← Flight deck
Aircraft of the Top Gun movies
Top Gun
The jets that made a generation want to strap in and pull g. Two films, one legend — every aircraft, the part it plays, and the stories from behind the camera.
Choose the movie
Pick your era
Meet the aircraft that flew in each film — every one links to its full profile in the catalog.
The real thing
The real TOPGUN
Before it was a film, it was a school — and it still is.
1969
Founded
The US Navy Fighter Weapons School opened on 3 March 1969 at NAS Miramar, California — because Navy pilots over Vietnam were losing too many dogfights they should have won.
1996
Moved to the desert
TOPGUN left Miramar for NAS Fallon, Nevada, and became part of the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center.
Today
Still the graduate school
Only the best fleet pilots are sent; they go back to their squadrons as instructors. In the films, it's 'the top one percent'.
Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
“I feel the need — the need for speed.”— Top Gun, 1986