By Cara Sulieman
THE FAMOUS Top Gun flying academy was inspired by Scottish flight instructors, a new book has revealed.
The US Army gained its world-famous experience from instructors from Fleet Air Arm.
In the early sixties instructors went across to Miramar airbase in California to help the Americans who were losing huge numbers of men in the Vietnam War.
Routinely shot down
Despite flying multi-million-dollar Phantom fighters, the US Air Force were routinely being shot down by much cheaper MiG 21s flown by the Vietnamese.
But instructors, all of whom had graduated from the Air Warfare Instructors (AWI) school at Lossiemouth, taught the Americans how to handle to expensive machinery.
In his book Phoenix Squadron, historian Rowland White claims that the knowledge that the AWI instructors gave the Americans led to their reputation for dominating the skies.
He wrote: “Through the instructors on exchange at Miramar, the AWI’s methods made their way into perhaps the most well-known programme in the history of naval aviation: Top Gun.”
Revolutionary training
The Royal Navy pilot credited with most of the revolutionary training techniques was Lt-Cdr Dick Lord.
He gave lectures all along the West Coast and it was his knowledge that White claims was the basis for the training programme created by the original Top Gun instructors.
Lt-Cdr Lord, now 72, thinks that it is about time that the British involvement in the Top Gun academy was revealed.
He said: “It is remarkable that any history book on Top Gun studiously avoids any British involvement.
“One finds this quite a bit on American history and certainly here they have not given us due justice.”
Struggling pilots
Lt-Cdr Paul Whitehouse, 72, was another Fleet Arm officer at Miramar and remembers all the help they gave the struggling pilots.
He said: “We were helping these guys in the Vietnam War because they were going straight from Miramar to fight the enemy, who were flying pretty useful MiG 21s.
“The Americans did not have the experience to use the Phantom properly. I felt a well of pride when I first saw the Top Gun film because I knew that we were behind it.”
