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.

FMI: www.airventure.org, http://movies.aol.com/movie/top-gun/6941/main