Forgotten how cool that footage was - a lot better than most of what was shown in Top Gun which had pretty well no vertical manoeuvers.
Found some interesting discussion about the movie (link below). Seems one Tomcat was almost lost during filming only recovering 100ft off the water. Most of the flying was done by the CAG on the Nimitz a guy called Edward Andrews. I wonder if almost loosing a Tomcat in this movie resulted in what was shot for Top Gun being so lame? So, it could have been a final score of Zero 1 versus Tomcat 1 - interesting huh!
The only aeroplane of course actually lost during Top Gun was a Pitts Special with the famed aerobatic pilot Art Scholl whose body was never found -
https://movieaccidents.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/top-gun-an-in-flight-death/Here's the link to some discussion regarding filming "The Final Countdown"
http://theaviationist.com/2012/10/25/tomcat-vs-zero/Posted by James Elkins • 3 years ago
In the "ready room" scene, There in the link, front row third from right is Edward Andrews. He was my CAG aboard the USS Independence in Lebanon and was shot down on December 4, 1983. He was recovered by a fishing vessel after ejecting from an A-7. He flew in most, if not all of the Final Countdown scenes.
http://www.salimbeti.com/avi...
Cheers!
Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 3:20 pm