Author's Note

Many of the people and places in this story are real, though I think we can assume the events were fiction. TOPGUN, of course, is real. Most especially, the Vought F-8 Crusader is real.

I hold a special place in my heart for the Crusader, for some reason. Maybe just because it seems like a lot of people haven't heard of it.

The F-8 was one of the world's highest performance fighters when it was designed in the 1950's. In fact, it held Navy speed records for several years until the F-4 came along. However, the F-8 retained dogfighting dominance with better maneuverability and aircrew who were actually trained for close combat.

This was proven out in the Vietnam War. F-8's were the first American fighters to tangle with the North Vietnamese. They also had the highest kill ratio of any American fighter in the war - 19:3. Supposedly the F-8 had such a reputation that late in the war one enemy pilot actually ejected rather than even trying face it.

Despite its performance, it was kind of a weird looking thing. The variable wings and side-mounted missiles can be seen in this picture.

Still, the dogfighting experience of F-8 pilots was vital to creation of TOPGUN after the Ault Report.

And speaking of patches, Crusader pilots had one of their own: