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Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority Kindle Edition
Dwight Jon Zimmerman (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority begins with a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the blockbuster film that helped America shake off the trauma of the Vietnam War and once again take pride in its military. The book then launches into the even more incredible story of why and how such men consistently capture the imagination of children, adults, pilots, and audiences around the world.
Chapters spotlight pivotal military movies and television shows that presaged the movie Top Gun, including edge-of-the-seat vignettes and anecdotes of pilots and their lifestyles, the origin of the Navy’s fighter pilot program and its rigorous training, and how it inspired the Air Force’s counterpart, Red Flag.
Other chapters highlight what it takes to be a pilot in other branches of the armed forces, and takes a look back in time at the most notorious (and feared) pilots of World War I and World War II from all around the globe. Fast forward to the jet age, when the first aces flew hair-raising missions over Korea and Vietnam, and learn how past and contemporary aerial dogfighting really works.
The book also reveals the many technological advances that transformed aerial combat from the dangerous, unsynchronized machine guns that bounced bullets off propellers in World War I to today, where air-to-air missiles are launched by pilots who have no visual contact with an adversary, and finally illustrates how drones are adding a new dimension to the meaning of Top Gun.
Finish with an in-depth look at Naval Station Fallon, one of the most modern and renowned American naval stations, located outside Fallon, Nevada. Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority concludes with a look at Top Gun 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the biggest action movies of all time and the one that made Tom Cruise a worldwide superstar.
Featuring over 200 photos, new interviews and stories from aces, engineers, commanders, and more, and written by best-selling author and president of the Military Writers Society of America, Dwight Zimmerman, Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority is the must-have guide to the fastest, deadliest, most storied aerial combat squadron the world has ever known.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMotorbooks
- Publication dateMay 7, 2019
- File size43611 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"This attractively bound coffee table book with excellent graphics is sure to be a pleasurable read for any aviation enthusiast – particularly those whose pedigree includes fighter pilot!"
―Frontline Magazine --This text refers to the hardcover edition.About the Author
Dwight Jon Zimmerman is a bestselling and award-winning author and former president of the Military Writers Society of America. Zimmerman has written more than fifteen books, including Area 51: The Graphic History of America's Most Secret Military Installation for Zenith Press and Steve McQueen Full Throttle Cool and The Life Steve McQueen for Motorbooks. In addition, he has written hundreds of articles on military history. Zimmerman lives in Brooklyn, New York.
--This text refers to the hardcover edition.Product details
- ASIN : B07RXRX3D5
- Publisher : Motorbooks (May 7, 2019)
- Publication date : May 7, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 43611 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 160 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #747,374 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #287 in Military Pictorial History
- #849 in Military Naval History
- #886 in Military Aviation History (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

DWIGHT JON ZIMMERMAN is a bestselling and award-winning author, radio show host, producer, and former president of the Military Writers Society of America. A writer of extraordinary scope in genres, he has written everything from comic books to young adult and adult histories and biographies, and more. He has received critical praise for his skill in adapting bestselling adult works into the young adult and graphic novel and graphic biography formats.
Zimmerman's latest work is for the BEYOND BELIEF ongoing anthology series. Scheduled for release twice a year, on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, the series recounts astonishing real-life accounts of military heroes actions during wartime. Books released include: BEYOND BELIEF: True Stories of American Heroes That Defy Comprehension, BEYOND BELIEF: TRUE STORIES OF U.S. NAVY HEROES THAT DEFY COMPREHENSION, and BEYOND BELIEF: True Stories of Military Chaplains That Defy Comprehension.
Zimmerman is the co-author, with Bill O'Reilly, of the New York Times #1 bestselling LINCOLN'S LAST DAYS, a young adult adaptation of Bill O'Reilly's bestselling KILLING LINCOLN. LINCOLN'S LAST DAYS won the 2013 Branson Stars and Flags Grand Prize, the second year in a row that Zimmerman received the organization's highest honor.
His first book, FIRST COMMAND: Paths to Leadership, which has a foreword by James M. McPherson, presents the pivotal challenges and events that occurred in the early careers of generals from George Washington to Colin Powell and how they overcame them. Zimmerman was the co-executive producer of the cable television miniseries based on his book. The miniseries debuted on the Military Channel in 2005 and has been regularly aired on the channel ever since. It won the 2005 Aurora Platinum Best of Show Award for Historical Programming. In 2009, the book received the Branson Stars and Flags Gold Medal Award in the Reference/Technical category. First Command is on the U.S. Army Chief of Infantry Recommended Reading List: Junior NCOs.
Zimmerman's previous books include TOP GUN: 50 YEARS OF NAVAL AIR SUPERIORITY. It is an exciting history of the U.S. Navy's fighter pilot training program that includes the origin and evolution of aviation combat and the impact of the Tom Cruise "Top Gun" movie, THE LIFE STEVE McQUEEN which highlights the cultural impact of the iconic star of the movies "Bullitt," "The Magnificent Seven," and "The Great Escape."
Zimmerman has written numerous graphic histories and biographies and the graphic novel adaptation of a classic business philosophy book. They include STEVE McQUEEN FULL THROTTLE COOL, the graphic biography of actor/racer Steve McQueen, with art by Greg Scott. He also collaborated with Scott on AREA 51 THE GRAPHIC HISTORY OF AMERICA'S MOST SECRET MILITARY INSTALLATION. It gets behind the scenes and reveals the amazing story of one of America's most controversial secret military installations. Zimmerman wrote the script for THE GOAL: A BUSINESS GRAPHIC NOVEL, an adaptation of the #1 business book of all time. It received critical acclaim for its ability to distill Eliyahu Goldratt's Theory of Constraints business philosophy originally presented in his book THE GOAL, into a clear, concise narrative praised as "brilliant." Other works in the format include THE VIETNAM WAR: A Graphic History, illustrated by Wayne Vansant, a ground-breaking book that for the first time recounted the entire Vietnam War in the graphic novel format. It received the 2010 Gold Medal Award: Artistic/Graphic from the Military Writers Society of America and the 2010 Branson Stars and Flags Gold Medal Award in the photography/graphics category. Military Review, the official journal of the U.S. Army, placed it on its recommended reading list. THE HAMMER AND THE ANVIL, also drawn by Wayne Vansant, is a critically-acclaimed dual biography of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
Zimmerman's book, SAGA OF THE SIOUX, a young adult adaptation of Dee Brown's classic history of the American West, has been acclaimed by critics as "a powerful work" (School Library Journal), "a masterful adaptation" (VOYA), "cogent, heartbreaking narration" BCCB, "history classes and others interested in this period will welcome this offering" (Booklist), and others. It received the 2012 Gold Medal in the Young Adult Non-Fiction category from the Military Writers Society of America and the 2012 Branson Stars and Flags Book Awards Grand Prize, the organization's highest honor.
Zimmerman has written a series of articles commemorating the 70th anniversary of World War II for Defense Media Network chronologically recounting events of that conflict. They offer a fascinating mix of history and human interest and can be read for free at Defense Media Network's website: www.defensemedianetwork.com. His other work for Defense Media Network has included articles on advanced technology lethal and non-lethal weaponry under development by DARPA, amongst other subjects.
Zimmerman has written numerous articles on military subjects for Faircount Media and other publishers. His article, "Maritime Mobility," for The Shield of Freedom, an annual publication about the Coast Guard, was selected by the Naval War College for use in its curriculum. And his article about a special operations mission during the Korean War led by the theater's surgeon general that had high-stakes diplomatic consequences, originally published in The Year in Special Operations 2009 was selected for re-publication by the Journal of Special Operations Medicine.
Zimmerman is the co-author, with John D. Gresham of UNCOMMON VALOR: The Medal of Honor and the Six Warriors Who Earned It in Afghanistan and Iraq, which has received the Military Writers Society of America's most prestigious honor, the MWSA Founder's Award for 2010.
Zimmerman has written two acclaimed popular surveys of wars and weapons through the ages. THE BOOK OF WAR, about pivotal battles, leaders, and strategies from ancient to modern times, received the 2009 Gold Medal Award for Reference by the Military Writers Society of America. This was followed by THE BOOK OF WEAPONS, a critically acclaimed sequel about important weapons, weapon designers, and arms manufacturers and merchants throughout history.
Zimmerman's young adult biography, TECUMSEH: Shooting Star of the Shawnee, received the 2010 Bronze Medal Award: Young Adult Non-Fiction from the Military Writers Society of America.
Zimmerman is the co-author, with John D. Gresham, of the critically acclaimed history of seven pivotal special operations from the Vietnam War to present day, BEYOND HELL AND BACK.
Zimmerman has been a guest lecturer at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Naval War College.
He was a producer for the independent film, Trooper, which received the Bronze Remi Award at the 2010 Houston International Film Festival.
Zimmerman was the host of the Veterans Radio program "At Ease" which interviewed historians about their latest books. Guests included bestselling authors Rick Atkinson, Robert Edsel, Larry Bond, Thomas Fleming, amongst others.
Zimmerman was the researcher for THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR, edited by Craig L. Symonds and Harold Holzer with a forward by former president Bill Clinton, and THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPLETE WORLD WAR II edited by Richard Overy with a forward by Tom Brokaw.
Zimmerman began his career in publishing at Marvel Comics, where he held a variety of editorial positions. Among his Marvel comic book writing credits are stories for Spider-Man, The X-Men, and The Hulk, and other superheroes. In 1992, Zimmerman became executive editor of Topps Comics and was responsible for the editorial and art direction of its lines of media tie-in comics including series based on The X-Files, Mars Attacks, Jurassic Park, Zorro, Xena: Warrior Princess and other titles. In addition, Zimmerman was the writer, editor, and art director of Princess Diana the graphic novel biography of Diana, Princess of Wales published by Topps.
Zimmerman is a native of Devils Lake, ND. He presently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife Joëlle. They have two adult children.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2019
Top reviews from the United States
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After a couple of obligatory chapters about the movie TOP GUN and its use as a Navy recruiting tool, Zimmerman dives into his real passion: the knights of the air and how backroom Naval politics can sometimes make their lives more complicated than than the enemy does.
He discusses the birth of Topgun (the Navy, unlike the film, renders the program's name as one word), exploring how Lt. Commander Dan Pedersen worked to find a solution to fighter pilot fatalities in Vietnam. The result was new tactics and strategies to cope with the fact that the Navy's brass had decided their newest jet had no need of guns, since their missiles should enable them to blow opponents out of the sky. Vietnam's MiG pilots, however, hadn't read the manual, and proceeded to make deadly inroads on the Navy pilots.
Pedersen's training program helped turn that around.
From there, Zimmerman zips back and forth through history, exploring air combat from the days when World War I pilots shot at each other with pistols all the way to the advent of today's unmanned drones. He also discusses the way popular culture celebrated pilots with books, comics and films, creating an public interest which the military took advantage of for recruiting purposes.
But the real heroes of the book are the pilots who battled each other in deadly contests, all of them striving to make Ace by blowing one another out of the air.
The result is a fascinating book even for someone who isn't a military buff. I recommend it highly.
Even the best make the mistake of producing a sub par performance. Perhaps this is the case for the author of this book.
Top reviews from other countries

-- The larger photos are black/white historic photos of the ww1, ww2, and Vietnam war era aircraft used by aces, and a history of why the Top Gun training program was necessary to create more aces quickly, with fewer casualties, to fulfil the navy's future needs for Ace Pilots.

I did enjoy the book, but it feels like it is missing several chapters post Top Gun school. Author needs to add some chapters or change the title, although I'm not sure what would be a better title.


Reviewed in India on August 20, 2021



If you think it's all about the movie top gun then be forwarned, it's about the history of the top gun program and aviation. Great book to have it you like the world of aviation and fighter pilot school.
