Warbird Information Exchange

I was glad not to hear "hammers down" over and over again

Lynn

Actually Tom did go up several times in fact. He got sick the first time and was able to hold it down the last few. If you watch the making of t he movie on the DVD there there is t he footage of all of them flying (Tom included), and talking about it.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Well then, I guess he's a lying sack, because he told me to my face he wanted badly to go up and the Navy was OK with it, but the producers wouldn't have it. Sorry, I'll go with the man telling me that himself over a DVD commentary...

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

I met Tom Cruise once, rather pleasant fellow and rather short also, but pleasant!

Anyhoo, back to what this thread is about.

I wonder if they have one of the aggressor birds up at MCAS Miramars Museum area. I need to go up and check.

Also, I think the guys from Myth Busters might have had something to do with the movie since they always show a Tomcat model on that backwall of their shop in the show. Anyone know anything about this?

And btw, my good friend Skip Samples made a bunch of the stick models for the real Top Gun school and some ended up in the movie!

O.K. I am out of Top Gun stuff, but I can start swearing if you like!

What happened to the 104 used int the music video from the film , cant remeber the name of the group , just remeber the lead singer standing on the 104

Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters was involved with building the scale models to be blown up I believe.

Terri Nunn from the band Berlin.Also an actress in General Hospital....IIRC
Song was called Take my Breath away

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Those who think it,s impossible should leave the ones doing it alone..
http://www.spitfireprojecta58-27.com/

I don't know what to tell you man, but in the DVD there is this whole section aout him being nervous about flying, and then actually going up and how he got sick.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Director

Yeah I remember that on the making of DVD feature. TC says prior to the start of filming he went up in a TA-4J and even says the pilots callsign: 'BOZO'. "Great, I'm going up with a guy called Bozo!" He also mentions that he had just filmed Legend and had a pony tail, so all the Navy guys were looking at him like who is this Hollywood kid?

As far as upcoming Navy/Aviation movies goes, I've heard that the book "KEROSENE COWBOYS" is in pre-production as a major motion picture.. Anyone read this one?

Apparently the story is being updated to the present day and it will feature full support from the Navy and the Russian Air Force.

Pete

Don't distract me with the evidence! I'm going with what a man says rather than the video of him doing it!

Maybe he meant that he didn't go up in the F-14 but really wanted to opposed to going up i the A-4?

Back in about 1987 or so, I had the pleasure of spending most of the day with Cmdr. Duke Cunningham. He told me a lot of interesting stories that day about the Top Gun movie and his own life, with a lot of the events from the movie that were based off of either his experiences or people he knew.

Cunningham was one of the technical advisors on the film, so he had lots of great stories. One I remember, is from the scene of when Tom sang the "You've Lost That Luvin' Feeling" song to his love interest in the O'Club. Cunningham told me that was patterned after him, as that was one of his "ploys" in order to meet ladies at the Miramar O'Club back in the day.

The scene where the two pilots were flipping each other off flying inverted, were based off of something the Navy pilots used to do. I can't remember if Cunningham said he actually did this, or one of his friends, but he said it was a standard salute to Russian Bear Bombers, when the Navy used to intercept them over international waters. He told me he had some interesting photos of flipping off the Ruskies.

Cmdr. Cunningham was a nice, pleasant, easy to talk to individual back then. He even let me copy a videotape he had of a lot of flying outtakes from the movie Top Gun. Unfortunately, we know what happened nearly 20 years later. Needless to say, the respect I had for him since then was lost when he was convicted. My impression of spending the day with him, was that he was an "ends justifies the means" kind of guy, with doing whatever it takes to accomplish the mission or goal. I got the distinct impression that he was not into abiding by rules.

I didn't know what happened...until I Googled his name. Yikes!

Sad end to a distinguished career...

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"Everyone wants to live here (New Jersey), evidenced by the fact that it has the highest population per capita in the U.S..."

That's a possibility. Good point.

My recollection from the DVD voice over was that the Navy technical advisor Pete Pettigrew (? or it might have been Admiral Cassidy cuz he appeared inthemovie) said the main actors went up in a jet and promptly upchucked. They couldn't get over it fast enough for the movie so they built the cockpits and had guys shaking them from the outside.