The helicopter

[deleted]

Thanks for that

Wikipedia:

"the Bell 47 became the first helicopter certified for civilian use on 8 March 1946"

Even that's way earlier than I would have expected.
Can you imagine the difference to ww2 if Helicopters had been 10 or 15 years more advanced at the time?

Cool paint job on the heli...the glass bubble was painted to look like panels in a German bomber...lol.

Those pesky allies went and stepped on yet another of the fun loving German's sandcastles!

And yet since they actually landed a physical helicopter in the courtyard, I assume they did, in fact, fly it out again after the movie wrapped. I assume there were enough open passageways to allow air into the courtyard to help generate lift for the rotors.

"I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?"

Several reasons:

1. It gives General Rosemeyer a suitably big entrance. The only other way he could've arrived at the castle is by the cable cars, and that would've been a very underwhelming entrance for such a high-ranking officer. This also appears to have been the reason for its inclusion in the book, where Rosemeyer is no less than a reichsmarschall.

2. Rosemeyer's arrival in the helicopter provides an excuse to trot out the senior officers (Kramer and von Hapen in particular) so we can be quickly and efficiently introduced to them. Admittedly, this could've been accomplished without the copter; the top brass of the castle would've still turned out to meet the arriving general even if he had had come on the boring old cable car, but the "neato factor" of a helicopter in a WWII movie brightens up a very exposition-heavy scene.

5. Its presence in the castle gives the good guys another hurdle to overcome - prevent its being used to fly General Carnaby out. Hence, taking out the pilot. Without the scene of Schaffer stabbing him, they'd just proceed directly to the dining room.

4. The aforementioned "neato factor," which this movie thrives on. There's a lot in Where Eagles Dare that exists purely to be interesting/cool. The helicopter just happens to be one that serves a narrative purpose for the above reasons.

5. It happens to be in the book the movie is based on. So it wasn't something the producers made up for the movie. If you have an issue with the copter, blame author Alistair MacLean for writing it into his novel, and for choosing to keep it when it wrote the script.

"I mean, really, how many times will you look under Jabba's manboobs?"