For educational purposes
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, tandem two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft.
The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the collapse of the General Dynamics-Grumman F-111B project.
A large and well-equipped fighter, the F-14 was the first of the American Teen Series fighters, which were designed incorporating air combat experience against smaller, more maneuverable MiG fighters during the Vietnam War.
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, tandem two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft.
The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the collapse of the General Dynamics-Grumman F-111B project.
A large and well-equipped fighter, the F-14 was the first of the American Teen Series fighters, which were designed incorporating air combat experience against smaller, more maneuverable MiG fighters during the Vietnam War.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00I
00:30The reputation of the fighter pilot, and particularly the Top Gun graduate, is that
00:35he's a risk taker, and you really are looking for that guy.
00:41The problem is, in peace time, he's usually out of place.
00:44He usually tears up the bar, chases the commanding officer's daughter.
00:48He's that, he usually is that kind of a guy, and Top Gun hopefully tries to balance that.
00:52They make them intelligent about their recklessness, if you could say such a thing.
01:005-2-0 sending commands from A-side.
01:075-0 command control, 5-5.
01:092-0-2, Top Gun, Ball 9-2, couple.
01:12Say your 46 needles.
01:15I'm slightly right at the...
01:19Take what I'm all.
01:20Roger, Ball, couple.
01:22Side.
01:23And low.
01:25Side.
01:26And low.
01:27One or two guys makes mistakes down there, and they get killed or they kill somebody else.
01:32A lot of people say that.
01:33Well, it's very dangerous.
01:34But it is on a flight deck.
01:35There's jet blast all over you.
01:36It's noisy.
01:37You don't know what the hell's going on.
01:38People are grabbing you.
01:39Don't step across this line.
01:40When we're involved in launch and recovery aboard the ship, it really is a fine-tuned thing.
01:47finely choreographed ballet almost, if you will.
02:08It really is a fine-tuned, finely choreographed ballet, almost, if you will.
02:13When I'm taxiing my jet around the flight deck, I'm not just going where I want to go.
02:17I'm always under the direction of one of these taxi directors.
02:20If I take my eyes off of him for an instant, the chance is that if I'm on my own program,
02:24I could run into something up there, another jet, a piece of equipment, one of the aircrew.
02:29Underneath, by the nose gear, is a guy on his knees, essentially, moving across.
02:38And he is checking that the holdback is in position and that when they put you in tension,
02:44tension is when they cock the gun, essentially, the shuttle moves forward and the launch bar is sitting in the shuttle.
02:49So he'll run out from under the airplane and he'll give you a thumbs up.
02:52Right prior to that happening, the guy in the yellow shirt will give you a signal like this,
02:57and that's your cue and the pilot to go to full power as far as military power.
03:01We go to military power, all the control surfaces on the airplane move.
03:05External to the airplane are troubleshooters, and they'll give a thumbs up.
03:08They're looking at all the control surfaces to make sure they all move.
03:11This is the last chance to save an airplane from going flying that isn't ready to go flying.
03:16The pilot's going through looking for indications in his cockpit that everything's okay.
03:21Once he's satisfied this airplane's ready to go flying, he'll salute.
03:25That guy will salute you back, and he touches the deck, the guy pushes a button, and you're off to the race.
03:35The CAT launch is often called the second most dangerous routine in aviation,
03:40a routine performed daily by some of the world's hottest young pilots.
03:44They are, by any standard, an elite group, their primary mission to defend the fleet,
03:56and if needed, give their lives to protect their mothership, the carrier.
04:01In recent years, United States Navy pilots have engaged in over 1,000 intercepts above the Mediterranean alone.
04:12Intercepts in which potentially hostile aircraft have been shepherded away from U.S. carrier task forces.
04:18Launching from the ship or taking off from the ship with the catapult launch is really a rush.
04:27You know, there's a real man's airplane right there.
04:33It's pretty much uncontrollable.
04:35It's one of the few things some pilots really don't care for because they don't have any control over it.
04:39Pilots like to be in control.
04:41I'm a type A personality, and I personally think it's sort of a rush.
04:46I enjoy it.
04:48I don't think there's ever been a catapult shot where I hadn't been yelling down the cat stroke
04:52because it's just a really forceful feeling.
05:00Once a guy pushes a button, you're along for a ride,
05:03and that's two and a half seconds that you are completely out of the loop,
05:06which will go from zero to 150 miles an hour.
05:08You don't have a lot of time to make decisions right there,
05:12and if it's something catastrophic, you are 60 feet above the water,
05:16and you're time to make a decision whether or not you can handle this emergency,
05:22and then the time it takes to reach down and pull the handle to eject.
05:25Some guys actually, in the past, had an emergency, recognize it, try to pull the handle,
05:31but because it's so quick, they end up killing themselves because they went to the water.
05:38If the second most dangerous routine in aviation is launching a carrier jet,
05:45the most dangerous by far is bringing one back aboard.
05:49My first carrier landing, I was completely terrified.
05:56I was scared, sweating.
05:58I think I had tunnel vision, but I got it on deck thanks to the guys who trained me
06:03and led me by the hand, and it got better after that.
06:07As I was coming down to land, my primary instruments went away,
06:12and my heads-up display went out.
06:13We don't practice a whole lot of those in the Hornet community.
06:16I can only remember that the deck at one second was a square,
06:20and the next second it was basically a flat line.
06:22It was pitching that bad.
06:23Throughout their careers, pilots are graded on each and every landing.
06:35Their target, a 40-foot stretch of flight deck dissected by four cables.
06:42A perfect landing means hitting cable number three.
06:45But slamming into the deck at 150 knots makes this problematic at best.
06:59For this young pilot, landing in a severe crosswind leads to a fatal miscalculation.
07:05Get up on the main ball. You're low.
07:09Check your line-up. Hold it up. Power. Power.
07:13Check your line-up. Hold it up. Power.
07:15Fire. Fire. Fire.
07:26Fire. Fire. Fire.
07:28Fire.
07:39Planning on the carrier, it's actually a lot easier than it looks.
07:43It's during the day in really good circumstances, really good conditions.
07:47Don't tell the Air Force that because then they'll want to do it.
07:50You can take day traps and give me a thousand of them today and I'll do them because they're that much fun.
07:56Night traps, a little bit different.
07:59Landing on the carrier at night is sort of a different story.
08:02You never get used to it and it's always at least just a little bit scary.
08:09It's dark. It's very dark.
08:11And I don't think you really know what dark truly is until you put yourself a few hundred miles off the coast out in the middle of nowhere.
08:17And that only point of light is that one light dancing around in front of you and that's the ship bobbing up and down on the waves.
08:27Your visual cues are taken away and you're out there at three miles and it's like a little floating, floating postage stamp down there that's barely lit up.
08:33And it's a little bit harder to try to detect changes that could prove hazardous if you don't take care of them in a timely manner.
08:42I still to this day find my adrenaline pumping so much that at night I'll find my left leg shaking from the adrenaline after the trap.
08:50Night trap horror stories are legendary, yet the Navy never runs out of eager young men who long to become a part of that legend.
09:13I think if a junior aviator knew what night traps were like, knew how scared he should be, they wouldn't do it.
09:18We'd run out of pilots.
09:20Just staying focused on line up, flying the ball, and keeping the jet on speed.
09:26And that's really all you have time to think about.
09:28There are a lot of other scary things that come to mind, but you have to push them out of the way and get the job done.
09:33Otherwise, you don't get dinner.
09:35Confidence in flying the plane is nothing more than no matter what might occur, I can hack it.
09:41And I mean no matter what, I can hack it.
09:44And there's nothing dramatic or subtle or sophisticated here that's involved with that.
09:48It's just a basic belief in your heart that you know what you have to do and you're confident in your ability to do it.
09:55You can hack it when it gets rough like that.
09:58There's no gunfighter approach to that or anything or arrogant approach.
10:01It's just a belief internal to you that you can hack it when the going is the toughest and it means the most.
10:06I heard someone say once that, oh, you're a fighter pilot, you must have really quick reflexes or good instincts.
10:16And I don't think that's necessarily true.
10:19If you're reacting to what's happening in the jet, then you're probably behind.
10:22You need to be thinking ahead.
10:23So being able to visualize beforehand what's going to happen, to think about it, to be prepared, is the most important thing.
10:33Nice day for flying.
10:34Oh, yeah. You know it.
10:36Nothing better epitomizes America's devotion to military preparedness than the Navy Fighter Weapons School at Miramar.
10:46Most call it Top Gun.
10:49Each year, less than 40 aviators are chosen to go through the eight-week course.
10:55When finished, they will stand at the center of the bullseye,
10:59the elite of one of the most competitive professions known to man.
11:03When I was selected for Top Gun, it was a tremendous rush.
11:11I never thought that I would get chosen for it, to be honest.
11:14I guess I thought I was in the running, but there were a lot of great guys in my squadron that could have gone.
11:18And the thing that I really thought about most was that I had to come out here and do well
11:22and take back as much knowledge as I could because the other guys in the squadron are counting on me to do that.
11:28Right here is Miramar, and what we'll do is we'll fly out over the range, fly the hop,
11:32and this is also where we have a tax range or an ACMI range.
11:36Like that scene in Top Gun where you saw, you know what a tax range is.
11:39And we'll just go back and we'll replay the entire flight and we'll use it as a training aid.
11:44Unlike the frat boy image portrayed by the Hollywood film,
11:48Top Gun students are all seasoned veterans.
11:50They average 30 years of age and most have well over 500 hours in the jet that they fly.
11:59They are the inner circle, and like all Navy flyers,
12:04each proudly bear a call sign given to them early in their career.
12:08For better or worse, it will stick with them until retirement.
12:12My call sign is Gucci.
12:16Some friends of mine in the squadron said I had a Gucci car, Gucci girlfriend, Gucci watch,
12:22wore Gucci sunglasses, and it just stuck.
12:26I got my call sign Scorch in the training command early on.
12:29I tried to stop the airplane a little too quickly,
12:32and the brakes got hot and hot enough to catch on fire,
12:35and it was a little embarrassing to tell you the truth, but I'm Scorch.
12:38My call sign is Rain Man, and the reason I got that, I guess,
12:44is I tend to go off on random subjects or tell stories that have a lot to do with nothing in the ready room.
12:50So the guys were pretty quick to jump on that.
12:52Names like Puke and Ratbreath may seem less dignified than Red Baron,
13:09but today's young pilots are consummate professionals,
13:13professionals who bear the very traits that made men like von Richthofen such formidable warriors.
13:19The pilots have eyes like hawks.
13:22They've all got great eyesight.
13:23It's a gift from the Lord, just like speed is to the athlete, eyesight is to the fighter pilot.
13:28I'm not talking 20-20.
13:29I'm talking more like 20-10.
13:32They've got that aggressive spirit,
13:34and they've got this absolutely bonfire-intense desire to become the best that they can possibly be.
13:40He's also someone who loves flying his plane.
13:43He doesn't get in the plane.
13:44He straps the plane on his back,
13:45and he likes flying at one inch out of control all the time,
13:48but in a purposeful way,
13:50looking for these opportunities to shoot down the enemy.
13:54Von Richthofen often claimed that four-fifths of his victims never knew he was there.
14:00They simply did not see him,
14:01and for this, they died.
14:05Highsight has always been critical to survival in a dogfight.
14:09It still is.
14:10Modern radar can be rendered useless.
14:18Often, young pilots simply have it looking in the wrong piece of sky.
14:25Today's fighter jets can close on one another at speeds as fast as 3,000 miles an hour.
14:31Those with keen eyes can spot bandits from 15 miles away.
14:39If they don't,
14:40this leaves less than 10 seconds before the enemy has them cold.
14:44Miramar is far more than a dogfighting school.
15:06It is an aerial laboratory
15:08where new technologies and tactics are constantly put to test.
15:12Here, pilots master the nuances of both air-to-air and air-to-ground strikes.
15:19The men of Top Gun are not only superb aviators,
15:23they must also possess patience
15:25and the kind of presence that naturally commands the respect of their peers.
15:31Once finished,
15:32Top Gun graduates serve as a teaching cadre,
15:36disciples who take their newfound knowledge
15:38and the latest tactics back to the fleet.
15:4221 simulated by the F-14 and the F-5.
15:44And then wrapping it all up today,
15:46putting the teacher hat on.
15:47It's about instructing.
15:48It's about training.
15:49It's about teaching the teacher
15:51that's going to go back out into the fleet
15:53and relay the knowledge that he's gotten here
15:56to the fleet aviator.
16:00Because it's the fleet aviator
16:01that's going to go out there
16:03in whether it's Bosnia or Desert Storm
16:06or wherever the next conflict is,
16:08they're going to be the ones
16:09that are out there training the other pilots around them
16:13on the latest in weapons,
16:14weapons systems, tactics, and threat tactics.
16:20We're going to be doing what's called a self-escort strike.
16:23We've got a target, we've got some bombs,
16:26and our job is to fight our way into the target
16:28and then drop the bombs on the target
16:31and fight our way back out.
16:32There'll probably be some bad guys there
16:34who are going to try to stop us.
16:36So, you know, I think we'll make it, though.
16:40Rain Man and his classmates
16:43begin in one-versus-one duels.
16:46Over time, they engage in large-scale aerial dogfights,
16:50learning how to lead groups of aircraft into combat.
16:54In each engagement, they will do battle
16:56with Miramar's instructor pilots posing as the enemy.
17:01These are the bad guys right here, so we've got to be quiet.
17:05Can't let them know our plan.
17:08The bandits they face
17:10are actually F-A-18 Hornets
17:13clad in aggressor colors.
17:16Some even sport the red star of the former Soviet Union,
17:19and they fly according to the known parameters
17:22of Eastern Bloc aircraft.
17:25The way we simulate different types of aircraft,
17:27the MiG-29 and the MiG-21,
17:29is just by knowing how we expect that plane to be flown.
17:32We know the performance characteristics of, say, a MiG-21,
17:36and so we would fly it like a MiG-21 using the throttle and stick.
17:40If the plane has a radar, then we will use our radar
17:43the way we would expect that radar to be used.
17:46If the MiG-21 can only pull a certain number of Gs,
17:50then we would pull those number of Gs.
17:52If it can go so fast, we would only go so fast.
17:55So those are the ways that we simulate flying those aircraft.
18:01The target that Rain Man's flight must hit
18:05lies hundreds of miles from Miramar
18:07at a desert range in Nevada.
18:10Got the control building right there.
18:13Here we come.
18:16Solution queue's coming down.
18:18This is when class really begins.
18:28Seconds after unloading their bombs,
18:30the students are jumped by a trio of instructor bandits.
18:34Got a merge just south of the target.
18:36When you're coming in a merge with airplanes flying as fast as they do,
18:40you're closing about a mile every three seconds.
18:42So 40 miles apart, that thing's over in about a minute.
18:44You're coming in there, you're scanning your radar,
18:49you've probably got wingmen out there,
18:51you're wondering how many guys he has.
18:53There's a lot of things going on,
18:54and when you finally do get to that merge,
18:55you're looking at your airspeed,
18:57you're trying to evaluate your energy state,
18:58you're looking at the bandit's posture,
19:01does he see you, does he not see you?
19:02You're worried about whether he has other people
19:04that are trying to shoot you
19:05while you're shooting that particular guy at the merge,
19:07and all at the same time,
19:08there's a lot of people talking on the radio,
19:10you're trying to keep track of your wingmen,
19:11so there's a lot of things going on through your mind
19:13that you try to have to prioritize.
19:14And hopefully you put them in the right order.
19:18He's no threat.
19:19He's no threat.
19:20Overhead, overhead.
19:22I can't do anything about it, eh?
19:25300 knots.
19:27Dogfighting is sheer physics.
19:30It is angles versus energy.
19:32The tighter the angle, or turn,
19:35the greater the loss of energy, or speed.
19:38In this three-dimensional chess game,
19:42pilots must constantly reconfigure these equations
19:45while twisting and turning at the speed of sound,
19:49under gravity forces up to nine times that of nature.
19:53Check it out.
19:54Check it out.
19:58Aerial combat is an exhausting chore.
20:02Flying the aircraft on its outer edge
20:04causes the pilot to experience intense Gs.
20:07Blacking out is a constant danger.
20:12Thank you, sir, good to me.
20:15Throughout the fight,
20:16he grunts and flexes muscles
20:18to keep blood flowing to the brain.
20:21Okay, tell you,
20:22one's passing on the left side now.
20:24One coming up on you.
20:25Check it out.
20:26Snap.
20:27Less than a minute after it begins,
20:29it is over.
20:31There's a gun on the F-14.
20:33Okay, I got him wrong.
20:34If this were war,
20:36these Tomcat students would not be coming home.
20:39Okay, I'm good, man.
20:40They face men who have racked up
20:42more aerial combat hours
20:44than any aviators in the world.
20:48It is nearly unheard of
20:53for young apprentices
20:54to prevail in the skies over Miramar.
20:58Instructors spend three years at the school.
21:01Most can read a student's energy state
21:03to a whisker.
21:06Recommend terminate.
21:08Knock it off, knock it off.
21:09Fighters, knock it off.
21:10Bandits, knock it off.
21:12One of the keys of a good instructor
21:13is flying the plane
21:15just hard enough to teach,
21:16not as hard as you can fly it,
21:17because if you're just
21:18beating everybody on the block,
21:20beating them solid all day in and day out,
21:23it's difficult to generate
21:24the right type of learning environment.
21:26So one of the keys of a mature instructor
21:27is to be able to fly the plane
21:29just hard enough to teach.
21:30Have it roll over,
21:31but fly that thing just hard enough to teach.
21:33The way out, we ran into a lot of bandits.
21:41We had a little hassle coming off target,
21:43but that was pretty fun, too.
21:46After every flight, when you come back
21:47and the instructors,
21:49who are the bad guys out there,
21:50sort of kicked your butt,
21:51then you have to reassess
21:54and take home the lessons learned.
21:56Once you've gone through the debrief, though,
21:57you realize that even though
21:58you've made some mistakes,
21:59there are a lot of things
21:59that you're doing right as well.
22:01So if that happens now,
22:03as you can see,
22:04if the MiG-29 goes nose high,
22:06the F-18 can do a couple of things here
22:08depending on what his airspeed is.
22:10He could go ahead,
22:10and if he sees that overshoot,
22:11he might reverse at that point,
22:13and now what we have basically
22:14is two aircraft pointed extremely nose high
22:16trying to keep the other guy
22:18from getting behind him.
22:20And basically what we have now
22:21is a race to the wall,
22:22and the last guy there is going to win.
22:24Beating another man in the air
22:29means having absolute S.A.,
22:32or situational awareness,
22:34knowing at all times
22:36how your aircraft is oriented to the ground
22:38and to the enemy plane.
22:42Survival in an aerial duel
22:44also requires intense aggression.
22:47This is far more than simple
22:48fighter jock bravado.
22:50In 1960,
23:00German ace Oswald Bolka,
23:03the father of air combat,
23:05issued a ten-point manifesto
23:07that is still followed today.
23:09Point number two states,
23:11if you initiate the attack,
23:13carry it through.
23:14Aggressiveness and determination
23:16are critical to survival.
23:20Somewhere in the range
23:23of 80% of the kills in combat
23:24occur off the first turn.
23:26If that's in fact the case,
23:27as it appears it is
23:28based on the studies that have been done,
23:30then it's absolutely critical
23:32to make that first turn a good one.
23:35And we don't ever tell our pilots
23:37to, shall we say,
23:39fly inappropriately
23:41to structurally damage the airplane,
23:42but just short of that,
23:44we encourage them
23:45to really turn hard
23:46and go for the throw immediately.
23:48when we have an opportunity
23:49to put a weapon on someone.
23:51As we say,
23:51get the killing work
23:52over with quickly.
23:55Oh, what a beautiful shot.
23:58It is a deadly craft
24:00that has existed
24:01since the airplane
24:02first went to war.
24:03A craft that,
24:05due to advances
24:05in beyond-visual-range missiles,
24:08many now say
24:09is a thing of the past.
24:12Ever since World War I,
24:13the maneuvering dogfight
24:14has been in place.
24:17And ever since World War I,
24:18everybody tries to say it's over.
24:20After World War I,
24:22the common wisdom was,
24:23guys are going to be going
24:24200 miles an hour,
24:25it'll suck the wind
24:26out of their lungs
24:27and they won't be able to breathe.
24:28Not true.
24:30World War II comes along,
24:32we get totally surprised
24:33by the Japanese Zero
24:34and the Messerschmitt 109.
24:36And these guys,
24:37these Germans and Japanese,
24:38are maneuvering like mad.
24:40And we are back
24:41in the maneuvering fight again.
24:43So we build maneuverable airplanes
24:45that will out-maneuver
24:47and out-perform these airplanes.
24:48Great, fine.
24:50Well, World War II ends
24:51and we come into the jet era.
24:52Oh, jets are here.
24:54You can't possibly turn a jet tight
24:56because it'll turn the guy
24:57in the cockpit into a puddle.
24:58So therefore,
24:59dogfighting is over.
25:00We won't do this anymore.
25:01And we build bomber interceptors.
25:04Well, Korea comes along.
25:07God, we're maneuvering again.
25:09Oh, no, we're having to maneuver
25:11against these guys
25:12and still fire guns.
25:16The reason the airplanes
25:17were so good
25:18is a bomber interceptor
25:19requires a large wing.
25:21And as a result,
25:22you can turn tight
25:22with a large wing.
25:23This is the F-86.
25:28So we go all the way
25:29through Korea
25:30doing the dogfight again.
25:31And fortunately,
25:32a lot of the World War II
25:33guys were there.
25:34They were 30 years old now
25:35and they'd been aces
25:35in World War II,
25:36so they were good.
25:37And the dogfighting skill
25:38was still there.
25:44Korea's over.
25:45We're now in the nuclear age.
25:47We're going to have
25:47a nuclear confrontation.
25:48We're going to be
25:49shooting down bombers.
25:50So we design interceptors
25:51without guns inside
25:52because we are not going
25:53to be shooting down
25:54enemy fighters anymore.
25:56This is all going to be
25:57a beyond visual range,
25:58long-range missile environment.
26:01By the late 50s,
26:07Air Force and Navy commanders
26:08were so smitten
26:10with long-range missiles
26:11that mock dogfighting
26:12was actually forbidden.
26:18To gain experience,
26:20pilots would often rendezvous
26:21secretly at a prearranged altitude
26:23to engage in the illicit act.
26:26We build the F-4,
26:31the ultimate interceptor,
26:32no gun inside.
26:33We get to Vietnam
26:34and all of a sudden
26:36we're facing the same
26:37small maneuverable fighters.
26:38And this time,
26:39we don't have
26:40maneuverable fighters at all.
26:41The North Vietnamese
26:44rely primarily on the MiG-17.
26:47It is subsonic
26:48and 20 years older
26:50than the F-4.
26:51The supersonic American jet
26:53is considered
26:54state-of-the-art,
26:55but compared to the nimble
26:56Russian plane,
26:57it is huge
26:58and its twin engines
27:00belch smoke
27:00that make it easy to spot.
27:02Making matters worse,
27:04phantom crewmen
27:05have been taught
27:05to fight a nuclear war.
27:07It is a tragic combination.
27:09Soon,
27:12nearly half the engagements
27:13over Southeast Asia
27:14end with an American aircraft
27:16going down in flames.
27:18And unlike the single-seat MiG,
27:21phantom pilots
27:22go down in twos.
27:28Hailed as the weapon
27:30of the future,
27:31the new long-range
27:32AIM-7 sparrow
27:33misses 9 out of 10 times.
27:36And when the longest range kills,
27:38end up being
27:39two American
27:40F-105 Thunder Chiefs,
27:43visual identification
27:44is mandated.
27:48Our weapon systems
27:49were not up to speed.
27:51Our phantom pilots
27:52were trained
27:52as interceptor pilots,
27:53but there was not going
27:54to be any more dogfights.
27:56You're only going
27:56to shoot bombers
27:57from Russia
27:57coming across
27:58at .9 Mach.
28:00And we were engaged
28:01with tight-turning MiGs,
28:02and we weren't doing very well.
28:03The MiG-17 turned
28:08at about 19 degrees a second.
28:10A phantom turned
28:11at about 11 degrees a second,
28:13which tells me
28:14if I get behind him
28:15and he turns at 19 degrees
28:16and I turn at 11 degrees,
28:17it doesn't take
28:18a mathematician very long
28:19to figure out
28:20he's going to come back
28:20around and shoot me
28:21if I try and stay
28:22in a horizontal fight.
28:25Now, that's not very good
28:26when you have a,
28:27in those days,
28:28a million-dollar MiG
28:30versus a 20-million-dollar Phantom.
28:33It doesn't take
28:34too much arithmetic
28:34to figure out
28:35what's wrong here.
28:36So the Top Gun school
28:37was born out of that.
28:41As U.S. losses mount,
28:44military commanders
28:45look for an answer.
28:46By March 1969,
28:48the first Navy pilots
28:50are mixing it up
28:51in the skies
28:51above Miramar Naval Air Station.
28:58Here, 30,000 feet
29:00over Southern California,
29:02the American dogfighting
29:03tradition will be reborn.
29:06The reputation
29:07of the fighter pilot,
29:08and particularly
29:08the Top Gun graduate,
29:09is that he's a risk-taker,
29:11that he's willing
29:11to hang out on the edge.
29:13And you really are
29:13looking for that guy.
29:14You're looking for the guy
29:15who has kind of got
29:17a balance between
29:18being safe when he needs to be,
29:20but really getting in there
29:21and doing the job
29:22if he has to,
29:23without worrying about his wife,
29:25without worrying about his kids,
29:27without worrying about
29:27his own safety.
29:29A fighter pilot has to be
29:30out on the edge
29:31when he flies.
29:33The problem is,
29:35in peacetime,
29:36he's usually out of place.
29:37He usually tears up the bar,
29:39wrecks his car,
29:41chases the commanding
29:42officer's daughter.
29:43He's that,
29:44he usually is that kind of a guy.
29:45In wartime, he's brilliant.
29:47Just brilliant.
29:48He is in place.
29:49He's where he should be.
29:50He's a warrior.
29:51I'm sure Randy would agree
29:52with this.
29:52There are some things...
29:53Pilot Randy Cunningham
29:55and his backseater,
29:56Willie Driscoll,
29:56are among the first
29:58phantom crews sent to Miramar.
30:01I was a maverick.
30:03I believe that the only thing
30:05that mattered
30:05was killing and surviving
30:07in the air,
30:07and I dedicated myself to that.
30:09To me,
30:10dying was a pretty serious thing.
30:12Times have changed little
30:13since the time of Rick Tobin,
30:15Oswald Boca,
30:17Embleman, Galland.
30:18Pappy Boynton
30:19and Chuck Yeager
30:20and Wally Schirra,
30:21people that had set
30:22the stage for us,
30:24and I knew why
30:25they were successful,
30:26because they focused
30:27on the air.
30:28When I knew
30:29that I was going to meet
30:30another pilot
30:31in the air,
30:32that I wasn't going
30:33to walk away alive
30:34if I wasn't prepared,
30:36so some of the other things
30:37were secondary to me,
30:39and what I wanted to do
30:40is flight and fight,
30:42not only fight,
30:43but to complete my mission
30:44and come back from it.
30:45that was what was
30:47important to me.
30:50With A-4 Skyhawks
30:51posing as MiGs,
30:53Marine and Navy pilots
30:54rapidly sharpened
30:55their skills.
30:58By 1972,
31:00over 100 aviators
31:01have passed through
31:02the halls of Miramar.
31:06For most,
31:07the next stop
31:08is Vietnam.
31:12We fought against
31:13anything that would turn
31:14that was dissimilar
31:15to the Phantom,
31:17and when I met
31:17my first MiG,
31:19I had 200 simulated combats
31:22under my belt.
31:23I had far more experience
31:24than the MiG driver had.
31:28Top Gun had taught them
31:29to play to their strengths.
31:31For those flying the F-4,
31:33that means using
31:34the Phantom's speed
31:35and vertical acceleration
31:36to counter the MiG's
31:38tight-turning ability.
31:39One solution rediscovered
31:44in Miramar
31:45is the classic
31:46high yo-yo,
31:47a maneuver in which
31:48the Phantom pilot,
31:50when finding himself
31:51turning with a MiG,
31:52uses his superior power
31:53to thrust into the vertical
31:55and to loop back down
31:57for the kill.
32:01By early 1972,
32:04Top Gun graduates,
32:05Cunningham and Driscoll,
32:06make a name for themselves
32:08by flaming their first MiG
32:09and ending a two-year
32:11American drought.
32:13As of yet,
32:14the war has not yielded
32:15a single American fighter ace.
32:22On May 10th, 1972,
32:24Duke Cunningham
32:25and Willie Driscoll
32:26set out from Yankee Station
32:28on what would become
32:29the most famous strike mission
32:31of the Vietnam War.
32:33They fly in as bombers that day,
32:39their target,
32:40a rail yard
32:41not far from downtown Hanoi.
32:43Hitting anything near the city
32:45means running through
32:46plenty of ground fire
32:47and braving an iron ring
32:49of Soviet-made
32:50surface-to-air missiles.
32:51B-3 AAA at 10 o'clock.
32:58You tower in the target room?
33:00Roger, fast right over.
33:02Roger.
33:02The AAA blanket
33:03becomes increasingly intense.
33:06Cunningham and Driscoll
33:07decide on a steep bond run
33:09to get them in and out
33:10as quickly as possible.
33:14Okay, that's a good hit.
33:16That's a good place.
33:17How are you doing, boys?
33:19They come off target unscathed
33:22and immediately encounter
33:23nearly 22 enemy fighters
33:25swarming down on the squadron.
33:30Left with no alternative,
33:32they must fight their way out
33:34or die.
33:34Get him, dude.
33:36Where is he?
33:37He's got a non-smoking gun.
33:39Oh, they're coming down low.
33:43Okay, these three eyes are...
33:44That's a brawn.
33:45Oh, I'm right.
33:47Okay, stop.
33:48I'm right.
33:50Cunningham's first
33:51AIM-9 sidewinder kill
33:53is easy and quick.
33:54But seconds after flaming the MiG,
33:57Driscoll spots their wingman
33:58in serious trouble below.
34:02We looked down below us
34:04on the left side.
34:05We saw our Navy F-4
34:06that appeared to be in big trouble.
34:08He was in a gentle left turn
34:09with two enemy planes
34:10behind him at 1,000 feet
34:11and a third looked like
34:11he was coming up
34:12to join on his wing.
34:13So we rolled on our back
34:14and we were pulling hard down
34:15and as we did,
34:16we were calling,
34:17F-4 on a left turn,
34:18brake left.
34:20He's still continuing
34:24on his gentle turn.
34:25F-4 on a left turn,
34:26brake left.
34:27You know,
34:27and the guy's still
34:28continuing on his gentle turn.
34:29He didn't see the one
34:30coming in to join on his wing.
34:32And then the third call
34:34by us was,
34:34God damn it,
34:35F-4 break left,
34:36you're going to die.
34:37In which case,
34:37all the F-4s out there
34:38broke left.
34:41In a near suicidal move,
34:43Cunningham and Driscoll
34:44dive down into the pack of MiGs
34:47on their wingman's tail,
34:49an act for which
34:49they are later nominated
34:50for the Congressional Medal of Honor.
34:52I've passed an airplane head-on
34:56and I want to get over
34:57and help my wingman
34:58because he's got a MiG on his tail.
35:00I have to visually figure out,
35:02can he get back around?
35:03Can I get from this point
35:04and help my wingman
35:05before he can get back around
35:07and engage me?
35:08And in many cases,
35:09you're talking about milliseconds
35:11and half-second times
35:12the difference between life and death.
35:15And if you don't train
35:16to that scenario,
35:17you're not going to survive
35:19over the long period of time.
35:20When you're in the dogfight itself
35:23at sea,
35:24you try to feel cold and detached,
35:26but I mean,
35:27you're trying very hard
35:28not to come literally
35:29unglued at the seams.
35:31I think all of the emotions
35:32and feelings known to man
35:34you're experiencing at some level.
35:36I've always likened it
35:37to the outer stratosphere
35:38of tension and anxiety
35:39and fear.
35:41Normally,
35:42when you're over enemy territory,
35:43you're able to jam
35:44the fear element back down.
35:45When you're getting shot at,
35:46you're able to jam
35:47the fear element back down.
35:48I mean, it's intense.
35:49And by that,
35:50I mean, you've got the shakes
35:51and you're trying not
35:52to throw up.
35:53Sometimes you succeed
35:54at not doing that.
35:55Sometimes you don't.
35:56You're trying not
35:57to mess your pants.
35:58You normally don't do that,
35:59but it's a real
36:00physiological overload.
36:02And you're mainly trying
36:04not to just come
36:04unglued at the seams.
36:06This is Red Crown.
36:07If you allow yourself
36:14the luxury of fear,
36:16if you allow those motions
36:17to take over
36:18and control you,
36:19you're vulnerable
36:20at the same time.
36:22The first MiG,
36:22I was pretty much in control.
36:24The second MiG,
36:24when he came in behind me,
36:26I saw tracers coming by
36:28and I remember
36:28I almost froze.
36:29I went,
36:30like, what am I going to do?
36:31And I remember the fear
36:32that started to take over.
36:34And I remember
36:34the thought process
36:35because of the training
36:36is, okay, settle down.
36:38This guy is not
36:39going to knock it off.
36:40He's not going to quit.
36:41This is not a training mission.
36:43I've got to get out of this.
36:44And I'm the only one
36:45that can do it.
36:46And then I was able
36:47to take over
36:47with my skill
36:49because of training
36:50and win that fight.
36:52Okay, nice show, guys.
36:54Get the behind of you.
36:55I'm going to run out of here.
36:56Step up.
36:57You've got a minute behind you.
36:58Easy.
36:59Okay, he's right here with me.
37:00I was just going to
37:00open get done
37:01for 17.
37:02Now running.
37:03As we started
37:05to pick the nose back up,
37:06we saw a little speck
37:07on the nose.
37:08It turned out
37:08to be an enemy airplane.
37:09We tried to pass him
37:10closer, boy,
37:10and he started
37:11shooting his gun at us.
37:13We made a hard cut
37:14to the right
37:14to avoid the bullets.
37:15He went by us.
37:16We pulled up
37:16into the vertical
37:17expecting to see
37:18that he would be
37:18running away.
37:20We were very surprised
37:20to see he was actually
37:21up in the vertical
37:22higher than we were.
37:23It is later revealed
37:31that their third foe
37:32that day
37:33is an infamous
37:34North Vietnamese ace
37:36reputed to have sent
37:3713 Americans
37:38down in flames.
37:41The engagement
37:42becomes legendary
37:44and an integral part
37:45of Top Gun curriculum.
37:46So we ended up,
37:54no need I'll probably
37:55overstress my wrists here
37:56as I get older.
37:56I can't do it
37:57like I used to be able to,
37:58but we ended up
37:58in what's called
37:59a slow speed rolling scissor
38:01with him behind us
38:03the whole time
38:03in a position to shoot us.
38:04And if this table
38:05is the ground,
38:06we didn't want
38:06to hit the ground,
38:07so we have to pull up.
38:08We did the best we could
38:09trying to keep ourselves
38:10out of the flight
38:10of his bullets.
38:12He was smart
38:12because he would give us
38:13a squirt with his bullets
38:14right at the bottom
38:15and at the top
38:16we were very slow.
38:17Whichever way
38:17we could roll,
38:18we tried to be
38:19as unpredictable
38:19as we could be.
38:20But all through this
38:21we were in huge trouble.
38:23Randy came back
38:24on the power,
38:24popped the speed brake.
38:25We had no other idea
38:26what to do.
38:27And as we did,
38:28he gently slid out
38:29in front.
38:29Okay, keep working.
38:30I got you, Randy.
38:31I got you.
38:32All right,
38:32you got another one.
38:36You're clean.
38:38Do you have anybody on you?
38:40Three sidewinders fired,
38:42three kills,
38:43each at very close range.
38:45Top Gun graduates
38:46Randy Cunningham
38:47and Willie Driscoll
38:48become America's
38:49first aces
38:50of the Vietnam War.
38:56Vipers,
38:56stand by,
38:57canopy.
38:57Canopy now.
39:01Despite technological advances,
39:03little has changed
39:04since the Vietnam era.
39:06Modern pilots
39:07employ tactics
39:08identical to those
39:09Cunningham and Driscoll
39:10used
39:11to knock enemy MiGs
39:12out of the sky
39:13over 30 years ago.
39:18Burner's on.
39:19Pull open.
39:21A typical mistake
39:22made by the students
39:23at Miramar
39:24is to rely too heavily
39:26on high-tech systems
39:27instead of the basic
39:29piloting skills
39:30that got them there.
39:33Going fine.
39:34One of the things
39:36that we identify
39:36as a weakness
39:37in students coming through,
39:39and I know it was for me,
39:40it was making the transition
39:41from looking at the radar display
39:43to simply looking out the window.
39:45Sometimes it can be a hindrance
39:47if you don't use it well.
39:48You can get wrapped up
39:50in these whiz-bang displays
39:52that you have
39:53in the electronic
39:54and the avionics package
39:55in the airplane
39:56and maybe lose sight of,
39:58hey, I need to maneuver here,
40:00I need to move my airplane,
40:01I need to look outside.
40:02Hey, there's the threat right there.
40:10With technology today,
40:11the idea behind it
40:12is to make the fighter pilot's job easier.
40:15In fact, however,
40:16like many of us today
40:18in the workplace,
40:18the job of the fax machine
40:19was to make it easier
40:20and the job of the computer
40:21was to make it easier,
40:22but people want it now.
40:23And I think most people
40:24in the corporate world today,
40:25when they go to work,
40:26it's a whirlwind day.
40:28What that translates to
40:29from the fighter pilot's perspective,
40:31for example,
40:32the F-14 might have
40:33somewhere in the range
40:34of 250 or so different
40:35switch positions.
40:37Nine computers,
40:38maybe 80 different displays.
40:39And the idea today
40:41is within the context
40:42of all those displays
40:43and all those switch positions,
40:44what's most important
40:45and what am I going to do
40:47when you're dealing
40:48with this intense,
40:49intense strain.
40:50And you're already
40:51in what's called
40:51a combat fog
40:52or you're not firing
40:53on all cylinders anyway
40:54because of the strain
40:55of the moment.
40:56But through that,
40:57somehow,
40:57you've got to get through
40:58and you have to know
41:00that fast
41:00what you're going to do.
41:02That is task overload.
41:05Ingo.
41:07Ingo.
41:07One system at the fingertips
41:20of today's fighter pilot
41:21is the BVR,
41:23or Beyond Visual Range Missile.
41:25Like most technology,
41:27BVR weapons have made
41:28lightning advances
41:29in recent years.
41:31Missiles,
41:32like the Navy's
41:33AIM-120 AMRAAM
41:34and AIM-54 Phoenix,
41:36mark a trend
41:37of the future
41:38in which pilots
41:39will routinely
41:41kill enemy aircraft
41:42from distances
41:43of more than 60 miles.
41:52With the advent
41:53of these missiles,
41:54many again believe
41:56that dogfighting
41:57is a thing of the past.
41:58The realities of combat,
42:00however,
42:01suggest that this
42:02may not be the case.
42:04Meanwhile,
42:05there'll be some
42:06Top Gun instructors
42:06who are already up
42:07at Channel Lake
42:08that'll come out.
42:08The men here at Miramar
42:09are quick to point out
42:11that this same kind
42:12of thinking
42:13led to the creation
42:14of the Navy Fighter
42:15Weapons School
42:16in the first place.
42:18Better training wins wars,
42:19not technology.
42:21And even though
42:22we have supposedly
42:23great technology
42:24and it will do the job,
42:26the Top Gun guy says,
42:28well, just in case
42:29we really can't use it
42:30or it all breaks down,
42:30I'm well trained enough
42:32to get in there
42:32and knife fight
42:32with the guy.
42:33Well, I'll have some fun.
42:35As one guy said,
42:36having this great technology
42:38and trying to use it
42:39is kind of like
42:40fighting a knife fight
42:41in a phone booth
42:42with a spear.
42:43And the other guy's
42:44got a knife.
42:45I want the knife.
42:46The spear's nice,
42:47but give me the knife.
42:51The classic problem
42:53with the Beyond Visual Range
42:55fight is you don't know
42:56who that is.
42:57You'd like to know,
42:58and you have a little box
43:00inside your airplane
43:01that supposedly gives
43:02a return to the guy
43:03in the other seat
43:04that you're a friendly.
43:05The box can break.
43:07The signatures
43:07are much the same.
43:08Well, they're going to look
43:09at turbine revolutions.
43:10The Russian engine
43:11runs different
43:12than an American engine.
43:13We're going to be
43:14fighting our own equipment
43:15in some of these theaters.
43:16Some of our potential enemies
43:18are flying our airplanes.
43:20Okay, it's an American airplane.
43:21Now what do we do?
43:22The Beyond Visual Range fight
43:25has never, ever been able
43:26to solve this problem.
43:27It is still a problem,
43:29so you're going to have
43:29to go look at him.
43:30Well, once you get close
43:31enough to look at him,
43:31what have you got?
43:32A dogfight.
43:34Tally two, tally two.
43:37Challenges like these
43:38make the Top Gun mission
43:40more important
43:41than ever before.
43:44But Miramar's days
43:46may be numbered.
43:48Budget cuts
43:48and the reemergence
43:49of BVR
43:50have put the
43:51Fighter Weapons School
43:53under fire.
43:54Once again,
43:55we are facing
43:56the word that
43:57the dogfight's probably over.
43:59And sure enough,
43:59the Air Force
44:00has taken all
44:00of its aggressor squadrons
44:01and gotten rid of them.
44:02They don't exist
44:03inside the Air Force.
44:04And the Navy
44:05is condensing their program.
44:07I'll call it downsizing.
44:08Actually, I'll call it
44:09they're eliminating
44:10some of the program.
44:11So this very successful program
44:13that's been so pivotal
44:14is now going to
44:15slowly disappear again.
44:16Down the hut.
44:18Unless guys
44:20like they did
44:21in the 50s
44:21go out and break the rules.
44:23Meet you at 20,000 feet.
44:24Click, phone hangs up.
44:27Bingo.
44:28Bingo.
44:48Bingo.
44:49Bingo.
44:50Bingo.
44:51Bingo.
44:52Bingo.
44:52Bingo.
44:53Bingo.
44:53Bingo.
44:54Bingo.
44:54Bingo.
44:55Bingo.
44:55Bingo.
44:56Bingo.
44:56Bingo.
44:57Bingo.
44:57Bingo.
44:58Bingo.
44:58Bingo.
44:59Bingo.
44:59Bingo.
45:00Bingo.
45:00Bingo.
45:01Bingo.
45:01Transcription by CastingWords