When top gun came to the cinema in 1986 was a true revolution. The film not only made Tom Cruise a global star, but was also noted for its stunning flight and combat sequences with the majestic F-14 Tomcat, as well as its soundtrack. To the point that his legacy has transcended generations, allowing us to enjoy that true spectacle called Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel that took no less than 36 years to reach the big screen. But what many don’t know is that nothing we saw in the movies would have been possible without the work of Ehud Jonaywho gave the world its first look inside the Navy Fighter Weapons School —aka TOP GUN—, the academy in charge of polishing the best fighter pilots in the United States Navy.
The aforementioned Israeli reporter put his signature to Top Guns, a magazine article California Magazine May 1983 what later served as inspiration for the Tony Scott movie, which was released just three years later. With a dynamic and captivating writing, accompanied by a selection of spectacular aerial photographs, Yonay allowed us to discover in depth something that ordinary people did not know. We are talking about a time when it was unusual for fighter pilots to speak to the press; after all, the context of the Cold War and the permanent tension between the United States and the Soviet Union did not give rise to loose ends, much less if they were caused by the curiosity of the media.
Top Guns trace the path of Alex “Yogi” Hnarakis Y Dave “Possum” Cully, pilot, and radar intercept officer of an F-14 Tomcat, respectively, during the seven and a half weeks of training at TOP GUN. We could say that they are the Maverick and Goose of this story, although without the share of Hollywood rebellion that characterized the characters in the film.
Yonay had agreed with the Navy to carry out two interviews with the protagonists, one at the beginning and another at the end of the training. However, only in the first week he had already completed four, and they ended up being “a couple of dozen”, according to the protagonists themselves. Thus, the Israeli reporter managed to masterfully capture not only what was happening in the air, aboard the now mythical Grumman fighter, but also in what was then known as Naval Air Station Miramarin California.
“If Miramar is a fighter pilot’s Camelot, then the Top Gun complex in Miramar hangar number one is King Arthur’s Round Table, the gathering of the greatest in fighter aviation. Since its inception in 1968, Top Gun aces have virtually revolutionized the fighter pilot business and, with the possible exception of the Israeli Air Force, have established themselves as the international masters of the deadly art of air-to-air combat.”
Excerpt from Top Guns, by Ehud Yonay
Without Top Gunswe would not have top gun
In top gun, by Tony Scott, follows Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Nick “Goose” Bradshaw as they try to prove they’re the best the Navy can get in an F-14 Tomcat. The rivalry with Tom “Iceman” Kazansky and the lack of adherence to the rules make the character of Tom Cruise the target of major reprimands from his superiors.
In Ehud Yonay’s article we do not find this type of drama, but we do observe highly realistic descriptions of air-to-air combat and training exercises (dogfight) that have clearly inspired what was subsequently seen in movie theaters around the world.
As red-hot twin flames shoot from the plane’s exhaust nozzles, the magnificent silver machine explodes forward, hitting their backs like a truckload of bricks and hurling them through the sound barrier. Yogi has rehearsed this slaughter in his mind a dozen times. will cut the first bogey [una aeronave no identificada] into the pass with a head-on missile, and then, snapping and rolling to avoid being hit, he’ll slow the plane down and pull it like Ivanhoe at the end of the first joust only to dash back through the skies on the other. The great fighter pilots are always ahead of the planes, and as his adrenaline surges, Yogi’s eyes pierce the empty blue space in front of him, searching for the fighters. bogeys. Nothing can stop him now.
That’s when it happens. Suddenly, a soft voice says “Atoll” in the headphones, and when Possum sees the little F-5 behind them, it’s too late. They’ve been running around fat and dumb and happy as a dodo bird, and the F-5 painted in desert camo, no less, standing out against the blue like a billboard, appeared out of nowhere, got on its tail, and simulated slipping a heat-seeking missile down its exhaust pipe. Atolls are the air-to-air missiles carried by Russian-made MiG-21s, but in this exercise the word means: “Up, boys, they’re dead and going home with their tails in the afterburners.” Your glorious mission is ruined.
Excerpt from Top Guns, by Ehud Yonay
The extensive magazine article California Magazine It is a true journalistic work of the first level. And as we said before, it is not only characterized by the outstanding pen of Ehud Yonay, but also for the impressive photographs that accompanied it. Many of the images were captured by CJ Heatley, another pilot who was then part of the Navy Fighter Weapons School.
However, the initial expectations of the protagonists were not very good…
Doubts about Yonay and his intentions
Alex “Yogi” Hnarakis, the pilot interviewed by Ehud Yonay for Top GunsI trusted that in a moment there were many doubts about what the reporter’s intentions were. Although the journalist had been incisive from the start, the airmen began to raise their eyebrows at the caliber of some of his inquiries. On one occasion, he even asked if it was true that they abandoned their missions to cross the border into Mexico and fly over the houses to scare the inhabitants. At times things did not smell good.
“After sandwiching several more leading questions in between the mostly legitimate ones, we got the impression that Ehud was going to write a preconceived, inaccurate, totally bogus article… as bad as the daytime short-lived TV show called red-flag. Worse yet, we feared our names and quotes would be included to give it false legitimacy. Our captain contacted us after listening to our concerns and asked us to follow up with Ehud as he had a track record of writing very good and accurate articles on topics he had no previous experience with. In the end, after a couple of dozen interviews, Ehud, true to his reputation, wrote an outstanding article!”, said.
And the reporter’s job California Magazine it ended up being valued as a bridge so that the common public could access data that, in general, was too technical. “Most of the previous articles written by others were dry, technical or written so that only other fighter crews could understand them,” explained the now ex-aviator; adding, “In hindsight, it’s no wonder someone later recognized that there was potential material for a movie.”
The legacy of Ehud Yonay in top gunmarked by a legal dispute
Beyond the inspiration in Ehud Yonay’s article, top gun has had its own merits for its success on the big screen. However, at this time the legacy of the Israeli reporter has been involved in a legal dispute for apparent copyright infringement.
As it was known earlier this week, the journalist’s widow and son filed a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures. Yonay’s relatives accuse the study of having violated the copyright of the article of California Magazine during the making of Top Gun: Maverick; They argue that the rights that the company had over it expired in January 2020, and that they had been notified about it in 2018. However, they did not negotiate a reacquisition, which has triggered this legal crossing.
It will be necessary to see what determines the American justice in this sense, although it is improbable that there will be a resolution in the immediate future. For now, do not miss the opportunity to read Top Guns, a great piece of journalism from another era. Really worth it.