Why I Asked Yesterday's Question

THIS GQ ARTICLE on the current state of the film industry in America. I looks like things are now what they were at the end of the Sixties, when the big studios were run by old men making big budget bombs because they lost touch with the world.

But instead of big budget bombs, they're making hamburger movies--dumbed down, concocted to appeal to a specific clientele--and ultimately all the same.

Top Gun was invoked; my thoughts: 1) I own a second-hand, ex-rental copy on VHS, and haven't bothered to get it on DVD (read into that what you will); 2) I agree with the film director (Scorcese?) who called it "homoerotic"; 3) Cruise is overrated, Skerritt and Edwards were underrated but are not at all likely to be in any sequel; 4) the real star of the movie was the F-14 Tomcat, which is unavailable for any sequel either; 5) Top Gun has been copied and ripped-off so many times it's ludicrous. Heck, I've ripped it off myself.

In short, I don't consider Top Gun to be a classic at all. So I'm wary about the fact that the current mass media mogul generation sees it as one.

Mysteries Solved?

My friend's mystery ship. Paul Francis acquired this space shuttle model from a Hollywood effects shop years ago when he was working as a make-up and effects man. He wanted to know what it was and possibly what movies it might have been used in; I had hunches.



This is from a NASA .pdf file from their archives. The model shown is smaller than Paul's but is the same configuration; this one was tested in the hypersonic wind tunnel at the Ames Research Laboratory. It is a North American Rockwell NAR-134B orbiter concept from about 1969. According to other parts of the document, if the real thing had been built it would have been bigger than the Enterprise/Columbia-class orbiter by about three-fourths.

I've contacted the historian at Boeing by e-mail overday to see if they might have more information or possible film archives.