Question about Pyro F-14A Tomcat

[crackerjazz]

There's a Top Gun behind-the-scenes video in youtube where you see the pyro F-14A (00:48 to 00:56)

YouTube - The Making of Top Gun (1986) - Pre-Production (1 of 3)

Does anyone know any links/info about that particular prop? I love F-14s and I'm very interested in seeing more about the F-14 props/models used in the film - especially that huge pyro one. And how on earth did they make that F-14 rotate the way it did at 00:48?

 

[robn1]

That was a big model, 5 or 6 feet long. The spin shot was done by dropping it from a crane, most shots were done with a hand held camera. Cinefex did an article on it, I can't remember but I think the FX were done by the same folks who did The Right Stuff.

 

[JMChladek]

The big Tomcat was likely an RC ducted fan model built as a static one. I can't remember exactly which companies were doing big jet models like that back then (1986), but an educated guess would be Byrons models as they did an F-15 of similar size back then. There were a couple ducted fan F-5 models around at the time as well. They also of course could have been built just for the movie as there were a few RC replica builders around LA at the time back then who were doing wonders with fibreglass (such as Larry Jolly who did the Airwolf RC replica for the show).

Some of the smaller models they tossed and filmed for more distance shots I believe were simply Monogram 1/48 scale F-14 and F-5 models.

 

[division 6]

IIRC one of the models was filmed being tossed off the hill at Cal State Hayward.
Lotta folks fly RC Gliders from the same spot.