hac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Henry A. Chandler) (04/10/90)
From: hac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Henry A. Chandler) In "Top Gun", the scenes were taken mostly from actual training film, which used F5's as the aggressor. Besides, who has spare MiGs on hand for some of those actions scenes. The Navy doesn't, and even if the DoD was totally involved, which MiGs would they have allowed to have been used? The film plot involved the encounter of the *Soviets* best pitted against our (US) best (F-14s). So they could not use previous MiGs such as the MiG-21, because they are too old and have been torn apart so many times, that they are not flight worthy. 23s and 25s would most likely not be used since they are still used by many other countries as contemporaries and are few in stock. Hence the use of the fictional MiG-28, and the F-5 as visual prop. Not many people would have noticed what kind of plane it was and probably did not really cared. Except for us buffs, the movie industry also probably did not care much either. This is also (if not more grossly apparent) in the "Iron Eagle II" movie. Where F-4s were depicted as MiGs, uuuggghhhh!!! Well, so much for my speech, I guess you get the idea. -Henry 8)