"He stole my balloons!!! Why didn't somebody tell me he had one of those . . . things?!"
- The Joker (Jack Nicholson)


A modern incarnation of Batman's personal aircraft (a.k.a., the Batplane), which first appeared in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman motion picture. The Batwing was designed by Anton Furst and the initial model construction was done by Derek Meddings. At least five versions of the iconic vehicle, in a range of sizes (everything from a one-foot-long miniature to a full-scale replica), were fabricated by staff for use in filming the various scenes in which it appears. This bat-symbol-shaped aircraft proved quite popular and was subsequently adapted to the comic book source material as well as other Batman media.

The Batwing is armed with two side-mounted GE M134 miniguns, four wing-mounted missile launchers, and retractable "jaws" concealed within the nose of the aircraft. While the Batwing is a versatile and deadly machine, its slim, compact design leaves little room for armor, as such, it's also relatively fragile. Case in point: the Joker was able to down the Batwing with a single well-placed shot from his ridiculously long pistol (although, to be fair, the Clown Prince of Crime is known to employ exotic weaponry, so it's quite possible that was no ordinary bullet).

I fabricated this Batwing vehicle completely from scratch in one afternoon and painted it with acrylics. I started by drawing and cutting out the bat symbol and then built up all the details around that. At one point, I considered making a transparent cockpit and sticking a miniscule Michael Keaton Batman in there, but ultimately decided not to. The Batman Wiki lists the Batwing's wingspan at 35 feet, so, at 1.4 inches at its widest point, this model is roughly 1:300 scale.