Re 1760’s Avenatti aircraft-in-pipper photo:
That has to be a file photo. (Probably from “Top Gun”.)
First, Avenatti’s bio shows no military service and obviously no time in any aircraft equipped with weapons/”gunsights”.
Second (and almost a side note) the aircraft in the sights looks a lot like an F-5 (we used to call ‘em Skoshi Tigers) and I’m fairly certain they haven’t been used for at least twenty years.
That’s the real bummer about getting this old: Most of the aircraft I “know” are scrapped, parked in the Boneyard waiting to get scrapped, in a museum or stuck up on top of a pole on static display.
Horrible thing to do to a good aircraft....
According to Wiki we still had 500 in service as of 2014!
Looking at production, those suckers were pretty popular. I bet they could start that Hawthorne plant back up and sell 1000 of those fancy lawn darts in less than a year! :-)