The Steel Lady in the title is an American M-24 Chaffee light tank dressed up to resemble a WWII German tank.
The aircraft in the movie is a Cessna T-50. The military versions were AT-17, UC-78, and others. It was known as the "Bamboo Bomber" because of it's wood and fabric construction. Many were converted from military use to civilian airliners. One was used for the original "Songbird" in Sky King (1951).
Prologue: "The search for oil takes the adventurous into the most remote regions of the Earth. So great is the demand for new discoveries that today man tracked into far and savage lands; probed deep beneath the seas or take to the air with the latest scientific recording instruments in explore vast wastelands Is like the Sahara Desert."