Warbird Information Exchange

Can anyone identify the wings that both guys are wearing at the end of the video? They seem to have a parachute on them

Also Cruise is wearing Navy Captain rank insignia.

Saville, The wings bear the shield of the United States, over a Navy fouled anchor centered between the wings. I'm guessing the shield is your concern?

EDIT
Heard on one of the entertainment shows the other day that the use of a Super Hornet in the film cost Cruise $11,000 an hour...hands off controls. Presuming that's 11K wet with pilot. Thirsty bird!

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DBF

Um, you are aware that that's the same link that's contained in the Original Post on this thread right to start all this?



Pretty sure the flightsuit is a "screen worn" one with a "real" nameplate on it, so having Eagles makes sense because his character's a Captain in the new movie. Fits the whole "character" that he's playing for the skit, so why not?

Do you say that because you can see that in the video? Or is that your assumption?

I don't know...I know Navy wings and they don't look like Navy Wings. Especially James. I took a snap of the video and zoomed in. Don't look like Navy Wings, though it's really hard to tell. If Cruise is sporting Captain's Eagles as a tie in with the movie then I would imagine he'd be wearing Navy wings as well.

BTW I don't have any...."concerns". Just curiosity.

Just saw the movie last evening...thought it was terrible. Way too corny and just replaying every successful line of dialog from the first. The last quarter of the movie was more Die Hard/Indiana Jones-esque. I would give it a D- and only that because the REAL flying sequences are top notch. If you ignore the rest of the movie and just watch the flying it is good.

I did think it was funny that the couple sitting next to me made the comment of why a Navy Captain would own and be flying a P-51.

You are the only one I’ve seen saying this . I know a veteran warbird industry guy that loves it so much he’s going to his third showing tonight. I have been busy so couldn’t yet. To each his own , there’s bound to be people that hate something no matter how universally praised it is. Even The LA Times loved it.

He gets shot down, goes all Bob Hoover on an F-14 (that just happens to be fully armed and fueled), proceeds to shoot down a "5th generation fighter," then lands on the carrier sans nose gear (because he ripped it off taking off on a cratered filled taxiway while barely clearing the towers). Note: he also left his flight helmet behind after the crash but magically has it on again while flying the F-14.

If you are looking at the movie as an independent action film - ok...but, "real" it is not and only insults the original Top Gun. It is like saying Pearl Harbor was better than Tora Tora Tora. To each their own I guess...

I said it because I watched the video. I looked at Cruise's wings patch at the 11:45 mark, and Corden's at the 14:42 mark. Both images are abit small to glean any critical detail from them, but at a distance they they appear to represent the basic elements of the gold Navy wings. Corden's less so, because small embroidery rarely is terribly accurate. They both don't look as good as the cast metal versions.

As for using the word concern...I was just trying to focus what element looked like a chute to you...tho the shield was the only thing it coulda' been. I guess it would have been helpful if you had shared your screen grab or the minute marks, instead I viewed the vid several times.

I'm guessing they're not wearing metal wings because if they had to bail out, they don't want to risk the things stabbing them during the excitement.

One curious detail caught my eye. While flying the L-39 as you noted Cruise is wearing Captain's insignia, but the wings patch has Tom Cruise embossed on it. Tommy wouldn't be scoring cheap thrills on the ramp by preying on the uninitiated having them 'salute the rank' or conversation starters with the chicks?...Naw, not Tom...

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Two screenshots here:


I'm no expert so I'll leave it to others to decipher the details.

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Wow, if some of you can't enjoy a popcorn movie, too bad for you. It was fun and well done, my wife an I enjoyed it. Name tags and patches are nothing to get worked up about- there are a huge variety of official and unofficial ones in the real world.

Only two eyebrow rises for me was the movie had Top Gun centered around Miramar and North Island, while it moved to Fallon years ago- but I do understand that the beach is a bit more scenic than Fallon - and I don't think they would be playing shirtless football in the surf there! The second was our hero riding his Motorcycle without a helmet- the CHP would pull him over in a second. All the other Hollywood stuff was just fine- sit back, relax and enjoy it. I did- and I'm the type who cringes when a they show a CH-46 on the screen and they call it...gasp...a Chinook.

Gotta say - I loved the film. There were three points that kinda made me raise an eyebrow. A sonic wave strong enough to lift the roof off a guard shack is gonna knock an Admiral over as well, The rogue state helo would have wanted to grab "maverick" not shred him into a thousand pieces, and I would think that the radar on the Tomcat would not have been calibrated to not show the bad guys as "bad guys" but just the opposite. Maybe a Captain in the Navy got a Mustang as compensation for recovering such valuable photos of a Mig in the first movie?!

Anyway this is Hollywood and I was there to enjoy a show with the family and not think about Texas, Washington DC, The Ukraine. . . . anyway - loved it.

Tom P.

Well, It broke all records for it's first weekend. It's okay to not like it but that doesn't mean it isn't great , just that it isn't your "cup of tea." The helicopter scene is somewhat believable considering how incredibly sloppy and outdated Russia's best troops have performed this year. The war crimes and high losses suggest very undisciplined , poorly trained combatants. It was super fun to see an F-14 flying again. Correctly, they had to improvise to get the airplane started without ground crew. It was great seeing it in the air and a former F-14 plane captain. and I went to lunch yesterday. He was talking about the analog cannon rounds counter and other items in the movie that he recognized as accurate to the F-14 cockpit.
I'm going to go back as it will be one of those movies that we see more details every time we watch it.

It is amazing how much crap I caught on Facebook for posting a not-glowing review of TG:M.

I had adjusted expectations, having even worked with Hollywood screenwriters as a mil aviation consultant numerous times over the last decade or so, so I knew the score. I wasn't expecting a documentary.

But, I had hope. Cruise saying, "a love letter to aviation" and all that. Unfortunately, it was a letdown. Great cast, fantastic cinematography, but an incoherent script that had rip-offs of The Right Stuff in the opening story, Star Wars in the climactic battle, and Behind Enemy Lines in the shootdown/F-14 denouement.

And that's just the aviation movie comparisons.

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[quote="hurricane_yank"
I did think it was funny that the couple sitting next to me made the comment of why a Navy Captain would own and be flying a P-51.[/quote]

Because Corsairs don't have jump seats. And Navy Birds are not as common as Mustangs.

And it's make believe, so who cares

Oh yeah, you did.

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