The American movie, Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise, won 8 Academy Awards and earned over $300 million at the box office. The movie was inaccurate in several ways, not the least of which was the addition of a sexy female flight instructor to provide a love interest for the male pilots. It also left out any mention of the British instructors from Fleet Air Arm who were instrumental in establishing the US Navy Fighter Weapons School, better known as Top Gun. Brigadier General Richard Stanley Lord, who died in late October at the age of 75, was the foremost British instructor sent to train American pilots in 1968, who at the height of the Vietnam War were being shot down at an unacceptable rate by by North Vietnamese pilots.
Brigadier General Dick Lord
He and a handful of other Fleet Air Arm graduates of the Royal Navy’s gruelling Air Warfare Instructors (AWI) school in Lossiemouth, Scotland, introduced rigorous new methods for recording and scrutinising the performance of trainees during exercises. Lord, for example, scribbled notes on a pad on the knee of his flight suit during mock dogfights, which he then exhaustively analysed on a blackboard at post-flight debriefs.
Such was the trust placed in Lord that he was granted access to classified American military documents comparing the performance of US aircraft against that of enemy fighters. This access allowed him to write, with others, the US Navy’s Air Combat Manoeuvring manual.
A year after Lord’s arrival, the tuition and methods introduced by British pilots, all graduates of the AWI school at Lossiemouth, made their way into the US Navy Fighter Weapons School, which was set up in 1969. Better known as Top Gun, it remains the most famous programme in the history of naval aviation. Soon after it was established a Phantom flown by one of its first students shot down a MiG-21, the first time a US Navy aircraft had succeeded in aerial combat in two years.
Lord enjoyed the film Top Gun, but mused that it was “remarkable that any history book studiously avoids mention of any British involvement” and added that the film had not “given us due justice”. He remained proud of his involvement, however, and during his time at Miramar had insisted on using the call sign “Brit 1”. This meant that his wingman, though American, was forced to use the call sign “Brit 2”.
Dick Lord married, in 1968, June Beckett, a BOAC air-hostess. While he complained about the fantastical characterisations in Top Gun, she contended that the film’s portrayal of big-talking fighter pilots was extremely true-to-life. She survives him with their two sons.
Brig Gen Dick Lord, born June 20 1936, died October 26 2011.
Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the obituary along.
>The movie was inaccurate in several ways, not the least of which was the addition of a sexy female flight instructor
Smithsonian’s Aviation magazine at about the time of the movie had an article about the woman who worked at Top Gun whom the character was based on. She was prettier than Kelly McGillis.
Wow. Prettier that Kelly McGillis? But she wasn’t a flight instructor was she?
Then again, Barbara Allen Rainey qualified to fly jets for the Navy in 1974 and was a flight instructor in 1982 when she died in an plane crash, so anything is possible.
Dick Lord was an Officer and a Genleman and a jet piiot extraordinaire.
His leadership skills boiled down to one sentence:
A true leader ensures that personnel enjoy every moment of their chosen career..Dick led by this example.
My heart goes out to Dick’s family
Warmest Blessings
Leonard Stewart..ex Fleet Air Arm
I had the pleasure of working for General Lord when I was waiting for Pilots course in the South African Air force. He was the commander of the Air force Command Post and he would bring 35mm movies in for me to watch, of F-4 Phantoms landing on the deck and flying over Hawaii. He would involve me during operations that when I look back on now, I cannot believe how lucky I was. A true Officer and Gentleman who was greatly respected by all his peers and subordinates.
“Sir, I salute you and thank you.”
I had the privilege of meeting Dick, during the late Eighties, whilst stationed in Oshakati, as a “Pongo”. It was a privilege working with him!1
He was just such a knowledgeable, likable and unassuming Senior Officer. He was the ULTIMATE professional, and it not surprising that he went on to co-ordinate the SAAF fly-past for mandela’s ceremony over the Union Buildings in 1994.
Having served in SWA from 1985 until 1989, I especially appreciated his accurate and balanced explanation of why the RSA was involved in the Angolan conflict.
His books reflected accurately the challenges and victories of the valiant and gallant SAAF, because even as a serving PF officer, I had no idea of what the SAAF faced during the Angolan conflict.
“Ad Astra”……….Dick Lord……….