They didn't contact me for help, otherwise I would have warned them against the Royal. For that matter, I don't think the Hermes or Halda are correct placements either. For an American military office I would have suggested either Remington or Underwood models. And those models would have likely been older versions instead of a manufacturer's newest offerings. Sounds like a prop master who didn't want to waste too much time sourcing typewriters was responsible for that production.

The Royal I was warning against was just the Empress. And you're right that KMMs are a good option; I've have seen Royal models in U.S. military photos, however a lot of them were in use by the navy. I don't know if typewriter procurement was a branch specific activity or if it was done for the entire military in general. 

SoucekFan wrote:

Coincidentally, I will be going to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson this weekend...

That should be interesting; I hope they have one!

Conversely, I have been to museums that had typewriters on display that I knew couldn't possibly be the actual original models. For example, the first time I went to Hemingway House in Key West there was one typewriter in the entire museum, and it was highly likely that it was one he had used. However, many years later when I revisited the house, there was a typewriter in almost every room - and most of them were models that I had never seen documented evidence of Hemingway using. When I asked someone who worked there about this, he sheepishly admitted that they had just bought a number of vintage typewriters to embellish the display cabinets. 

Well, part of a typewriter: I think the Enigma used Olympia keytops.