“Son, your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash.” – Stinger to Maverick in “Top Gun.” Cmdr. Stinger was wrong. At the end of the 1986 box-office hit, Maverick takes on a half-dozen MIG fighters. Four go down in flames. Two high-tail it for home. But it wasn’t the hot shot Navy pilot’s ego that carried the day. It was his ride: the then-state-of-the-art F-14 Tomcat.

Though the film was pure Hollywood, the hardware was real. And it impressed. After the film’s release, enlistees requesting naval aviator training skyrocketed 500 percent.

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