The movie put the audience into the cockpit and showed you much of what modern attack jet flight is really like.
I'll bet that the Air Force is steaming that the navy got such a great movie about them!
My son was a Navy Captain and he had several buds that were Navy pilots, and they constantly derided and joked about the air force and how soft the air force had become.
I know that way back when I was in the Army, the ground pounders had little to no respect for the air cargo carriers.
We were jealous of the better accommodations the AF jocks received while we slept in the mud.
I will say that anyone that received air cover when the cong were blowing the GIs to pieces, were thankful they got it, and didn't give a rat's ass that the fly boys slept between clean sheets at night.
The Air Force was the first to jump onto the Top Gun coattails and had a recruiting surge after the first movie.
You underestimate the public's ignorance in distinguishing between the Air Force and Naval air when it comes to flying.
Realistic?
The source of your expertise, please?
Maverick was the best film about flying ever made. It completely re=wrote the book on how to make flight scenes realistic and thrilling.
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Yeah, it certainly was the best in my book. Just loved the scene where the jet went under a bridge sideways!
Wonder how well the film portrayed flight deck operations. Any perspective on that, rlmorel?