Top Gun
There was a feature on this on Radio 4 last year, I think on the Today Programme. They interviewed one of the RN instructors who'd helped set it up - a very Scottish gent, who apparently had gone by the callsign "Haggis".
You might find something by trawling through the Radio 4 website.
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You might find something by trawling through the Radio 4 website.
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Is it fair to say that the Top Gun schools were established because the MiG-17 was an exceptionally manoeuvrable dogfighter?
Did the Russians have similar schools?
Did the Russians have similar schools?
A large part of the late Dick Lord's book "From tailhooker to mudmover" concerns his stint as an exchange AWI with the USN flying F4s and A4s (the latter of which he left in a hurry once...). He was the most modest of men; suffice to say the USN gave him access to crews returning from Vietnam and to classified performance documentation to help in "writing the book" on BFM/ACM in the Phanto
The RoE over Vietnam removed, at a stroke, the F4's primary weapon system - the BVR AIM-7 Sparrow-as crews were forced to PID potential hostiles to prevent fratricide and/or an international incident by engaging a 3rd party. Thus with the BVR shot denied, the early F4s (hard wings, no slats) were forced into manoeuvreing with the bandit to position for the Sidewinder shot (no internal gun....). The MiG-17/19 were very manoeuvreable and it became apparant that the "art" as well as "theory" of ACM had withered to a large degree as a result of the reliance on the Sparrow/Sidewinder. The indigestible loss rate suffered by the F4 in the early stages of the war forced a rethink by the USN, and lead to improved missiles, F4s (with slats/gun) and training. "Top Gun" was a direct result, and RN AWIs like Dick Lord were invaluable to the USN as ACM was a large part of the RN AWI syllabus.
The RoE over Vietnam removed, at a stroke, the F4's primary weapon system - the BVR AIM-7 Sparrow-as crews were forced to PID potential hostiles to prevent fratricide and/or an international incident by engaging a 3rd party. Thus with the BVR shot denied, the early F4s (hard wings, no slats) were forced into manoeuvreing with the bandit to position for the Sidewinder shot (no internal gun....). The MiG-17/19 were very manoeuvreable and it became apparant that the "art" as well as "theory" of ACM had withered to a large degree as a result of the reliance on the Sparrow/Sidewinder. The indigestible loss rate suffered by the F4 in the early stages of the war forced a rethink by the USN, and lead to improved missiles, F4s (with slats/gun) and training. "Top Gun" was a direct result, and RN AWIs like Dick Lord were invaluable to the USN as ACM was a large part of the RN AWI syllabus.
