Jump to content

Recommended Posts

One of my favorite movies. Came out a few years before Top Gun, but just didn’t get the billing TG did.  Some great flying scenes. My favorite part is when the Tomcats get the approval to “splash the zeros”.  Man can you imagine what those Zero pilots would have been thinking in 1941.  

 

Grumman later used footage from the movie for a promotional video. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, okthree said:

One of my favorite movies. Came out a few years before Top Gun, but just didn’t get the billing TG did.  Some great flying scenes. My favorite part is when the Tomcats get the approval to “splash the zeros”.  Man can you imagine what those Zero pilots would have been thinking in 1941.  

 

Grumman later used footage from the movie for a promotional video. 

Agreed..i saw a debate, on YouTube maybe,  about one of the Tomcats actually stalling while they filmed that scene...the way they cut it shows the f14 kinda flatten out then pitch down towards the deck.  

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was intrigued to see (IIRC?) that there was a close-up of the F-14' windscreen area in one shot - and there was what looked like a piece of string taped to the anti-glare panel !!

 

Presumably a simple yaw indicator???

 

Fascinating stuff that showed how difficult it would be for a modern high-performance jet to dogfight with a WWII prop fighter.

 

The Zero could out-turn a Tomcat, causing it to overshooet and the heat signature from the Zero's engine is probably at the limit of the IR seakers on the F-14's Sidewinders.

 

Back in the 60's - during the Indonesian conflict, the RAF did some trials that pitted a Spitfire (the Indonesians had P-51's) against an English Electric Lightning - with interesting results.

 

The Spitfire could not shoot down the Lightning with cannonfire - but the Lightning could not get behind the Spitfire without stalling, nor could it get a missile lock-on...

 

The best method they came up with was for the Lighning to overtake the Spit from below and 'topple' the Spit with its jetwash !!

 

Sorry for the divergance...

 

Ken

Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Flankerman said:

I was intrigued to see (IIRC?) that there was a close-up of the F-14' windscreen area in one shot - and there was what looked like a piece of string taped to the anti-glare panel !!

 

Presumably a simple yaw indicator???

 

Fascinating stuff that showed how difficult it would be for a modern high-performance jet to dogfight with a WWII prop fighter.

 

The Zero could out-turn a Tomcat, causing it to overshooet and the heat signature from the Zero's engine is probably at the limit of the IR seakers on the F-14's Sidewinders.

 

Back in the 60's - during the Indonesian conflict, the RAF did some trials that pitted a Spitfire (the Indonesians had P-51's) against an English Electric Lightning - with interesting results.

 

The Spitfire could not shoot down the Lightning with cannonfire - but the Lightning could not get behind the Spitfire without stalling, nor could it get a missile lock-on...

 

The best method they came up with was for the Lighning to overtake the Spit from below and 'topple' the Spit with its jetwash !!

 

Sorry for the divergance...

 

Ken

Yep..that piece of cord was exactly that..a low tech piece of equipment to give the pilot an idea of crosswinds/yaw.  Reminds me,   I have a few buds that flew Harriers and I asked one if he really paid attention to the weather vane thing in front of their windscreen.  He said "absolutely, it's one of the most important things I use".   

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Ben Brown said:

Am I the only one who had that terrible '80s hair metal song pop into their hear after seeing the thread title? Now its going to be stuck in my head for days!😄

 

Great movie, BTW.

 

Ben

 

Are you talking about Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone from Top Gun?   I thought it was at least as good as any other pop-rock tune of the day 😊

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Ben Brown said:

Am I the only one who had that terrible '80s hair metal song pop into their hear after seeing the thread title? Now its going to be stuck in my head for days!😄

 

Great movie, BTW.

 

Ben

Hahaha..mission accomplished!

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Curt B said:

 

Are you talking about Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone from Top Gun?   I thought it was at least as good as any other pop-rock tune of the day 😊

There was a hair band back in the day that sung a song called the Final Countdown...May have appeared in a few cheesy movies.  That's what he's referring to.  I forgot about it till he mentioned it

Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, Napalmakita said:

There was a hair band back in the day that sung a song called the Final Countdown...May have appeared in a few cheesy movies.  That's what he's referring to.  I forgot about it till he mentioned it


You forgot about the Geico ad.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh...you're talking about The Final Countdown by the band Europe.  That song, other than the title, was not related to that movie; an unfortunate situation, though I suppose the band did get a little more mileage out of that tune than they would have, otherwise.  I guess that's why I didn't think of that song when I read your post.  I think a lot of people have that same misconception.

Edited by Curt B
Link to post
Share on other sites
17 minutes ago, Curt B said:

Oh...you're talking about The Final Countdown by the band Europe.  That song, other than the title, was not related to that movie; an unfortunate situation, though I suppose the band did get a little more mileage out of that tune than they would have, otherwise.  I guess that's why I didn't think of that song when I read your post.  I think a lot of people have that same misconception.

I had forgotten all about that song too...maybe I can edit the title😬

Link to post
Share on other sites

About the Yaw String, we use to joke that we worked on a modern 40 million dollar aircraft who's primary flight instrument was a 12 inch piece of string.

 

And it was a downing discrepancy if the yaw string wasn't free to move. It was common for it to get caught in the radome when the radome was closed, had to "crack" open the radome many times just prior to the bird launching in order to free the yaw string.

Link to post
Share on other sites
12 hours ago, GW8345 said:

About the Yaw String, we use to joke that we worked on a modern 40 million dollar aircraft who's primary flight instrument was a 12 inch piece of string.

 

And it was a downing discrepancy if the yaw string wasn't free to move. It was common for it to get caught in the radome when the radome was closed, had to "crack" open the radome many times just prior to the bird launching in order to free the yaw string.

What was it . a length of 550 or para cord?

Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, Bounce said:

hell yeah baby!!

 

there's good story about the tomcat stall scene online floating around.  I know its on Arfcom somewhere...

 

 

I thought so...i read about it in the comments of a YouTube video I think...the scene where one cat pitches down towards the water

Link to post
Share on other sites

Fun Facts: The Zeroes were actually NA T-6 Texans. Also, the pilots were simply told to "dogfight" which they did and the F-14 stall at around 3 minutes was real. The fight was so dangerous that it established new rules and safeguards for future films

 

When an F-14 does a steep dive at 2:45 and pulls out just before crashing into the ocean while “playing” with one of the Zeroes, the “scream” the F-14 made was created by mixing the sound of the jet engines with the actual scream of the pilot’s wife when she saw that clip for the first time.

Edited by Bounce
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...