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So how many of you knew the name of Tom Cruise's character in the first movie? We all remember his callsign, Maverick. Well, until I read the article at the source of the photo above, I had no idea that his character's name was Pete Mitchell. There are folks who my daughter (The WSO) and her husband (Big Time) flew/fly with that I am hard pressed to remember their actual names when I run into them. (Which sadly is far less than I used to...)
Folks like Bubbles, Big Tittie Mike (yes, his mother hates his callsign), Bobo, Lennie, Danica, Gandalf, Frodo, and Korndog (I was cautioned to never use his callsign when his Mom was around). Now I know these folks well enough to say "Hi" to and I'm even koobecaF friends with some of 'em, but ask me their actual names, and I really need to think about it. I dunno, getting older ain't much help in the memory department either!
Anyhoo, the new Top Gun movie (which as we all know should be TOPGUN) has been pushed back to December of this year (damn it) and I grow more impatient by the day for it to come out. Not that I'm in a hurry to have another calendar year fall aft in my wake, the damn things go by far too fast to begin with, but hey, I want to see this movie!
Here's the second trailer and as I have nothing really to write about today, you get videos. The second one is by a guy yclept Mover (okay, his real name is C. W. Lemoine), an Air Force fighter pilot AND a Navy fighter pilot, though not at the same time, he also writes novels, which I keep reminding myself to read. Mover has some good commentary on the Top Gun 2: Maverick trailer. He can't wait to see it either! (Lest you think he's going to be hypercritical about the film, he's not.)
Oh yeah, his YouTube channel, C. W. Lemoine is awesome, you should watch it. (No, no that's a different link, I know it looks the same, but it ain't. The first is to his author website the second is to his YouTube channel. As Mike K. says, "Trust me, I'm an NCO.")
Anyhoo, watch, enjoy, take notes (just kidding)...
And now Mover's take on the trailer...
I'll be back Friday, prolly with another Flyby as I do believe that there are still a number of weird looking aircraft that I am keen to share with you. Yes, yes, I'll probably include the Pogo and the Stiletto, POCIR.
See you then!
Oh now that's just great..... another YouTube channel to watch....about fast planes ...and pilots and fast cars and...and....and......:)
ReplyDeleteI view it as a necessary public service.
DeleteNo need to thank me. 😁
Sarge, how about including the the swept-wing F-84H (I think) equipped with the turboprop engine that made people upchuck their cookies with the supersonic whine of the propeller? And both the XF-90 (the 1950s equipment of the Blackhawks!), the XF-91 Thunderceptor (Which to me looks to me like an F-84F with acromegaly) and the XF-85 Goblin (a pilot strapped to the back of a jet engine with weird wings). Hell, I can come up with a bunch of odd-looking 1940s/1950s planes for you.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, keep up the great work with you and the other contributors! This is the only blog I regularly visit......
Love your suggestions Ox! I looked those birds up, all are weird yet wonderful in a very 1950s sort of way.
DeleteThanks!
(Don McCollor)...another oddity was the concept (tested on the F104 among others) was zero launch capacity. The aircraft sat stationary cocked up about 20 degrees and a rocket blasted it into the air and up to flying speed...
DeleteI dimly recall seeing pictures of that.
DeleteSo...from the change in the masthead, can I assume Teddy has been released from durance vile?
ReplyDeleteYes, she has. Put to sea in the last couple of days for workups/shakedown. The entire crew isn't aboard (according to USNI) but enough to make sure that they're good to go "back" on deployment. (From my daughter's perspective they've been on deployment the whole time.)
DeleteI know Big Time is thrilled to get back in the jet. So thrilled he apparently shaved his cruise 'stache. (Well, they are halfway through. The spouses celebrated that last week with a gourmet meal, delivered, of course.)
Well...Good, a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Could still be a train, but better than continued darkness. No word yet on termination of Little Juvat's TDY from Hades. 94 and counting.
DeleteGood rule of thumb on Little Juvat's TDY, it'll end the day before they'd have to pay him extra. You know how that works!
DeleteSending positive waves his way!
Couldn't disagree with anything he said on the TOPGUN trailer. I'll probably go see it, if only to sneeze "Bull $417!" when needed. I've read a few of his books, they're pretty good.
DeleteI like C. W., I really should spend some shekels on his writing...
DeleteHmmmm... kinda like hurry up and wait, huh?
ReplyDeleteThat’s good news about TR.
Yeah, but with my Air Force training, hurry up and wait ain't no thang. (Report for a 1000 flight at 0500, just to make sure everyone is there... GAHHHH!)
DeleteWe had a "Barney" Pfeiff in my first squadron. To this day some people don't realize he has an actual first name, Dan.
ReplyDeleteLove it!
DeleteWhy have a name when you've got a perfectly good callsign?
Lifting COVID restrictions means work will be getting busy for me. New students coming in to (mis)use the systems I support. Build-up and pre-deployment training!
ReplyDeleteIt's really tough matching real names with call signs. Some are absolutely not repeatable in polite company, and some are just "What lead up to that call sign for you???"
- Hint: I see the F/A-18 (from the trailer) with black and blue striped tail almost every day, along with the F-14-on-a-stick and the petting zoo across the street from the aforementioned Tomcat. Black F-5 with red star on the tail. It's strange seeing things in real life also on the movie screen.
And Lex's memorial tail fin outside the O-club...
After the movie is released, I may be able to provide notes from the unseen stars of the movie that did the actual flying.
Wandering Neurons
I can hardly wait!
DeleteSigh, that tail fin...
Nice Double D on the header.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the TR, it will be interesting to see how the fallout of the command issue, both ship and Navy, works out over that. Some serious stupidery all around. I think someone needs to line up a lot of people and do a Three Stooges group slap.
As to the new movie, well, I never really liked the old movie. Lost interest after they slabbed Anthony Edward's character. Meh. If I want to see some nice Tomkitty flying, I'll go watch "The Final Countdown." The fiction is more believable.
As to Hornet madness, well, "Pensacola: Wings of Gold" first season has plenty. Second season sucked rocks, it turned into "Space: Above and Beyond" but not in space, not above, not beyond, and in the now (or when, of the show.)
Snob? Maybe. But when they get little things wrong, it starts adding up. If'n you're gonna write plausible fiction, then you need to stay within the boundaries of the plausible. Like Tom Clancy did in his books and was rarely achieved in his movies, especially the later ones or in the tv series. Get the little things right and you'll keep my attention. Get things wrong, like designations of enemy fighters and simple stuff? (Insert buzzer sound, followed by my brain leaving the room.) Okay, the Battle of the Bulge or the Patton movie, not using actual German and American period tanks, plausible only because not enough of the real stuff existed to do it.
Use too much CGI fakery and you get the same results, which is why Charlton Heston's "Ben Hur" was great and the recent one sucked male moose external reproductive members. Or... "Dances with Smurfs" or "Smurfs in Spaaaaace." Same. Won't even bring up, like a hairball, the movie version of "Cats," which apparently was successful in generating really bad dreams in the viewers.
Good CGI fakery, like in "Dunkirk" is good, on the other hand. Someone actually paid attention on that one.
I like some of the mighty midget Cruise's movies. Just... "TG" wasn't one of them. I could have done without the hour and a half music montages.
I'll probably catch it on the tv when it comes out, record it, and only watch the carrier deck and plane sequences. Maybe. Maybe not. Interest is.... lacking.
I'll sit through a bad movie for really good flying scenes. Just not more than once.
DeleteWe shall see.
Final Countdown was and still is epic. Just wish they wouldn't have cast Military-hater Martin Sheen in it.
Delete"Splash the Zeroes. I say again, splash the Zeroes."
DeleteOutstanding film.
Nice header, as Beans said - love the Dart and Dagger from my childhood.
ReplyDeleteRegarding remembering call signs and not names, vets I have talked to (as in veterinarians) say they identify people by their pets' names - "Oh, hi there, Fluffy's mom" - and have trouble with the peoples' names.
I will also go see the movie - nostalgia is a good thing at times, and I'm curious. Will have to look at CW's website more often, looks good - and another likely time sink. Planes, helicopters, cars and guns, what's not to like?
Very glad to hear the sitrep on the TR - thanks for that. I also hope Little juvat gets out of lockdown soon - as to it being timed to coincide with extra pay, I've always maintained that if the government folks that have mandated the lockdown had to forego their salary when their policies make the people they serve forego theirs, the lockdowns would be MUCH shorter. Kinda goes along with my feeling that Congress should be 100% subject to the same laws and programs they subject everyone else too - goose and gander sort of thing.
Hope everyone has a nice weekend!
I truly love the -102 and the -106, very lovely aircraft they are. Something about that delta wing I guess as I really, really liked the B-58 as well.
DeleteCompletely agree with your thoughts on the bureaucrats and about Congress. Sauce indeed!
I knew a Hustler driver. He laughed about the concept of 'fighter support.' Though he did say the only thing he hated about flying one was the 2000' climb up into the cockpit on a hot day. In reference to my rather confused look (hey, I was 10) he said, "Try doing it wearing your helmet, flightsuit, parachute, flight bag, orders, maps and your lunch." Of which I truly understood the first time I walked 2 miles in all my armor and weapons and credentials and lunch and drink in order to fight for 3 hours, in summer, in Florida.
DeleteYeah, the Hustler sat way up high on those spindly landing gear.
DeleteFighter support needs to be able to keep up in order to support. Heh.
Whereas the opponent only has to be in front of him. A head on AIM-7 would have a VERY long range at say Mach 4 closing velocity(1 for him 3 for you) and an AiM-9 would give a pretty good chirp on the skin temperature. Not that I've every practiced that against a B-58 however.
DeleteTrue dat.
Delete(Don McCollor)...the ultimate delta winged beauty was the XB-70. Big, long range, and designed to cruise at mach 3...
DeleteYeah, the XB-70 was awesome and awe inspiring. And it was an even longer slog up to the cockpit - higher than the -58 by about 8 feet.
DeleteAnd really neat enclosed ejection chairs designed to float and all that. Too bad the only time they needed them they didn't get used. Dangit.
DeleteDon - An interesting design, too bad the Surface to Air Missile had been invented.
DeleteTom - I see that long nose and wonder what the view from up there was like.
DeleteBeans - Actually the pilot did eject, one of arms was badly injured when the doors of the ejection capsule closed on it.
Delete(Don McCollor)...Somewhere buried I have a story of a B58 (light with no bomb load) that wanted to show the fighter boys a thing or two. Right off the runway they went vertical, accelerating all the way to altitude. Tumbled their gyros, but said it was worth it....
DeleteI've seen an SR-71 do something similar. But a B-58 doing that? Now that would be a sight to see!
Deletehttps://youtu.be/cxCdS217FpY
ReplyDeleteI think this is what the movie attempted to do with the CGI maneuver...
(and I dont think F-18 can pull it off, btw)
Yup, Cobra maneuver. Not sure if the F/A-18 can do that either. C.W. pointed that out in the clip.
DeleteViewing party in New Orleans? I'm so in! Let's have that!
ReplyDeleteThat would be epic.
DeleteBut I heard it's coming out in December, which means visiting with the far-flung members of my tribe. But hey, ya never know!