Watch It With Thousands of Your Closest Friends At 2007
AirVenture
Tom Cruise, take note... your past shenanigans on Oprah are
barely a blip on the screen for thousands of aviation enthusiasts
who took part in EAA's "Greatest Aviation Movie of all Time" poll,
and voted the 1986 blockbuster "Top Gun" the best of the
best.
The movie, for those who may have forgotten (after all, it's
been 20 years), is based at the US Navy's "Top Gun" fighter
training school, and was the biggest-grossing film in the US that
year... combining adventure, romance, and lots of high-performance
flying.
"Top Gun" will be shown during EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2007 at
the event's Fly-In Theater, presented by Ford Motor Company and
Eclipse Aviation.
For those who want to know the polling details, "Top Gun" was
one of 10 finalists in the online poll at the AirVenture website
-- collecting more than 20.5 percent of the over 10,000 votes
cast. That was ahead of the classic 1949 film "Twelve O'Clock High"
(17.7 percent) and the more recent World War II epic "Memphis
Belle" from 1990 (12.2 percent).
The finalists were the 10 most-nominated films by EAA members
earlier this year, who submitted more than 140 aviation movies.
Others in the final poll included "Battle of Britain" (1969) with
11.8 percent; "Spirit of St. Louis" (1957) and "The Great Waldo
Pepper" (1975), each with 8.6 percent; "Those Magnificent Men in
Their Flying Machines" (1965) 7.1 percent; "The Flight of the
Phoenix" (the original 1965 movie) 5.2 percent; and "The High and
the Mighty" (1954) with 4.0 percent.
The viewing date of "Top Gun" during EAA AirVenture 2007 will be
finalized in the coming weeks. It will join the previously
announced "Apollo 13" on the schedule, which will be shown on
Friday, July 27 and introduced by actual Apollo 13 commander Jim
Lovell. Additional films and presenters will be announced as they
are confirmed, but all promise to be movies of special interest for
aviation enthusiasts.
The outdoor theater, located adjacent to EAA's Camp Scholler
camping area, will be open each evening (weather permitting) from
Sunday, July 22 through Saturday, July 28. The walk-in theater is
reminiscent of the famous drive-in theaters of the past -- complete
with popcorn. There is no admission charge and it is open to all
AirVenture guests.
Each evening's show begins at approximately 8:30 pm, with an
introduction by a celebrity presenter, followed by a classic
aviation film at about 9 pm, shown on a projection screen measuring
five stories high.
No word yet on whether Tom Cruise... who is an EAA
member... will make an appearance.