Top Gun

[JudgeDredd]

So I just fired up Top Gun to get my F14 mojo going and right at the beginning it says this...

On March 3, 1969 The Unites States Navy established an elite school for the top one percent of it's pilots. It's purpose was to teach the lost art of aerial combat and to insure that the handful of men who graduated were the best fighter pilots in the world.

They succeeded.

Today, the Navy calls it Fighter Weapons School.
The flyers call it:

Top Gun

Several questions if I may...

• Why only the top one percent? Wouldn't you want ALL your pilots to be excellent at aerial Combat?
• "handful of men" - do women go through this now?
• Did they seriously say "flyers" in that blurb?

[JudgeDredd]

Also - one other thing - they say the winner and his Reo have the option of coming back as instructors.

Two things on that...

• How can the REO come back as an instructor? The movie doesn't show two seater "enemy"
• How can they accommodate a new instructor and his REO every 8 weeks (that's what CHARLIE says when she says she sees 20 new hotshots every 8 weeks.

[mirth]

You're way overthinking a pure popcorn movie.

And it's RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) ;)

When watching Top Gun, it's best to disengage your brain and enjoy the cool planes and the pew, pew, pew.

[bbmike]

^+1. And shouldn't you be trying to locate that Rebel base?  :P

[Arctic Blast]

Quit writing checks that your body can't cash!

[JudgeDredd]

You're way overthinking a pure popcorn movie.

And it's RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) ;)

When watching Top Gun, it's best to disengage your brain and enjoy the cool planes and the pew, pew, pew.

I literally noticed this last night when I was reading an edition of Airfix Model World and an article on a Phantom build where it mentioned the radar intercept officer....I was in bed by then and too lazy to log on my phone to come here and change it  :))

I wasn't really over-thinking things. They were genuine questions?

Over thinking things would be pointing out that they called it the Mig-28 when Russians seem to give "odd" numbers to their aircraft (unless they use even for their experimental aircraft. Overthinking things would be pointing out that the ship commander is shitting himself about the proximity of these Migs when they are literally only carrying two AA missiles!

I just wanted to know the validity of the information provided.

[Nefaro]

Always LOL'd at "MiG-28".    ;D



Definitely got the Hollywood treatment.  But at least they had an actual Vietnam fighter pilot consultant (Randall "Duke" Cunningham, Ace) injecting some kernels of truth into the film.

Side note:  Cunningham later got in trouble for taking gifts from contractors during a stint as congressman.

His story about the three-kill flight in Vietnam, including against "Colonel Toomb", was a pretty good tale featured in History Channel's old Dogfights series (probably one of the best series they ever did).  You can see where the Top Gun writers & director lifted a thing or two from his story (the airbrake & "he'll fly right past" being most notable).

[bayonetbrant]

Why only the top one percent? Wouldn't you want ALL your pilots to be excellent at aerial Combat?

Same reason you can't send everyone to Ranger school - only so much throughput for people to go.

"handful of men" - do women go through this now?

Last I heard, yes - once the fighter pilot slots were opened to women, they were eligible to Top Gun school

Did they seriously say "flyers" in that blurb?

Sadly, yes...

How can the REO come back as an instructor? The movie doesn't show two seater "enemy"

Not every instructor also flies as an aggressor in the air, but the movie cuts out a lot of the classroom/simulator work because it's not as sexy on the screen as zipping around in the air.  The fact that they also set the 'classroom' elements in a bunch of chairs set up in a hangar tells you how seriously they treated those elements.
There are going to be parts of the classroom instruction where the RIOs are grouped together separate from the pilots.  But if you have the option to film a shirtless volleyball game instead of a bunch of RIOs in a classroom, which would you show to bring in more women in the paying audience?

How can they accommodate a new instructor and his REO every 8 weeks (that's what CHARLIE says when she says she sees 20 new hotshots every 8 weeks.

Not everyone actually does come back to teach.  They just have the option to.


Oh yeah, and

When watching Top Gun, it's best to disengage your brain and enjoy the cool planes and the pew, pew, pew.

this

[JudgeDredd]

 O0

[mirth]

Why only the top one percent? Wouldn't you want ALL your pilots to be excellent at aerial Combat?

Same reason you can't send everyone to Ranger school - only so much throughput for people to go.

Regarding this point, the pilots that go through Top Gun and return to the Fleet do a knowledge transfer with their squadrons, so the training lessons and benefits are disseminated throughout the Fleet. They take the already really good pilots, train them up to an even higher level and send them back to teach the others.

[mirth]

[Sir Slash]

This is 2017. Hollywood will probably have the required number of alternate sexual and religious types all firing non-lethal Nerf-Missiles at the enemy now. Oppps. Did I say 'enemies'? Sorry-- Old School.  :timeout:

[Gusington]

Enemy = 'Friendly-Challenged' now