestal appearing to
be in perfect condition.
In Batman & Robin, the
aerodynamic chassis design and "T" axis wheelbase provided
the Batmobile counterbalance gyrometric stability, allowing for high
velocity 90-degree turns at speeds greater than 70 mph without losing
momentum. Initial plans had the Batmobile being able to transform
into the "Bathammer" vehicle seen in this film, but were abandoned.
The
second Schumacher era Batmobile featured neither a passenger seat
nor a canopy. Like the Batman Forever car, this Batmobile (which was
designed by Harald Belker) featured light-up wheels and engine
panels. The displays were much more involved with this car, however,
with red, orange, yellow, and blue lights, as well as special
pulsating lights in the counter-rotating turbine intake. The nozzles
were canted away from the centerline of the car slightly, so the
final effect was that the six exhausts made a "V" pattern
to keep the car pointed straight ahead. A bat mask was incorporated
in the nose of the car, though the sculpted lines made it somewhat
difficult to make out at first. The fins were unmistakable, though,
and remain as the largest set ever built into a real-world Batmobile.
On the Batman & Robin version the arsenal of weaponry and gadgets
is controlled by an onboard voice-activated computer which surrounds
the single-seat cockpit. From behind the wheel, the driver has access
to a multifunctioning key command response system which delivers
immediate weapon activation during attack and defensive procedures.
The Batman & Robin version of the Batmobile was equipped with
dual-mount, subcarriage rocket launchers, front and rear grappling
hooks, multipoint infrared and laser scan tracking units,
anterior/posterior wheel-based axle bombs, catapult ejection seat,
and disguised central carriage, which detaches to become an emergency
road vehicle. The single-seat cockpit featured a two-way
videoconferencing screen, radar unit, and Redbird communication switch.
The Batmobile depicted in
Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Batman films owes much to the
tank-like vehicle from Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight
Returns, has a more 'workhorse' appearance than the sleek automobiles
seen in previous incarnations and does not have a front axle. While
the films never refer to the vehicle as the "Batmobile", it
is still referred to as such in the scripts. The film's production
designer described the machine as a cross between a Lamborghini and a tank.
In Batman Begins (2005),
Bruce Wayne utilizes the prototype vehicle known as the Tumbler
designed by Wayne Enterprises' Applied Sciences Division as a
bridging vehicle for the military. It includes weaponry and the
ability to boost into a rampless jump. The Tumbler's armour is strong
enough to break through concrete barriers without sustaining
significant damage. Two full-sized driving versions were used in
exterior shots while another full-sized model with hydraulic
enhancements was used in jump sequences. A further full-sized,
functional version carried propane tanks to fuel the rocket blast out
of the rear nozzle. A radio controlled, 1/3-scale electric model also
performed stunts in the film including the roof-top chase sequence.
Six vehicles were built for the production of the film.
In The Dark Knight (2008),
the Tumbler returns and appears twice in the movie: where Batman
captures the Scarecrow and in a chase where it's damaged by a
rocket-propelled grenade fired by the Joker that causes a terminal
crash to which Batman ejects from the Tumbler in the Batpod (a
motorcycle formed by the front wheels and struts of the Tumbler) as
part of a self-destruct sequence which sees the remainder of the
vehicle explode. The Tumbler is also seen in the trailers in a
deleted scene, exiting the improvised Batcave.
In
The Dark Knight Rises (2012), several new Tumblers are seen. Each of
these vehicles had the original Tumbler's camouflage color scheme and
are used by Bane's gang stolen from Wayne Enterprises. The stolen
Tumblers are used in Bane's attempt to control Gotham and are notably
seen when the mass of police and criminals are about to battle. One
of the Tumblers fires at the crowd of police, only for the Bat to
intercept the shot. Three of the Tumblers are destroyed by Batman
using the Bat and Selina Kyle using the Batpod.
The Christopher Nolan
version of the Batmobile has a pair of autocannons mounted in the
nose of the car between the front wheels. In "Attack" mode,
the driver's seat moves to the center of the car, and the driver is
repositioned to lie face-down with his head in the center section
between the front wheels. This serves two main purposes: first, it
provides more substantial protection with the driver shielded by
multiple layers of armor plating. Second, the low-down, centralized
driving position makes extreme precision maneuvers easier to perform,
while lying prone reduces the risk of injury a driver faces when
making these maneuvers. Other devices included: rear flaps to assist
brakes, dual front autocannons, a rocket launcher, landing hook to
sprung landing stabilization, integrated fire-extinguishing system,
integrated safety connection to gasoline control and a jet engine
(ram jet afterburners) on back for quick boosts and rampless jumps.
The Tumbler also had a stealth mode, which turns off the car's lights
and cuts off the main engine. The vehicle is powered by an electric
motor making the car very hard to find in dark places (which makes
the mode most useful at night). Explosive caltrops are deployed from
the rear of the vehicle, which can take out any cars that make
contact with them and the front of car is heavily armored, so the car
can ram as a practical offensive attack, and also protects the driver
while in the prone driving position/"Attack" mode. Both
front wheels can eject when the vehicle is damaged to form the
Batpod, a motorcycle-like vehicle (the rest self-destructs). The
Tumblers are aslo modified with experimental weapons including a set
of missile launchers and a retractable artillery cannon on a turret.
The new incarnation of the
Tumbler was proposed by Nolan after he built a proof-of-concept model
design out of Play-Doh - a model he admitted looked "very very
crude, more like a croissant than a car". Nathan Crowley, one of
the production designers for Batman Begins, then started the process
of designing the Tumbler for the film by model bashing based on that
shape. One of the parts that Crowley used to create the vehicle was
the nose cone of a P-38 Lightning model to serve as the chassis for
the car's jet engine. Six models of the Tumbler were built to 1:12
scale in the course of four months. Following the scale model
creation, a crew of over 30 people, including Crowley and engineers
Chris Culvert and Andy Smith, carved a full-size replica of the
vehicle out of a large block of Styrofoam, which was a process that
lasted two months.
The
Styrofoam model was used to create a steel "test frame",
which had to stand up to several standards: have a speed of over 100
mph, go from 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 5 seconds, possess a steering
system to make sharp turns at city corners, and to withstand a self-propelled
launch of up to 30 feet (9.1 m). On the first jump test, the
Tumbler's front end collapsed and had to be completely rebuilt. The
basic configuration of the newly designed vehicle included a
5.7-liter Chevy V8 engine, a truck axle for the rear axle, front
racing tires by Hoosier, rear 4×4 mud tires by Interco., and the
suspension system of Baja racing trucks. The design and development
process took nine months and cost several million dollars.
With the design process
completed, four street-ready cars were constructed. Each vehicle
possessed 65 carbon fiber panels and cost $250,000 to build. Two of
the four cars were specialized versions. One version was the flap
version, which had hydraulics and flaps to detail the close-up shots
where the vehicle propelled itself through the air. The other version
was the jet version, in which an actual jet engine was mounted onto
the vehicle, fueled by six propane tanks. Due to the poor visibility
inside the vehicle by the driver, monitors were connected to cameras
on the vehicle body. The professional drivers for the Tumblers
practiced driving the vehicles for six months before they drove on
the streets of Chicago for the film's scenes.
The interior was an
immobile studio set and not actually the interior of a street-capable
version. The cockpit was oversized to fit cameras for scenes filmed
in the Tumbler interior. In addition, another version of the car was
a miniature model that was 1:6 scale of the full-sized one. This
miniature model had an electric
motor and was used to show it flying across ravines and between
buildings. However, a full-size car was used for the waterfall
sequence. The scale model scenes were filmed on a massive set built
on a stage at Shepperton Studios in England over the course of nine
weeks. The full-sized vehicles were driven and filmed on the streets
of Chicago. In The Dark Knight, the Batpod ejects from the Tumbler,
with the Tumbler's front wheels as the Batpod's wheels; this was
rendered using computer-generated imagery when attempts to achieve
the separation through practical effects proved impossible.
Untitled
OTHER BAT-VEHICLES
- IN THE AIR
The
Batplane, later known as the Batwing, is the fictional aircraft for
the comic book superhero Batman. The vehicle was introduced in
"Batman Versus The Vampire, I", published in Detective
Comics #31 in 1939, a story which saw Batman travel to continental
Europe. In this issue it was referred to as the "Batgyro",
and according to Les Daniels was "apparently inspired by Igor
Sikorsky's first successful helicopter flight" of the same year.
Initially based upon either an autogyro or helicopter, with a rotor,
the Batgyro featured a bat motif at the front. The writers gave the
Batgyro the ability to be "parked" in the air by Batman,
hovering in such a way as to maintain its position and allow Batman
to return.
The Batgyro was soon
replaced by the Batplane, which debuted in Batman #1, and initially
featured a machine gun. The vehicle was now based on a fixed wing
airplane rather than a helicopter, with a propeller at the front,
although a bat motif was still attached to the nose-cone. The
Batplane has undergone constant revision since its first appearance,
and has even been depicted as having the capability to traverse
underwater. With the launch of the Tim Burton directed Batman film of
1989, the Batplane became known as the Batwing, a name which was
carried over into the comics. The 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises
adapted the Batplane to film once again.
Batman
once maintained aircraft in his original Batcave. However, launching
these planes so close to Wayne Manor's neighboring estates threatened
to compromise Batman's secret identity. The Caped Crusader now
"borrows" specially-modified jets and helicopters from
Wayne Aerospace's business and military contracts. In the comics the
Batplane was developed and modified over the years. Batplane I and
the Bat-Rocket favored Batman's signature look over sleek
aerodynamics. Batplane II was a retooled Wayne Aeropsace W4 Wraith
fighter that married style with substance. In terms of design, it
shares features with the Grumman F9F Cougar and McDonnell F-101
Voodoo. When the Batplane is stolen and triplicated by smugglers in
Batman #61, Batman and Robin upgrade the Batplane to jet propulsion,
adding at least "100 miles per hour" to its maximum speed.
Batplane III is a modified Wayne Aerospace SlipStream ($46 million
sans "extras"). It is detailed to resemble a standard
mid-size corporate jet during take-offs and landings.
The Batplane has appeared
in the Super Friends cartoon, where it was revealed to be a jet, and
it was most often referred to as the Batjet, except for in season
one. The Batwing also appears in Batman: The Animated Series, shaped
like a stylized bat with very long wings that jut out past the
"head" of the plane. The Batplane in The New Batman
Adventures takes on a smaller, sleeker design shaped like a rocket
with a curved wing on each side which also appeared in Justice League
and Justice League Unlimited. In Batman Beyond, flying cars are
commonplace and thus the Batmobile used by Terry McGinnis doubles as
a plane. The classic Bat-Plane appears frequently in Batman: The
Brave and the Bold. In The Batman, the Batwing is created in the
episode "Thunder" to defeat Maxie Zeus. In the episode
"Artifacts", Nightwing uses it to save a plane and crashes
it on Freeze. The Batwing briefly appeared in the Young Justice
episode "Revelation", where Batman used it to help combat a
giant plant monster created by the Injustice League.The Batwing is
later seen again in the episode "Coldhearted",where Batman
is using it to fly to the flying fortresses and is also comunicating
with the team.
The Batwing appears in the
movies Batman and Batman Forever, used to combat the Joker and the
Riddler, respectively. After being used to prevent a deadly Smilex
gas attack, the original Batwing was shot down by the Joker towards
the end of the first film and has been rebuilt and upgraded by the
events of Forever. The Batwing in the latter actually has an ejection
pod which also doubles as a mini sub. Both models of the plane are
roughly bat-shaped. In the comic book adaptation of the Batman
Forever, the Batwing actually folds up into the Batboat.
An
entirely new version of the Batwing appears in the film The Dark
Knight Rises referred to simply as the Bat. It is an unconventional,
lightweight volantor-like craft with a ventrally mounted rotor.
Developed by Lucius Fox, the Bat was originally intended for
close-quarters urban military operations but instead becomes Batman's
new primary vehicle. Fox notes that the Bat's autopilot function does
not work but suggests that Bruce might be capable of fixing it.
Batman first uses the Bat to escape pursuing police officers after
being cornered in a dark alley. Immediately after, he uses it to
rescue Selina Kyle from Bane's henchmen. Later in the film's climax,
Batman uses the Bat in the fight to retake Gotham City from Bane and
he uses the Bat to haul a fusion bomb away from Gotham City where it
detonates over the ocean and presumably kills him. Later, while
completing work on the Bat, Fox discovers that Wayne had fixed the
autopilot function months before and may have escaped before the bomb
detonated. In designing the Bat, Nathan Crowley approached it as if
it were an actual military project, emphasising the need for it to
"fit into the same family" as the Tumbler and the Batpod.
The final version of the Bat takes its design cues from the Harrier
Jump Jet, Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey and the Boeing AH-64 Apache. Chris
Corbould described the Bat's size and shape as presenting a major
challenge for filming given Christopher Nolan's emphasis on practical
effects over computer-generated imagery. In order to make the Bat
"fly", it was variously supported by wires, suspended from
cranes and helicopters, and mounted on a purpose-built vehicle with
hydraulic controls to simulate movement.
The first appearance of the
Batcopter was in the 1966 film Batman. Unlike the Batmobile, the
Batcycle, and the Batboat, it was not intended for use in the 1960s
Batman television series, which did not have the budget to create
such elaborate vehicles. While the other vehicles were bought by 20th
Century Fox, the Batcopter was only leased for the movie. It cost Fox
$750 a day for five days from April 7 to April 11, 1966.
The
Batcopter was a functional helicopter provided by National
Helicopter Service. It was based on the Bell 47, which was designed
by Bell Helicopter Textron in 1941. The Batcopter was a G3B-1 model,
which had previously been used in Lassie Come Home and ABC News. To
make the model look more like a superhero vehicle, it was fitted with
canvas-covered tubular frames and was painted red. The head of a bat
was painted in the front while the Batman symbol was painted on the
side. The most dangerous design change was the wings, which reduced
power by nearly fifty percent.
For the scenes at sea, the
Batcopter was taped at Marineland of the Pacific in Palos Verdes,
California. Most of the shots were relatively far away as the pilot
was Harry Haus, not Adam West, the actor playing Batman. Hubie Kerns
donned the Batman outfit to perform the stunts, namely climbing the
rope ladder attached to the helicopter while kicking an exploding shark.
Additional footage of the
Batcopter was shot for eventual inclusion in seasons two and three of
the TV series. When the Batcopter was returned to National, the wings
and tubes were removed. It was repainted
to look like all the other helicopters and was used for various
purposes over the years, such as covering the 1968 Super Bowl.
Eventually National replaced its Bell 47's and sold them. The
helicopter which had previously served as the Batcopter was bought by
the President of NockAir Helicopter, Inc., Eugene Nock. He repainted
it and replaced the tubes so that it could once again be called the
Batcopter. The wings, however, were not replaced as they caused so
much power reduction. The Batcopter has been retrofitted with new
equipment and electronics so that it can now attain altitudes up to
18000 feet, speeds up to 105 miles per hour, and flight times up to 2
hours and 45 minutes.
OTHER BAT-VEHICLES
- ON LAND
The Batcycle is the
fictional personal motorcycle of comic book superhero Batman. In the
comic book universe, Batman's personal Batcycle is a modified
street-bike with a 786 cc liquid-cooled V-4 engine. It contains a
computer-controlled carburetor and bulletproof wind-guard.
A
live action Batcycle made its first appearance in 1966 in the Batman
TV series (pictured left). It was a 1965 Harley Davidson with a side
car, but it was taken on lease and was only used for the first season
episode "Not Yet, He Ain't".
Later that year, a new
Batcycle was introduced (pictured below). It was produced by
Kustomotive, conceived by Dan Dempski, designed by Tom Daniel, and
built by Dan and Korky Korkes using a Yamaha Catalina 250. It was
leased to 20th Century Fox starting on April 18th, 1966 for $50 a
week with an additional $350 up front. The new Batcycle was first
used in the 1966 film Batman and continued to appear in the rest of
the TV series. Hubie Kerns and Victor Paul did most of the stunt work
with the motorcycle throughout the series. The total amount paid to
Kustomotive was $2,500. When the series was canceled, Kustomotive
used the Batcycle in car shows, paying royalties to Greenway, 20th
Century Fox, and National Periodical Publications. Kustomotive built
four replicas of the Batcycle for tours.
Robin's sidecar (a
detachable self-propelled vehicle) was authenticated by Burt Ward on
the television series Hollywood Treasure and sold at auction for $30,000.
The Batcycle is known as
the Batpod for The Dark Knight (2008). The bike has 20" front
and rear tires and is powered by a high-performance, water-cooled, single-cylinder
engine - geared toward the lower end for faster acceleration and
with no exhaust pipes. The exhaust is routed through the hollow
steel/aluminum/magnesium tubing used for the frame of the bike. The
Batpod is steered by the shoulders instead of hands, and the rider's
arms are protected by shields. The two foot pegs are set 3½ feet
apart on either side of the tank, which the rider lies on, belly
down. The engine noise was designed around the shepard tone, for
which sound effects came, in part, from the sound of the Tesla
Roadster's electric motor. The Batpod ejects out of the Tumbler's
front end, with the Tumbler's front wheels becoming the Batpod's
front and rear wheels. Because the Tumbler is ordered to
self-destruct, the Batpod allows Batman to continue his pursuit. For
the film, the bike is armed with grappling hooks, cannons, and
machine guns. Six models were constructed for the film's production
to anticipate some of them crashing.
One action sequence in the
film shows the wheels rolling against their normal axes, seemingly
for added stability in sharp turns or other maneuvers. This also
allows for instant changes in direction - if the driver approaches a
wall, the Batpod's central frame will rotate to keep the driver
upright (the inspiration for this useful chassis feature may well
have been the innovative wheel configuration on a Killough Platform
into omnidirectionally mobile chasses). The Batpod's chassis also
elongates, allowing the rider to pass under low-hanging obstacles, as
when Batman slaloms underneath a tractor trailer the Joker is
driving. The term "Batpod" is mentioned by Alfred
Pennyworth only once in the movie.
The Batpod is used again in
The Dark Knight Rises (2012). At first, it serves as Batman's primary
vehicle. Later, Selina Kyle uses the Batpod during the final battle
against Bane's forces for the fate of Gotham. Batman uses the Bat to
fight Bane's stolen Tumblers from the air while Selina uses the
Batpod to open a tunnel to allow Gotham civilians to escape, to shoot
Bane, and to destroy at least two of Bane's Tumblers while tracking
the nuclear bomb Bane and Talia al Ghul intended to use to destroy
the city. During filming on August 9th, 2011, a stunt performer
collided with an IMAX camera while filming a chase scene involving
Kyle's Batpod.
In the third season of the
Batman TV Series Batgirl (played by Yvonne Craig) joined the cast
with her very own Bat-Cycle. The bike itself was a Yamaha YDS-5E.
Batgirl accesses the bike from an old unused elevator, hidden behind
a revolving wall in her apartment. The elevator lowers the cycle down
to an alleyway where she zooms out of the wall and into the street.
AV
CLUB FEATURETTE DEPARTMENT
Untitled
You never really heard it much but Batgirl had her own theme song in the 1966 Batman series!
Alicia
Silverstone's Batgirl in the 1997 film Batman & Robin got a less
"frilly" ride than TV's Batgirl. Her specialized motorcycle
had a little more street cred and was dubbed the Batblade. The
Batblade was built on the body of a drag racer: the rear tire comes
not from a motorcycle, but from a car. Originally the equipment for
fast pursuits was conceived, and with the help of the special effects
it functions also on smooth underground and under most extreme
weather conditions enabling Batgril to race into action against Mr.
Freeze at the end of the film.
OTHER BAT-VEHICLES
- IN THE WATER
The
first official Batboat made its debut in April 1946 (in Detective
Comics #110). The storyline involved Scotland Yard providing Batman
and Robin with the boat in order to speed their search for the
villainous Professor Moriarty.
Early in his career, while
investigating arms dealers operating along the wharves of Gotham
City's Chinatown district, Batman used a prototype Batboat to pursue
the fleeing criminals. In what was later regarded as an "extreme
measure", Batman destroyed their launch with a bow-mounted
flame-thrower. Also featured in the comics, in Sub-Level 6 of the
Batcave, there's an aqua-dynamic hydrofoil/submersible (otherwise
known as the Batboat) on both the navigable Gotham River and the
Atlantic Ocean's waters.
The
Bat-Submersible (or "Batsub") made its debut in May 1949
in Detective Comics #147. Batman and Robin employed the Bat-Sub in
order to net Tiger Shark. The Batsub (or Bat-Sub) is another
fictional watercraft along with the Batboat used by the comic
superhero Batman for alternative transportation purposes.
The first appearance of the
Batboat on film was in the 1966 Batman movie based on the TV series.
It was subsequently used in seasons two and three. It was created by
Glastron Industries. Since Glastron was based in Austin, Texas, the
world premiere of the 1966 "Batman" movie was also held
there. Mel Whitley and Robert Hammond designed the Batboat from a
Glastron V-174. They added a red flashing beacon, glowing eyes,
batzooka hatches, seats for both Batman and Robin at the front of the
boat, twin wind screens, a center console, an outdrive jet cover, and
an aft to deck cover with a glowing Bat-Signal on the tail fin.
Although the boat was powered by a Merc Cruiser L-6 stern drive and
Attwood Corporation manufactured the hardwire, a water squirter and a
jet nozzle were added to make the Batboat look like it was
nuclear-powered. It took 31 days to build.
Eventually, a replica was
built of the Batboat. When the Batman television show was cancelled,
Glastron used the two Batboats for promotions on tours. After much
touring, the boats were sold. One boat went to a Glastron dealer who
was a Shriner. He used it in various Shriner parades. This Batboat
was then moved to the Car Stars museum in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
The
Bat Ski Boat is a darker version of the Batboat. In the 1992
live-action film Batman Returns. Batman uses the jet-powered
hydrofoil near the climax of the film to travel through Gotham's
sewer system towards the Penguin's lair. The Bat Ski Boat's design
has elements from the film's Batmobile and the figure of a shark. It
is a single-seater and has the same extras as the Batmobile,
including torpedo launchers. It also has a radar, which can be used
by Batman to monitor each area of Gotham City. Two Bat Ski Boats were
manufactured for Batman Returns: a full-size version 7.6 meters long
and 4.9 meters wide, and a model 1.8 meters long and 1.2 meters wide.
A second Batboat (a
jet-powered cigarette boat) appears in the film Batman Forever,
piloted by Robin, and is quickly destroyed by The Riddler and
Two-Face. In the same film, a version of the Batwing is shown to have
a cockpit that can transform into a submersible vehicle should the
air vehicle be shot down. This mini submarine does not have armament
and is only equipped with a search headlight.
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Batman
No. 5 (Spring 1941) introduced a long, powerful, streamlined
Batmobile with a tall scalloped fin and an intimidating bat head on
the front. Three pages after it was introduced, it was forced off a
cliff by the Joker to crash in the ravine below. However, an
identical Batmobile appeared in the next story in the same issue.
In
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, the Batmobile has been modified
into a tank-like armored riot control vehicle, complete with machine
guns shooting rubber bullets, a large cannon mounted on the front,
and large tank treads in place of tires. According to Batman's
narration, the only thing that can penetrate its armor "isn't
from this planet." Batman also mentions that it was Dick Grayson
who came up with the name. The tank-like vehicle appears to take up
two lanes of traffic on a normal road, evidenced when returning from
Batman's initial fight with the leader of the Mutants, and thus is
too big for normal land travel around Gotham. In the scenes prior to
Batman's last stand with the Joker, Batman uses a motorcycle to
traverse the city, using the tank again after the attempted nuclear
strike and fires in Gotham. This Batmobile reappeared in All Star
Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #4, which shows its construction by
robots in the Batcave.
In
the Batman: Hush storyline, a splash page by Jim Lee shows all the
previous Batmobiles (from comics, movies, and all TV series) in
storage in the Batcave. In addition, some incarnations of the
character, such as Batman: The Animated Series, establish that Batman
has a large ground vehicle fleet of various makes and models as well
as utility vehicles to use when the Batmobile would be too
conspicuous. In issue 9 of the third volume of Teen Titans, Robin and
his friends use a Batmobile that he shipped out to San Francisco,
hiding the expense "in the Batarang budget".
In
the 1943 serial film Batman, a black Cadillac was used by Bruce
Wayne and Dick Grayson, as well as their secret identities Batman and
Robin. Alfred chauffeured the Dynamic Duo in both identities.
Eventually a limousine replaced the Cadillac. In Batman and Robin,
the 1949 successor to the original serial, the duo drive around in a
1949 Mercury.
Barris
hired Bill Cushenbery to do the metal modifications to the car and
its conversion into the Batmobile was completed in just three weeks,
at a reported cost of $30,000. They used the primer-painted,
white-striped car in October, 1965, for a network presentation reel.
Shortly afterward, the car was painted gloss black with
"fluorescent cerise" stripes. Barris retained ownership of
the car, estimated to be worth $125,000 in 1966 dollars, leasing it
to 20th Century Fox and Greenway Productions for use in the series.
Barris
built two fiberglass copies of the original Batmobile for exhibition
on the car show circuit and a third for exhibition drag racing.
Eventually, the three copies (and the screen-used metal Futura
Batmobile) were covered with a black velvet "fuzz" paint,
presumably to hide stress cracks in the fiberglass bodies. Later, all
three were restored to their gloss black paint job. The three
replicas are all based on a 1965–1966 Ford Galaxie. The #1
Barris-built Batmobile sold at Barrett-Jackson Auctions on January
19th, 2013 for $4,620,000, of which $420,000 was paid to Barrett-Jackson
in commissions. The three Barris copies all reside in private
collections, including the exhibition drag racing version driven by
wheelstanding driver Wild Bill Shrewsberry. This car was built with a
dual-quad Holman Moody Ford 427 V8 engine, Art Carr-prepared Ford C6
automatic transmission and 5.14 gears in the rear end. Quarter-mile
times were in the mid-12 second range, primarily because Shrewsberry
would launch the car in second gear and smoke the overinflated rear
tires for show down most of the strip. The "rocket exhaust"
was made functional via a tank filled with either gasoline or
kerosene which was pumped out the exhaust port and ignited electrically.
The
Batmobile's shields are made of ceramic fractal armor panels. They
explode outward when struck by projectiles, deflecting injurious
force away from the car and its occupants. If Batman must leave the
Batmobile for an extended period of time, he can, through a voice
command spoken into a wrist device (specifically, the word
"shields"), activate the Batmobile's shielding system. This
prevents anyone from tampering with the vehicle while it is left
unattended. Bulletproof and fireproof steel armor plates envelop the
body and cockpit entirely. While this armor is in place, the vehicle
cannot be driven. In Batman the shields were not fully functioning.
In reality, a life-size model was built, and the shield activation
sequence was created with stop motion animation technology. In Batman
Returns, the shields held the same characteristics. However, the
design was slimmer and the special effects were provided by
computer-generated imagery. In shield mode, a small but powerful bomb
can be deployed.
Replicas
of the original Tim Burton-era Batmobile are on display in front of
several Batman: The Ride roller coasters and also in the street near
Batman Adventure – The Ride 2 at Warner Bros. Movie World in Australia.
The
Batman Forever Batmobile had a Chevrolet 350 ZZ3 high-performance
motor. The body is made from a vacuum-bagged high-temperature epoxy
fiberglass laminate. The wheelbase is 118 in. (118 inches (3.0 m)),
the average car wheelbase measures around 103 (USDOT Data
1980–2000) inches. In all, its size was 300 in long and 126 in
high. Carbon fiber was used to build the body of this particular Batmobile.
In
episode 53 of The Drew Carey Show (right), Drew Carey won the Batman
Forever version of the Batmobile as a prize. Lewis and Oswald take it
on a joyride dressed as Batman and Robin without Drew's permission.
Oswald was played by Diedrich Bader (Batman's voice in Batman: The
Brave and the Bold). In The New Batman Adventures episode
"Legends of the Dark Knight", three teenagers discuss their
ideas about what Batman is really like. They briefly meet an
effeminate youth named Joel in front of a shoemaker's shop, whose
idea of Batman consists mainly of a fascination with the tight rubber
suits and a Batmobile that can drive up walls (as seen in Batman
Forever). The other three children treat Joel's ideas with utter
disdain. In the 2011 remake of the comedy film Arthur, Arthur (played
by Russell Brand) drives the Batman Forever version of the Batmobile.
The
second Schumacher era Batmobile featured neither a passenger seat
nor a canopy. Like the Batman Forever car, this Batmobile (which was
designed by Harald Belker) featured light-up wheels and engine
panels. The displays were much more involved with this car, however,
with red, orange, yellow, and blue lights, as well as special
pulsating lights in the counter-rotating turbine intake. The nozzles
were canted away from the centerline of the car slightly, so the
final effect was that the six exhausts made a "V" pattern
to keep the car pointed straight ahead. A bat mask was incorporated
in the nose of the car, though the sculpted lines made it somewhat
difficult to make out at first. The fins were unmistakable, though,
and remain as the largest set ever built into a real-world Batmobile.
On the Batman & Robin version the arsenal of weaponry and gadgets
is controlled by an onboard voice-activated computer which surrounds
the single-seat cockpit. From behind the wheel, the driver has access
to a multifunctioning key command response system which delivers
immediate weapon activation during attack and defensive procedures.
The Batman & Robin version of the Batmobile was equipped with
dual-mount, subcarriage rocket launchers, front and rear grappling
hooks, multipoint infrared and laser scan tracking units,
anterior/posterior wheel-based axle bombs, catapult ejection seat,
and disguised central carriage, which detaches to become an emergency
road vehicle. The single-seat cockpit featured a two-way
videoconferencing screen, radar unit, and Redbird communication switch.
In
The Dark Knight Rises (2012), several new Tumblers are seen. Each of
these vehicles had the original Tumbler's camouflage color scheme and
are used by Bane's gang stolen from Wayne Enterprises. The stolen
Tumblers are used in Bane's attempt to control Gotham and are notably
seen when the mass of police and criminals are about to battle. One
of the Tumblers fires at the crowd of police, only for the Bat to
intercept the shot. Three of the Tumblers are destroyed by Batman
using the Bat and Selina Kyle using the Batpod.
The
Styrofoam model was used to create a steel "test frame",
which had to stand up to several standards: have a speed of over 100
mph, go from 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 5 seconds, possess a steering
system to make sharp turns at city corners, and to withstand a self-propelled
launch of up to 30 feet (9.1 m). On the first jump test, the
Tumbler's front end collapsed and had to be completely rebuilt. The
basic configuration of the newly designed vehicle included a
5.7-liter Chevy V8 engine, a truck axle for the rear axle, front
racing tires by Hoosier, rear 4×4 mud tires by Interco., and the
suspension system of Baja racing trucks. The design and development
process took nine months and cost several million dollars.
electric
motor and was used to show it flying across ravines and between
buildings. However, a full-size car was used for the waterfall
sequence. The scale model scenes were filmed on a massive set built
on a stage at Shepperton Studios in England over the course of nine
weeks. The full-sized vehicles were driven and filmed on the streets
of Chicago. In The Dark Knight, the Batpod ejects from the Tumbler,
with the Tumbler's front wheels as the Batpod's wheels; this was
rendered using computer-generated imagery when attempts to achieve
the separation through practical effects proved impossible.
The
Batplane, later known as the Batwing, is the fictional aircraft for
the comic book superhero Batman. The vehicle was introduced in
"Batman Versus The Vampire, I", published in Detective
Comics #31 in 1939, a story which saw Batman travel to continental
Europe. In this issue it was referred to as the "Batgyro",
and according to Les Daniels was "apparently inspired by Igor
Sikorsky's first successful helicopter flight" of the same year.
Initially based upon either an autogyro or helicopter, with a rotor,
the Batgyro featured a bat motif at the front. The writers gave the
Batgyro the ability to be "parked" in the air by Batman,
hovering in such a way as to maintain its position and allow Batman
to return.
Batman
once maintained aircraft in his original Batcave. However, launching
these planes so close to Wayne Manor's neighboring estates threatened
to compromise Batman's secret identity. The Caped Crusader now
"borrows" specially-modified jets and helicopters from
Wayne Aerospace's business and military contracts. In the comics the
Batplane was developed and modified over the years. Batplane I and
the Bat-Rocket favored Batman's signature look over sleek
aerodynamics. Batplane II was a retooled Wayne Aeropsace W4 Wraith
fighter that married style with substance. In terms of design, it
shares features with the Grumman F9F Cougar and McDonnell F-101
Voodoo. When the Batplane is stolen and triplicated by smugglers in
Batman #61, Batman and Robin upgrade the Batplane to jet propulsion,
adding at least "100 miles per hour" to its maximum speed.
Batplane III is a modified Wayne Aerospace SlipStream ($46 million
sans "extras"). It is detailed to resemble a standard
mid-size corporate jet during take-offs and landings.
An
entirely new version of the Batwing appears in the film The Dark
Knight Rises referred to simply as the Bat. It is an unconventional,
lightweight volantor-like craft with a ventrally mounted rotor.
Developed by Lucius Fox, the Bat was originally intended for
close-quarters urban military operations but instead becomes Batman's
new primary vehicle. Fox notes that the Bat's autopilot function does
not work but suggests that Bruce might be capable of fixing it.
Batman first uses the Bat to escape pursuing police officers after
being cornered in a dark alley. Immediately after, he uses it to
rescue Selina Kyle from Bane's henchmen. Later in the film's climax,
Batman uses the Bat in the fight to retake Gotham City from Bane and
he uses the Bat to haul a fusion bomb away from Gotham City where it
detonates over the ocean and presumably kills him. Later, while
completing work on the Bat, Fox discovers that Wayne had fixed the
autopilot function months before and may have escaped before the bomb
detonated. In designing the Bat, Nathan Crowley approached it as if
it were an actual military project, emphasising the need for it to
"fit into the same family" as the Tumbler and the Batpod.
The final version of the Bat takes its design cues from the Harrier
Jump Jet, Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey and the Boeing AH-64 Apache. Chris
Corbould described the Bat's size and shape as presenting a major
challenge for filming given Christopher Nolan's emphasis on practical
effects over computer-generated imagery. In order to make the Bat
"fly", it was variously supported by wires, suspended from
cranes and helicopters, and mounted on a purpose-built vehicle with
hydraulic controls to simulate movement.
The
Batcopter was a functional helicopter provided by National
Helicopter Service. It was based on the Bell 47, which was designed
by Bell Helicopter Textron in 1941. The Batcopter was a G3B-1 model,
which had previously been used in Lassie Come Home and ABC News. To
make the model look more like a superhero vehicle, it was fitted with
canvas-covered tubular frames and was painted red. The head of a bat
was painted in the front while the Batman symbol was painted on the
side. The most dangerous design change was the wings, which reduced
power by nearly fifty percent.
repainted
to look like all the other helicopters and was used for various
purposes over the years, such as covering the 1968 Super Bowl.
Eventually National replaced its Bell 47's and sold them. The
helicopter which had previously served as the Batcopter was bought by
the President of NockAir Helicopter, Inc., Eugene Nock. He repainted
it and replaced the tubes so that it could once again be called the
Batcopter. The wings, however, were not replaced as they caused so
much power reduction. The Batcopter has been retrofitted with new
equipment and electronics so that it can now attain altitudes up to
18000 feet, speeds up to 105 miles per hour, and flight times up to 2
hours and 45 minutes.
A
live action Batcycle made its first appearance in 1966 in the Batman
TV series (pictured left). It was a 1965 Harley Davidson with a side
car, but it was taken on lease and was only used for the first season
episode "Not Yet, He Ain't".
Alicia
Silverstone's Batgirl in the 1997 film Batman & Robin got a less
"frilly" ride than TV's Batgirl. Her specialized motorcycle
had a little more street cred and was dubbed the Batblade. The
Batblade was built on the body of a drag racer: the rear tire comes
not from a motorcycle, but from a car. Originally the equipment for
fast pursuits was conceived, and with the help of the special effects
it functions also on smooth underground and under most extreme
weather conditions enabling Batgril to race into action against Mr.
Freeze at the end of the film.
The
first official Batboat made its debut in April 1946 (in Detective
Comics #110). The storyline involved Scotland Yard providing Batman
and Robin with the boat in order to speed their search for the
villainous Professor Moriarty.
The
Bat-Submersible (or "Batsub") made its debut in May 1949
in Detective Comics #147. Batman and Robin employed the Bat-Sub in
order to net Tiger Shark. The Batsub (or Bat-Sub) is another
fictional watercraft along with the Batboat used by the comic
superhero Batman for alternative transportation purposes.
The
Bat Ski Boat is a darker version of the Batboat. In the 1992
live-action film Batman Returns. Batman uses the jet-powered
hydrofoil near the climax of the film to travel through Gotham's
sewer system towards the Penguin's lair. The Bat Ski Boat's design
has elements from the film's Batmobile and the figure of a shark. It
is a single-seater and has the same extras as the Batmobile,
including torpedo launchers. It also has a radar, which can be used
by Batman to monitor each area of Gotham City. Two Bat Ski Boats were
manufactured for Batman Returns: a full-size version 7.6 meters long
and 4.9 meters wide, and a model 1.8 meters long and 1.2 meters wide.
