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Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority
Fly with the best in Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority—the definitive, highly illustrated, in-depth look at the Navy's famous fighter unit, including its history, technology, and culture.
Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority begins with a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the blockbuster film that helped America shake off the trauma of the Vietnam War and once again take pride in its military. The book then launches into the even more incredible story of why and how such men consistently capture the imagination of children, adults, pilots, and audiences around the world.
Chapters spotlight pivotal military movies and television shows that presaged the movie Top Gun, including edge-of-the-seat vignettes and anecdotes of pilots and their lifestyles, the origin of the Navy’s fighter pilot program and its rigorous training, and how it inspired the Air Force’s counterpart, Red Flag.
Other chapters highlight what it takes to be a pilot in other branches of the armed forces, and takes a look back in time at the most notorious (and feared) pilots of World War I and World War II from all around the globe. Fast forward to the jet age, when the first aces flew hair-raising missions over Korea and Vietnam, and learn how past and contemporary aerial dogfighting really works.
The book also reveals the many technological advances that transformed aerial combat from the dangerous, unsynchronized machine guns that bounced bullets off propellers in World War I to today, where air-to-air missiles are launched by pilots who have no visual contact with an adversary, and finally illustrates how drones are adding a new dimension to the meaning of Top Gun.
Finish with an in-depth look at Naval Station Fallon, one of the most modern and renowned American naval stations, located outside Fallon, Nevada. Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority concludes with a look at Top Gun 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the biggest action movies of all time and the one that made Tom Cruise a worldwide superstar.
Featuring over 200 photos, new interviews and stories from aces, engineers, commanders, and more, and written by best-selling author and president of the Military Writers Society of America, Dwight Zimmerman, Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority is the must-have guide to the fastest, deadliest, most storied aerial combat squadron the world has ever known.
Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority begins with a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the blockbuster film that helped America shake off the trauma of the Vietnam War and once again take pride in its military. The book then launches into the even more incredible story of why and how such men consistently capture the imagination of children, adults, pilots, and audiences around the world.
Chapters spotlight pivotal military movies and television shows that presaged the movie Top Gun, including edge-of-the-seat vignettes and anecdotes of pilots and their lifestyles, the origin of the Navy’s fighter pilot program and its rigorous training, and how it inspired the Air Force’s counterpart, Red Flag.
Other chapters highlight what it takes to be a pilot in other branches of the armed forces, and takes a look back in time at the most notorious (and feared) pilots of World War I and World War II from all around the globe. Fast forward to the jet age, when the first aces flew hair-raising missions over Korea and Vietnam, and learn how past and contemporary aerial dogfighting really works.
The book also reveals the many technological advances that transformed aerial combat from the dangerous, unsynchronized machine guns that bounced bullets off propellers in World War I to today, where air-to-air missiles are launched by pilots who have no visual contact with an adversary, and finally illustrates how drones are adding a new dimension to the meaning of Top Gun.
Finish with an in-depth look at Naval Station Fallon, one of the most modern and renowned American naval stations, located outside Fallon, Nevada. Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority concludes with a look at Top Gun 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the biggest action movies of all time and the one that made Tom Cruise a worldwide superstar.
Featuring over 200 photos, new interviews and stories from aces, engineers, commanders, and more, and written by best-selling author and president of the Military Writers Society of America, Dwight Zimmerman, Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority is the must-have guide to the fastest, deadliest, most storied aerial combat squadron the world has ever known.
- GenresHistory
160 pages, Hardcover
First published May 7, 2019
5 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Dwight Jon Zimmerman
110 books15 followersDWIGHT JON ZIMMERMAN is an award-winning author and producer. His most recent book, Uncommon Valor: The Medal of Honor and the Six Warriors Who Earned It in Afghanistan and Iraq, co-authored with John D. Gresham and published by St. Martin’s Press, received the 2010 Founder’s Award from the Military Writers Society of America, the organization’s highest honor. Zimmerman’s other books include the award-winning The Vietnam War: A Graphic History (Hill & Wang), with artist Wayne Vansant, the first-ever single-volume graphic history of the Vietnam War; the critically acclaimed Beyond Hell and Back (St. Martin’s Press), with co-author John D. Gresham, about seven pivotal special operations missions from Vietnam to present day, and the award-winning First Command: Paths to Leadership (Vandamere Press), about the pivotal moments in the early careers of some of America’s most important generals. First Command later became an award-winning mini-series on the Military Channel. Zimmerman has lectured at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Naval War College and has written numerous articles on military history subjects. His articles have been selected by the Naval War College for use in their curriculum and recognized by the prestigious Journal of Special Operations Medicine. Zimmerman began his career in publishing at Marvel Comics, where he held a variety of editorial positions. In 1992, Zimmerman became executive editor of Topps Comics and was responsible for the editorial and art direction of its lines of media tie-in comics.
His next book is Saga of the Sioux an authorized young adult adaptation of Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Zimmerman lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife and daughter.
His next book is Saga of the Sioux an authorized young adult adaptation of Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Zimmerman lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife and daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 15, 2019
Hollywood rediscovers Knights of the Sky
Hollywood and war have been companions for decades. Fighter aircraft have played a prominent role since WWI. Dueling pilots, knights of the sky, captivated audiences and many heroic actors flew bi-plains and later mono-wing fighters. During WWII Hollywood went to war with the military. Actors fought and entertainers entertained the troops. Actions movies motivated the public to support their military which translated into Congressional dollars. At the end of WWII, American fighter pilots were the best in the world and they flew the best fighters in the world. But when the war ended the country disarmed. Now cold war dramas were Hollywood fodder involving nuclear weapons while military planners concentrated on long-range bombers and fighters designed to defend against Soviet long-range bombers.
North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950 and America was not prepared for a WWII type conflict. The Soviet Union had developed the MIG-15 and tactics to match its ability. Again America had to enter combat with the few remaining WWII fighters and the new not so great F-84 fighter, but pilots still remembered how to dogfight. The MIG-15 was replaced by the MIG-17 and America’s new F-86 was up to the challenge. The Korean Conflict ended with an armistice which is still in place. New fighters were developed, but the focus was still on enemy bombers. Air-to-air missiles were entering service and the focus was on attacking and killing an enemy aircraft beyond visual range. The next war would be fought with missiles and long-range bombers and If you can kill an aircraft you can’t see then why would a fighter need guns? Thus the Navy’s next-generation air superiority fighter, the F-4 Phantom, adopted by the USAF, had no guns.
Ten years later the US entered the Vietnam conflict and discovered North Vietnam hadn’t gotten the “no guns on fighters” memo. F-4s found themselves engaged in dogfights with air to air missiles that often failed, dogfights often fought inside the arming distance of US air to air missiles. The Navy had closed its air to air combat training center and most of the Korean War pilots were too old to fly. Fighter pilots were not trained how to dogfight and for the first time kill rations dropped below 3 to 1.
The Navy opened its Topgun school and things changed.
During the Vietnam War progressive Hollywood and the news media turned on our military. The decades-old relationship between Hollywood and the US military had broken down. Then the movie Top Gun was released and Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Edwards relit the candle. America rediscovered their love of fighter pilots. The Knights of the Sky were back: Maverick, Iceman, Viper. Naval fighter pilot recruitment went off the charts. The Navy fighter of choice was then the F-14 Tomcat.
Dwight Zimmerman tells this story of the Hollywood-military relationship and ties it to the development of fighter aircraft. A fascinating book that all can understand. The story of why America’s air force (all services) is the best of the best. He traces fighters from WWI to today with lots of antidotes, interesting facts, and trivia.
TOP GUN is much more than a coffee table book, however, it certainly has a place on my coffee table.
A couple of facts were left out of the story. The Navy modified the F-4 Phantom with a Vulcan 20mm rotary cannon gun pod which was used with great effect in Vietnam. Another interesting fact is that the F-111 had no ejection seats. The pilot and copilot sat side by side (like in a sports car) and the entire cockpit was explosively separated from the airframe and ejected with a parachute. I had the privilege of working with the designer of the system.
Hollywood and war have been companions for decades. Fighter aircraft have played a prominent role since WWI. Dueling pilots, knights of the sky, captivated audiences and many heroic actors flew bi-plains and later mono-wing fighters. During WWII Hollywood went to war with the military. Actors fought and entertainers entertained the troops. Actions movies motivated the public to support their military which translated into Congressional dollars. At the end of WWII, American fighter pilots were the best in the world and they flew the best fighters in the world. But when the war ended the country disarmed. Now cold war dramas were Hollywood fodder involving nuclear weapons while military planners concentrated on long-range bombers and fighters designed to defend against Soviet long-range bombers.
North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950 and America was not prepared for a WWII type conflict. The Soviet Union had developed the MIG-15 and tactics to match its ability. Again America had to enter combat with the few remaining WWII fighters and the new not so great F-84 fighter, but pilots still remembered how to dogfight. The MIG-15 was replaced by the MIG-17 and America’s new F-86 was up to the challenge. The Korean Conflict ended with an armistice which is still in place. New fighters were developed, but the focus was still on enemy bombers. Air-to-air missiles were entering service and the focus was on attacking and killing an enemy aircraft beyond visual range. The next war would be fought with missiles and long-range bombers and If you can kill an aircraft you can’t see then why would a fighter need guns? Thus the Navy’s next-generation air superiority fighter, the F-4 Phantom, adopted by the USAF, had no guns.
Ten years later the US entered the Vietnam conflict and discovered North Vietnam hadn’t gotten the “no guns on fighters” memo. F-4s found themselves engaged in dogfights with air to air missiles that often failed, dogfights often fought inside the arming distance of US air to air missiles. The Navy had closed its air to air combat training center and most of the Korean War pilots were too old to fly. Fighter pilots were not trained how to dogfight and for the first time kill rations dropped below 3 to 1.
The Navy opened its Topgun school and things changed.
During the Vietnam War progressive Hollywood and the news media turned on our military. The decades-old relationship between Hollywood and the US military had broken down. Then the movie Top Gun was released and Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Edwards relit the candle. America rediscovered their love of fighter pilots. The Knights of the Sky were back: Maverick, Iceman, Viper. Naval fighter pilot recruitment went off the charts. The Navy fighter of choice was then the F-14 Tomcat.
Dwight Zimmerman tells this story of the Hollywood-military relationship and ties it to the development of fighter aircraft. A fascinating book that all can understand. The story of why America’s air force (all services) is the best of the best. He traces fighters from WWI to today with lots of antidotes, interesting facts, and trivia.
TOP GUN is much more than a coffee table book, however, it certainly has a place on my coffee table.
A couple of facts were left out of the story. The Navy modified the F-4 Phantom with a Vulcan 20mm rotary cannon gun pod which was used with great effect in Vietnam. Another interesting fact is that the F-111 had no ejection seats. The pilot and copilot sat side by side (like in a sports car) and the entire cockpit was explosively separated from the airframe and ejected with a parachute. I had the privilege of working with the designer of the system.
June 6, 2019
In 1969, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Thomas H. Moorer was determined to improve naval air superiority across the board. “No matter how complex or how awesome you build the weapons of war,” he said, “man is still the vital element of our defense team. Men make decisions, men fight battles, men win war.”
That declaration in 1969 set the United States on a mission of air superiority rivaling every other country in the world. Dwight Jon Zimmerman’s book, “Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Superiority,” chronicles the US Navy’s past, present and future in attaining that superiority.
Zimmerman’s book is filled with beautiful pictures of some of the most advance aircraft that have ever flown in combat since World War I. He covers the heroes of the Great Wars, the American, French and British aces of the skies. He covers the aircraft and strategies utilized to fight the Korean and Vietnam wars. He even covers some history on Lockheed Martin’s skunkworks stealth aircraft and the rise of aerial drones.
The various trivia and information packed in between the numerous photographs would interest every naval enthusiast. The parts that were hardest to understand was at the outset of the book and at its conclusion include a synopsis of the 1986 blockbuster, “Top Gun,” starring Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and others. The odd arrangement at the very beginning of the book, threw me off. Most of the history included both a synopsis of the movie, and then a history of how it fared at the box office. Accompanying this were biographies of the cast and crew. This might have been an interesting aside for fans, however, it seemed like where it was included didn’t fit or flow with the rest of the book.
The book ends not with a peering into the future of what’s next for the Navy and its evolution of aircraft, rather it returns to the “Top Gun” movie franchise and the rumored sequel: “Top Gun: Maverick,” which has Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer in collaboration on the project. Again, this would have been an interesting note to accompany the rest of the book, but it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the book as a whole. It seems by putting these references at the front of the book and then having extensive pages devoted at the end of the book, it draws away from the history of the real Topgun and the Navy’s many accomplishments throughout the years.
Overall, if you enjoy learning about naval history and want to learn more about the aircraft used and developed since the early 1900s, this is a fascinating read detailing that history. I am giving the book overall three stars because of the odd arrangement and amount of pages devoted to the Top Gun movie franchise, which I found to be not as interesting as the rest of the book.
That declaration in 1969 set the United States on a mission of air superiority rivaling every other country in the world. Dwight Jon Zimmerman’s book, “Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Superiority,” chronicles the US Navy’s past, present and future in attaining that superiority.
Zimmerman’s book is filled with beautiful pictures of some of the most advance aircraft that have ever flown in combat since World War I. He covers the heroes of the Great Wars, the American, French and British aces of the skies. He covers the aircraft and strategies utilized to fight the Korean and Vietnam wars. He even covers some history on Lockheed Martin’s skunkworks stealth aircraft and the rise of aerial drones.
The various trivia and information packed in between the numerous photographs would interest every naval enthusiast. The parts that were hardest to understand was at the outset of the book and at its conclusion include a synopsis of the 1986 blockbuster, “Top Gun,” starring Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and others. The odd arrangement at the very beginning of the book, threw me off. Most of the history included both a synopsis of the movie, and then a history of how it fared at the box office. Accompanying this were biographies of the cast and crew. This might have been an interesting aside for fans, however, it seemed like where it was included didn’t fit or flow with the rest of the book.
The book ends not with a peering into the future of what’s next for the Navy and its evolution of aircraft, rather it returns to the “Top Gun” movie franchise and the rumored sequel: “Top Gun: Maverick,” which has Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer in collaboration on the project. Again, this would have been an interesting note to accompany the rest of the book, but it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the book as a whole. It seems by putting these references at the front of the book and then having extensive pages devoted at the end of the book, it draws away from the history of the real Topgun and the Navy’s many accomplishments throughout the years.
Overall, if you enjoy learning about naval history and want to learn more about the aircraft used and developed since the early 1900s, this is a fascinating read detailing that history. I am giving the book overall three stars because of the odd arrangement and amount of pages devoted to the Top Gun movie franchise, which I found to be not as interesting as the rest of the book.
April 17, 2021
The book is a decent coffee table book, with cool pictures and some things you might not have known. I wish it were a little more focused on the actual Topgun school, rather its mostly about a little bit of everything military aviation. About a little bit of everything and little bit of nothing.
Also, I have a feeling the publisher did the text boxes for pictures and not the actual author because there were some pretty obvious mistakes made.
Like talking about "Tom Cruise's F-18 Tomcat" on pg.10 or "Canadian fighter pilot Captain Albert Ball" on pg. 65.
Hopefully these mistakes got fixed in later editions, because the bulk of the text that is actually written by the author doesn't contain any of these sorts of problems.
Also, I have a feeling the publisher did the text boxes for pictures and not the actual author because there were some pretty obvious mistakes made.
Like talking about "Tom Cruise's F-18 Tomcat" on pg.10 or "Canadian fighter pilot Captain Albert Ball" on pg. 65.
Hopefully these mistakes got fixed in later editions, because the bulk of the text that is actually written by the author doesn't contain any of these sorts of problems.
May 9, 2023
I lean, there’s very little info here and the photo captions are sometimes just plain wrong: there was no F-18 for Tom Cruise to fly in the original Top Gun. I think it’s probably a good overview for very general info and pictures and not great for anyone wanting more than the summary of the movie or the knowledge that there were comics and short stories about military aviation in the first half of the 20th century.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews