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The squadrons provided F-14s for filming aerial sequences in the movie Top Gun. The Grumman F-14 Tomcat was central to the 1986 film Top Gun. [227] [228] [229] The aviation-themed film was such a success in creating interest in naval aviation that the US Navy, which assisted with the film, set up recruitment desks outside some theaters. [230]
Snodgrass was the "highest time Tomcat pilot," after having accumulated more than 4,800 hours in the F-14 and more than 1200 arrested carrier landings, both more than any other pilot. [3] He was called "The Real Top Gun" [3] or the real "Maverick" [1] [2] [4] in reference to Tom Cruise's character in the movie, Top Gun.
In the first Gulf of Sidra incident, 19 August 1981, two Libyan Su-22 Fitters fired upon two U.S. F-14 Tomcats and were subsequently shot down off the Libyan coast. Libya had claimed that the entire Gulf was their territory, at 32° 30′ N, with an exclusive 62-nautical-mile (115 km; 71 mi) fishing zone, which Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi asserted as "The Line of Death" in 1973. [1]
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Combat Zones features other aircraft besides the F-14. In 2006, another game simply titled Top Gun was released for the Nintendo DS. A 2010 game, also titled Top Gun, retells the film's story. At E3 2011, a new game was announced, Top Gun: Hard Lock, which was released in March 2012 for Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3.
The squadron returned to NAS Miramar in April 1977 and began transitioning to the F-14A Tomcat, which was operated by the squadron for 16 years and had the longest tenure of any aircraft type operated by the Sundowners. [14] By October 1978, both VF-51 and VF-111 had fully transitioned to the Block 100 model F-14A.
The F-14 primarily conducted air-to-air and reconnaissance missions with the U.S. Navy until the 1990s, when it was also employed as a long-range strike fighter. [2] It saw considerable action in the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf and was used as a strike platform in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq until its final deployment with the United States in 2006.
VF-213 Emblem from Top Gun. A version of the squadron patch and insignia (with the fictional squadron designation "VF-213") was featured prominently in the movie Top Gun, worn by the character "Ice Man" portrayed by Val Kilmer. In reality, VFA-25 never operated the F-14 Tomcat, instead flying the F/A-18 Hornet during that period. [4] [5]