Speed & Angels (2008)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Peyton Wilson

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Behind Every Fighter Pilot Is A Dream

Plot:

Young Navy Officers, Jay and Meagan, have dreamt of becoming naval aviators flying the F-14 Tomcat since their childhoods...

Plot Keywords:

Navy | Dogfight | F 14 | Flying | Tomcat

Cast

Jay	...	Himself
Meagan	...	Herself

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 on appeal for strong language.

Runtime:

USA:95 min | USA:95 min (DVD)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Company:

Spellbound Productions Inc.

Compelling stories, excellent flight footage, some questionable statistics

Many of the statistics claimed by Captain John Cole ("Sir Buckethead") range from dubious to patently false. First, he claims that 1 of every 1,000 applicants get into the Naval Academy, or 0.1%, whereas the actual figure according to the College Board is 14% or approximately one in seven. Captain Cole was off by a factor of 140.

Captain Cole also claims that only 1 of every 10,000 applicants are admitted to flight school, 30-40% of admits graduate flight school, 15% of graduates get jets, and 1% of pilots with jets get to fly to F-14. By Captain Cole's statistics, if every person in the United States Armed Forces in a given year (approximately 2,900,000 active and reserve) applied to flight school, 290 would be admitted, 87-116 would complete flight school, 13-17 would get jets, and 0.13 to 0.17 people would get to fly the F-14. The Navy, then, would produce a new F-14 pilot once every six to eight years.

Captain Cole ends his random-number-generating soliloquy by pointing out that when he went through flight school 1 in 10,000 aspirants got to fly the F-14, but today the figure is probably around 1 in 100,000. Again, if every member of the United States Armed Forces aspired to fly the F-14, then only 29 would achieve their goal. More realistically, if every member of the United States Navy (about 332,000) aspired to fly the F-14, then, only 3.32 people would make the grade, which would leave 1.32 F-14 pilots after accounting for Jay and Meagan, but also would not match his previous claims above.

There is no doubt that operating air superiority fighters like the (now retired) F-14 is a highly sought-after gig in the United States Navy. However, the producers of this film could've performed a bit of vetting on their interview subject's claims before deciding to include his commentary in the final version.