The Real Life Top Gun

image via Wallpapers Abyss

Dale Snodgrass was a United States Navy pilot from 1974 until 1997, flying the F-14 “Tomcat” made famous by the film Top Gun. In the film, Maverick uses his jet in ridiculous antics such as low flybys of towers to buzz the controllers. Nobody in real life would do something so stupid less they wanted to end up in the brig.

Unless you're the previously mentioned Dale Snodgrass.

image via Air and Space Magazine

You can't hear it, but Kenny Loggins just started playing.

Being the very first navy pilot to ever fly the F-14, Snodgrass (call-sign “Snort”) had the most experience flying the jet. As a result, he was often used for demonstrations of the jet to the public. During one such demonstration in 1988, he performed a maneuver that made Maverick's antics look like child's play.

image via The Aviationist

“This is Snort-rider requesting a flyby.”

Coming in low from behind the aircraft carrier USS America, Snodgrass fired the afterburners and came up just over the side of the deck for an incredibly close pass by the (now deaf) spectators. And although this flyby was allowed for demonstration purposes, Snodgrass's antics were known to have gotten him in trouble before.

One time he earned himself a week of confinement for buzzing a tower followed by a split-s landing. Or that other time he played chicken with a fellow Navy pilot in a MiG-21.

image via FightingColors

Snodgrass smiling at his old friend, Death.

Did I mention that he also did the flying the for movie Top Gun? Making him not only metaphorically, but also literally the closest thing to Maverick real life can provide.

But rather than kick him out for his Maverick-y attitude, the Navy found a perfect fit for him. Whereas most Navy pilots would spent two to three years performing aerial shows, the Navy kept him at it for for over ten years and 400 shows before he finally retired after accumulating 4,800 hours in the F-14.

Today he is qualified for flying the F-14, F-86, P-51, F4, T-6, MiG-15, MiG-17 and MiG-21 and can be found playing beach volleyball or flying in air-shows across the world.

image via The Aviationist

Ear protection recommended.