Top gun movie jacket

[Baron Enski]

Hi
Anyone out there got a top gun movie heroes jacket, still wearing it .Its 25 years since the film was made. Whats it like, I never actually saw one of them back in the eighties , had cheaper version of the g1 not the right patches on it.
Averex made them now made by the Cockpit,got this urge to get one. Surely their apart of flying jacket history.

 

[Edward]

I've seen quite a few replicas on sale - never actually handled one, though, nor really looking into it. I like the G1, but I didn't care for the look of the Top Gun jacket (and, in all truth, I cared for that film even less). All subjectivity aside, though, it certainly is a well known film jacket, possibly almost as well known as the Indy jacket by now - if not more so to the average guy in the street (I doubt most would pick out the Indy jacket away from the fedora). I suspect a patched and painted A2 would now be considered a Top Gun jacket by a lot of folks, at least this side of the Atlantic, where most folks aren't familiar with the US flight jackets in general. I've seen quite a few jackets with the film patches on them on eBay, and selling relatively cheaply. I don't know how accurate the jackets themselves are, though - for one thing, I don't know whether the jacket in the film was accurate, or if (in case of any differences) the replicas are closer the "real thing" or what Tom Cruise wore. It's probably cheaper to buy a ready-patched replica than an unpatched one and DIY I should think - especially if you go used. One bit of trivia I do seem to recall about the jacket is that the patches on it weren't technically possible.... The USN guys (unlike USAAF / USAF), I am told, don't remove a patch when reassigned, but simply add the new one. I'm sure I remember reading that it wouldn't have been possible for the character to whom the jacket originally belonged to have all the patches it did?

Looking at eBay, "Top Gun jacket" brings up quite a few returns - some of them nylon, some of them G1s, varying patches.... the Avirex options seem to run new about USD400 on there.

 

[Baron Enski]

yeh I wanted one when the film came out and settled for the lesser avirex version , still felt iffy wearing out in public. But just keep seeing the better replicas on different sites and just wanted one for the hell of it, I still like it

 

[huke]

it is popular when the film out,now I just forgot the style

 

[listenone]

It is hard to find one, isn't it?

 

[Seb Lucas]

I saw Top Gun when it came out but don't remember the jackets - boring movie I recall. I wouldhave guessed it was one of those Alpha nylon flight jackets, so what do I know...

 

[Peacoat]

Real combat pilots don't talk the way Tom Cruise and his buddies talked on the radio while "in combat." The movie lost me there. Think cool, calm and quiet. The one who says the fewest words and in the calmest voice, is the coolest.

 

[Harp]

One bit of trivia I do seem to recall about the jacket is that the patches on it weren't technically possible.... The USN guys (unlike USAAF / USAF), I am told, don't remove a patch when reassigned, but simply add the new one. I'm sure I remember reading that it wouldn't have been possible for the character to whom the jacket originally belonged to have all the patches it did?

Said jacket may have originally belonged to "Maverick's" father,
a deceased infamous aviator, which might explain all the postage stamps.

 

[Treetopflyer]

Said jacket may have originally belonged to "Maverick's" father,
a deceased infamous aviator, which might explain all the postage stamps.

You are right, that is the reason the jacket is a vintage G-1 and not a current issue for the 1980s. Although, most of the patches on the jacket have nothing to do with Naval Aviation. Flight Jacket's sells a great replica. http://www.flightjacket.com/top-gun-maverick-jacket.html
Most people call these "Bomber jackets", I absolutely hate the fact they do that.

The cinematography on that movie was great, the story line was not. That movie did more for Navy recruiting than 20 years of "It's not just a job, it's an adventure".

 

[subject101]

Flight Jacket's sells a great replica. http://www.flightjacket.com/top-gun-maverick-jacket.html

I think those pockets are wrong You can get a G1 and place some real patches since that combat school existed from 1969 until 1996. It was the NFWS - Navy Fighter Weapons School.

Flying scenes were ok but the movie was horrible! I don't understand how anybody joined the navy after watching such a thing

 

[too much coffee]

I think those pockets are wrong You can get a G1 and place some real patches since that combat school existed from 1969 until 1996. It was the NFWS - Navy Fighter Weapons School.

Flying scenes were ok but the movie was horrible! I don't understand how anybody joined the navy after watching such a thing

It's kinda like in the movie "Officer and a Gentleman", when Louis Gossett Jr. has Richard Gere (Mayo) on his back doing calisthetics and asks him, "What are you doing here Mayo?" Mayo replies, "I want to fly jets, Sir." Gossett then shouts, "My Grandmother wants to fly jets, sell it to the Air Force." That's not verbatim obviously but the intent of the movie, in addition to the story line, was perhaps by showing Navy jet warplanes in action defending America's freedom and it will stir the souls of adventureous types and therefore possibly assist in recruiting.

 

[Philalethes]

What the Heck?!?!?!

This is what comes up when searching for "g-1 original leather jacket" on Ebay.

 

[Equality 7-2521]

This is what comes up when searching for "g-1 original leather jacket" on Ebay.

You're going with Lime Green then I take it?

 

[Edward]

Said jacket may have originally belonged to "Maverick's" father,
a deceased infamous aviator, which might explain all the postage stamps.

I believe that was the back-story to it in the film, yes, but I'm sure I read somewhere that even then it wasn't possible (something to do with what the patches were, rather than the quantity of them).

 

[dustyjohnson10]

actually I don't remember the style because the movie was released a very long time ago. I wasn't in this world at that time. but vintage jackets have always given different styles......

 

[Ian]

US Wings do a Top Gun G1 type jacket...

http://www.uswings.com/g-1.asp

Ian

 

[Atticus Finch]

I'm pretty sure the jacket Tom Cruise wore in the movie was an original, early-series G-1. Sadly, the movie's prop department had decorated (destroyed?) it with random, meaningless patches. It was supposed to be Maverick's father's cruise (no pun intended) jacket. The prop guys could have easily obtained an original Vietnam era cruise jacket...they're not that difficult to find...and copied it, but I think they were more interested in achieving a certain "look" than being accurate.

AF

 

[Edward]

"Cruise jacket"? Is that as in the same vein of thing as the souvenir jackets I've seen that guys had made or decorated in Vietnam and brought home?

 

[Atticus Finch]

"Cruise jacket"? Is that as in the same vein of thing as the souvenir jackets I've seen that guys had made or decorated in Vietnam and brought home?

Hi Edward. Well, sorta but not exactly. Career Naval and USMC Aviators usually manage to acquire several issued flight jackets along the way. They often keep one as a uniform jacket upon which their current patches and insignia are attached. Others become "trophy repositories” where patches from their many prior cruises and assignments are attached. You may be thinking of the civilian jackets that are often made in foreign countries and are patched or embroidered to memorialize a specific assignment.

Sometime last winter I was in the grocery store check out line behind a middle-aged woman who was wearing her dad's old "trophy" or "cruise" G-1. It was covered from top to bottom with squadron and cruise patches from the late fifties through the early seventies. Happily, she was aware of the value of the jacket (both sentimental and actual) and she promised me that she would always care for it as if it were one of her children.

AF

 

[Fifty150]

You're lucky that woman didn't cry "rape" and spray you with Mace.