Topgun: An American Story by Dan Pedersen

Author:Dan Pedersen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette UK
Published: 2019-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

PROOF OF CONCEPT

Miramar

1969

Topgun’s students became crisp, smart, quick, deadly, and confident. They knew the performance envelopes of their airplanes and missiles, maneuvered quickly to exploit them, and handled all the switch interfaces in the cockpit efficiently. They demonstrated their ability to fly the Egg tactics to perfection and use the high yo-yo out of a two-plane Loose Deuce formation to fillet and fry aggressor pilots almost every time out. Their final exam was a special treat: an unrestricted Sparrow and Sidewinder shoot against live maneuvering targets.

Steve Smith was in charge of our BQM-34 Firebee drone live-fire exercises, generously provided to us by Jim Foster’s squadron up the road at Point Mugu. These remote-controlled jet-powered gunnery targets, built by the Ryan Aeronautical Company, had been around since the 1950s. Unlike towed targets and the more common drones, which did not maneuver, the BQM-34s were flown by an operator on the ground. They were capable of more than six hundred knots and could fly up to sixty thousand feet. In the hands of a Phantom instructor like Steve-O, well, that twenty-two-foot-long target had a fair chance of giving even a good pilot fits. While it didn’t have the power to soar vertically, it was plenty maneuverable, capable of sharp twists and break turns. Though we were a little worried about the possibility of accidents flying such a hot rod from the ground in a live-fire exercise, we figured the risk was worth it. Topgun’s students needed this experience against a thinking opponent before we sent them back to war. At the Pacific Air Missile Test Range, some of our young guys were so good that they destroyed the wildly evading drones, then shot some more missiles to pick off the falling parts. After a success like that, the confidence soared and they were on final approach to graduation day in early April. As it approached, we had another surprise in store for them—a flight out to Area 51 to take a turn against a real live MiG as I related in the previous chapter. For students, it was a crowning moment in their young careers.

One evening at the Miramar O club while Class One was winding down, we designed what has endured ever since as the official Topgun flight-suit patch. Steve Smith and Mel Holmes sketched it out on a napkin: a MiG-21 in a Phantom’s gunsight reticle and pipper. In Washington, people who had time to worry about such things thought it might offend the Russians. I made one call to Vice Admiral Bringle’s office and the complaint went away. The patch design perfectly reflected the origin story of Topgun, and it has survived basically unchanged for fifty years. Every graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School wears it with pride.

As that small emblem got around the fleet, people noticed. As the reputation of Topgun flourished and grew, the fleet squadrons began calling us. Very soon Steve had the pleasure of explaining that all our billets were full, but that he’d be glad to keep their names on file.

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