The Batplane (or Batwing) is the fictional aircraft for the comic book superhero Batman.

History of the Batplane

The First Batplane, 1939

Batman made his very first appearance in Detective Comics No. 27 (May 1939). Only four issues later, in Detective Comics No. 31 (September 1939), his first vehicle was introduced. It wasn't the Batmobile. The distinctive automobile would not make its first appearance until nearly two years later. Batman's first identifiable vehicle was a bat-shaped autogyro, as seen in the picture at right.

Batman referred to his craft as the "Batgyro" in the first panel in which it appeared, but that was the last time it would be called that. In the very next panel that featured the bat-shaped craft, it was described as the "Bat-plane", the name that would be used for its entire sixty-year career. And it was already doing things impossible to ordinary aircraft. Despite their similar appearance to helicopters, autogyros cannot actually hover in one spot. Their rotors are un-powered so they rely on the forward motion of the craft to turn the rotors and generate lift. But technical details like that never hindered the operation of Batman's vehicles and weapons.

The autogyro Batplane only lasted for a few issues, but it did fight an exciting air battle against the "Dirigible of Doom" (in Detective Comics No. 33, November 1939) before disappearing from the pages of Batman's stories.

The Batplane Evolves, the 1940's

The Batplane quickly evolved into an aircraft that was, outwardly, similar in design to the private airplanes of the day. It was a low wing monoplane with a tractor prop and fixed landing gear. The picture at right is from Batman No. 9, Feb-Mar 1942. Note that by 1942, retractable landing gear was common on both military aircraft and larger civil aircraft, but fixed gear was still the norm for single-engine private planes. Also note that there is no sign of a propeller.

One of the most distinctive features of the Batplane of the '40s was the large "bat-mask" that covered its nose. This was not a particularly aerodynamic feature, but it wasn't that different from the blunt noses of the radial-engined ships of the day. Initially, the Batplane had a propeller plainly visible, attached to the front of the bat-mask. Examples of the Batplane with a visible propeller can be found in Detective Comics No.s 54, 61 and 64.

But, at some point, the propeller disappeared. In Batman No. 9 there is no sign of the spinning propeller that was visible in the examples given above. The propeller-less Batplane became the standard depiction until a jet-powered aircraft replaced it. What propelled the Batplane through the air for most of the decade of the 1940’s remains a mystery.

Although the Batplane was drawn with fair consistency throughout the 1940's, variations did appear from time to time (almost certainly a result of different artists working on the books). The two panels presented here show the most common variations. The right panel shows a Batplane with a wide cabin and windows typical of a small, civilian aircraft. The left panel shows a Batplane with a sliding canopy as might be found on a military fighter plane.

The First Jet-Propelled Batplane, 1946

Jet aircraft made their appearance during World War II with the British Gloster Meteor and the German Messerschmitt Me 262 the most prominent examples. After the war, it was clear that jets were the future of military aircraft, at least. The creative team at DC made an early attempt to update the Batplane to the jet age in Detective Comics No. 108 (February 1946) by having Batman and Robin retrofit it with two jet engines slung under the wings. Although the slender tubes they are shown attaching to the Batplane look more like the pulse jets used on the German V-1 flying bomb than they do the bulky jet engines of the period, it was a step in the right direction. It appears there was little follow through, however, and this version of a jet-powered Batplane was not featured again.

Batplane II, 1950

A more permanent change was made in Batman No. 61 (Oct-Nov 1950). ^[1][2] When the old Batplane was lost in an accident, Batman and Robin undertook the construction of a brand new, sleek, jet aircraft dubbed the "Batplane II". The story includes panels that show the new Batplane being built from scratch right in the Batcave. Batplane II was equipped with an amazing array of gadgets and secret weapons, including the ability to convert to a submarine. Its overall design was typical of many early jet fighters, though it was larger than most fighters of the ‘50s. It had slightly swept wings and a long, graceful fuselage. It was a good design and would, with minor variations, continue to be used through the 1950s and most of the '60s.

Batplane III, 1964

By 1964, the sales of Batman comics had fallen drastically and DC considered canceling the title. But editor Julius Schwartz, who had produced hits by modernizing and updating old characters like the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Atom, was given the task of doing the same with Batman. Detective Comics No. 327 (May 1964) announced a "New Look" for DC's second oldest superhero. Gone were the aliens and science fiction themed stories, as were most of the large supporting cast of characters like Batwoman and Bat-Mite. The "New Look" returned Batman to his detective roots and focused stories on crime and mysteries. The Batmobile was revamped into a sports car and Batman's costume was refreshed with a yellow oval behind the bat symbol. Because of the move away from adventure stories, the Batplane was not used nearly as much as it had been before the editorial revamp. It did not appear again until November 1964 in Batman No. 167. But when it did, it had a new look, too.

For the first time, a Batplane was clearly based on an actual aircraft. The new Batplane in Batman No. 167 was a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter with minor modifications (scalloped trailing edges on the wings and tail, as on all previous Batplanes). Unfortunately, the F-104 style Batplane only appeared in that one issue. The Batplane continued to be little used for the rest of the '60s. It made a few more appearances in Batman and Detective Comics but those reverted to the classic design of the Batplane II, with the only indication of the "New Look" being the addition of a yellow oval Bat-emblem.

Batplane IV, 1968

Four years after the appearance of the F-104 based Batplane, another design appeared that was also clearly derived from a USAF jet fighter. Batman No. 203 (July 1968) was an "80-Page Giant" that featured The Secrets of the Batcave. Inside, a two-page spread presented a cut-away drawing of the Batcave. Part of that diagram showed the hangars for the Batplane and Batcopter located in a mountaintop behind Wayne Manor. The Batplane seen in the hangar was a new design, the inspiration for which was readily apparent to anyone familiar with the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo. As it turned out, the Voodoo-based Batplane's only appearance in the comics was in the "behind-the-scenes" diagrams in Batman #203. It never actually made it into a story.

Batplane V, 1971

The decade of the '70s was slim pickings for Batplane sightings. The Batplane made only two appearances in the entire decade. The first was in Batman No. 231 (May 1971). That issue provided three large panels of well illustrated art that made the identification of the Batplane as a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II unmistakable. The Phantom was still a top-line fighter for both the US Navy and Air Force in 1971 so it's use as a Batplane was very reasonable. The Batplane V appeared to be an unmodified, early model Phantom with only a paint job to distinguish it as the Dark Knight's ride. The only other appearance of the Batplane in the '70s was in Batman 305 (November 1978). Unfortunately, in this issue the Batplane is drawn very small so identification is difficult. It appears to be another generic design similar to the Batplane II. The decade of the '80s saw almost a dozen appearances of the Batplane, a big improvement over the '70s but still not much compared to the heyday of the '40s and '50s when the Batplane was featured in nearly every other issue. Batplane V made three more appearances, though in two of them it was slightly modified with scalloped wings and tail, as seen in Batman No. 400 (October 1986).

Batplane VI, 1980

A new design for the Batplane appeared right at the beginning of the decade and was used often enough to justify calling it Batplane VI. As was often the case, the artists drawing it were not particularly consistent in its depiction, but it generally looked like a much shrunk Batplane IV, the one based on the F-101 Voodoo.

Batplane VII, 1980

The creative folks at DC must not have been talking to each other much in 1980 because at about the same time the diminutive Batplane VI was introduced, another much larger Batplane was introduced in another Batman title. This one was again based on a real aircraft, if somewhat loosely, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. The F-15 based Batplane VII made about as many appearances through the '80s as did the little Batplane VI and even made it on to the cover of Detective Comics No. 541, the first time a Batplane had been on a cover in three decades. Unfortunately, it was exploding!

Batplane VIII, The Batwing

No Batplane was used in either Batman or Detective Comics during the entire decade of the 1990's. That changed in the new millennium, sort of. Detective Comics No. 750 (November 2000) presented a vague (and small) depiction of what is probably supposed to be the Batplane. Every "Batplane" that appeared from then on was actually what has come to be known as a "Batwing." The term Batwing was first applied to the distinctive aircraft that appeared in the Tim Burton movie, Batman, in 1989. That ship's design obviously owed a lot more to the shape of the Bat-emblem than it did to aerodynamics. A Batwing of a different but similar design was used in Batman Forever (1995) and another Batwing design was used in the highly popular Batman: The Animated Series TV series of the 1990's.

Elseworlds Batplanes

Elseworlds is DC's term for stories that are set outside the normal comic continuity. These may be stories set in a different time or place that the character would not normally occupy (Batman in the Civil War, for example) or a cross-over with characters who would not normally encounter each other (Batman and Captain America, for example).

Claws of the Cat-Woman, 1939

A Batman/Tarzan cross-over story by Igor Kordey featured a sleek, jet-powered Batplane in 1939. In Claws of the Cat-Woman, Batman joins Tarzan in a battle against dark forces in Africa. They journey from Gotham City to Tarzan's homeland in a futuristic (for 1939) but believable jet-powered Batplane. The design seems to be a mixture of the Italian Caproni jet and the German rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163.

The Brave and the Bold, 1944

The Brave and the Bold No. 167 (October 1980) teamed Batman and the Blackhawks in a story set during WW II. Since the Blackhawks were primarily fliers, Batman spent a lot of time in a sleek Batplane (designed by Dave Cockrum) that is unique to this story.

Cockrum, discussing his version of the Batplane, stated ^[3] “I used the Curtiss YP-37 as the basis for that. I loved the long front fuselage with the canopy pushed way back. It's a neat look. I felt a little guilty about not having a big bat head on the front of the plane, but I could never see how that version would work."

Batman & Captain America, 1945

John Byrne's 1996 Elseworlds graphic novel, Batman & Captain America is a cross-over story that pits the two heroes and their side-kicks, Robin and Bucky, against a team-up of the Joker and the Red Skull. Byrne found a neat solution to the problem of having the distinctive "batmask" on the Batplane and propellers, too. He made it a twin engine plane. This unique Batplane is used extensively throughout the story.

In Other Media

Gorilla City was one of two stories that was part of a record/comic combination released in 1976. Presumably, Gorilla City was on one side of the record and the other story on the other. The Batplane in Gorilla City is a unique design that appears to be large and is equipped with four jet engines slung under the wings as with most commercial jets of the period. This Batplane was capable of "cruising at 1,243 miles per hour." The comic was created by Cary Bates and Elliott Maggin.

The Batwing as seen in Batman.^[4] The Batwing made its maiden flight in Tim Burton’s movie, just to be shot down by the Joker. Although there were five different models of the sleek craft, it was never built full size in its entirety. Anton Furst, production designer for the movie, described the Batwing thus: “It's a jet aircraft. A fighter aircraft. Again, pure expressionism… the Batwing is actually developed from the Bat-Symbol, the sickle wings and all. So it's actually a component of the whole image of Batman.”

The third movie in the series, Batman Forever, recycled the basic shape of the Batwing from the first movie while exaggerating practically every aspect of the original design. It also recycled the capability of the Batplane II to turn itself into a submarine.

The Batplane as seen on Batman: The Animated Series. Although the initial design of Batman's aircraft in the animated series is similar in layout to the Batwings of the movies, it was called the "Batplane." In later seasons of the series, this version was replaced with a Batplane of more conventional design. That latter design was also seen in Justice League.

The Mattel produced Batplane inspired by Batman Begins.

Lego, the Danish toy company, has a Lego Batman line that includes an incarnation of the Batplane, though it goes by the name of "The Batwing" (7782-The Batwing: The Joker's Aerial Assault). The set is featured alongside the Joker's helicopter.

In the Batman-themed motion simulator ride Batman Adventure - The Ride in Warner Bros. Movie World, riders seemingly follow the Batplane in pursuit of Mr Freeze, Joker and Catwoman

See also

• Batboat
• Batcopter
• Batcycle
• Batmobile

References

External links

• The Unofficial Batplane Biography
  • See the full Batplane Biography
  • See the Batplane Chronology Index
• Action Figure Insider :: View topic - Which Batplane is the best?
• Batman: Collected Issues of the Dark Knight - Batman #203
• Batman: Yesterday, Today, & Beyond