12 James Bond-Piloted Aircraft

1. Lockheed VC-140B. Was super-spy James Bond also a pilot? He first grabs the controls of an airplane in Goldfinger. When a loose Smith & Wesson causes the cabin to depressurize, he races into the cockpit of this Lockheed, which is already in a steep nosedive. He wrestles with the controls to no avail, then parachutes to safety with his companion just before the airplane plunges into the ocean.

2. Meyers 200A. In You Only Live Twice, Bond faces a familiar situation, but this time, it’s his female companion who sabotages the airplane, courtesy of a smoke grenade disguised as a lipstick. Bond manages to reach the yoke of the Meyers 200A, only to crash-land the aircraft just before it explodes. It’s unclear whether the crash resulted from damage, or because Bond just couldn’t fly.

3. Cessna 172. Roger Moore’s Bond doesn’t do much better when he visits The Bleeker Flying School in Live and Let Die. It looks as if he is attempting an airborne escape as he jumps into a Cessna 172 with student pilot Mrs. Bell. But the Cessna never gets off the ground and the airplane takes a severe beating, as do Mrs. Bell’s nerves.

4. Republic RC-3 Seabee. In The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond flies a Republic RC-3 Seabee solo through the spectacular cliffs of Thailand’s Phang Na Bay for a showdown with the high-priced assassin Scaramanga, proving once and for all that he knows his way around the controls of an airplane.

5. Bell 206 JetRanger. In For Your Eyes Only, an arch-villain does in the pilot of a Bell 206, ­forcing Bond–who has been a passenger–to perform some aerial acrobatics outside the helicopter while making his way to the controls. Having recaptured the aircraft, he demonstrates amazing piloting skills by apprehending the villain with the JetRanger’s landing skid.

6. Acrostar Jet. With the most appearances as James Bond, Roger Moore also has the most experiences behind the throttle. In the pre-title sequence of Octopussy, Bond uses an Acrostar Jet (I won’t mention where he keeps it hidden) to escape a heat-seeking missile and complete his mission.

7. Cessna 185. Never a stranger to airborne escapes, Timothy Dalton’s Bond uses a Cessna 185 seaplane to take off with $5 million of Sanchez’s drug money in License to Kill.

8. Lockheed Hercules. In The Living Daylights, 007 takes it up a notch. This time he escapes ­Afghanistan in the massive, four-engine Lockheed Hercules.

9 & 10. Pilatus PC-6 and Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Right from the start, Pierce Brosnan’s Bond seems like a natural pilot. In Goldeneye, we see him flying a Pilatus PC-6, which he skydives into, to escape a chemical-weapons facility in Russia; and a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, which he flies to Cuba in search of the Goldeneye installation.

11. Soviet L39 Albatross. Leave it to ­Brosnan’s Bond to take his piloting skills to the extreme, as he commandeers a Soviet jet trainer aircraft to simultaneously destroy an ­international arms bazaar, dodge nuclear ­missiles in a dogfight and make a miraculous escape in Tomorrow Never Dies.

12. Douglas DC-3. When Daniel Craig took over the role of Bond in Quantum of Solace, the character acquired a Douglas DC-3, but the airplane was soon under attack by enemy fighters. Bond and his female companion were forced to evacuate, sharing a single parachute.

Darlington is a Bond aficionado and the author of Being James Bond: Volume One.