Aviator and filmmaker Fransciso (Paco) Chierici. Photo by Phil Weston

Top Gun may be a popular aviation movie, but it certainly isn’t accurate. That bothered former fighter pilot Francesco (Paco) Chierici enough that he finally decided to do something about it.

The something is a documentary titled Speed and Angels, showing this week at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2007.

"I’m very excited. Oshkosh is the perfect place to showcase the film," said Chierici, the documentary’s producer and screenwriter, as well as commander of the Navy Reserve Squadron of The Fighting Saints of VFC-13, the only fighter pilots in the world who teach dogfighting.

"This really is a story about the passion of flying."

In 2003, Chierici partnered with friend and director Peyton Wilson to begin work on the documentary. But many "complicating factors" slowed work on the project such as funding and conflict of interest concerns.

"We wanted to film phenomenal dogfights, but it took us two years to get permission and we finally had to go to a four-star admiral," Chierici says. "In the meantime, we kept working on it with a lot of faith."

Chierici says the film originally was to be about the Fighting Saints. "But while it was interesting, we soon discovered that there wasn’t enough to support a 90-minute documentary."

As Wilson started to get to know some of the students the Fighting Saints train, she was struck by their energy and enthusiasm. So she and Chierici changed the focus and began casting with 10-12 students. Soon two stood out.

"Peyton followed them around and tried to break through their veneer by sticking a camera in their face," Chierici says. "It became obvious who were the most camera-friendly."

Even more so, the two chosen—Jay and Meagan—had amazing challenges to overcome and stories to tell.

The film follows the two and shows the emotional journey of training and becoming a Navy fighter pilot. It’s also the closest you can come to landing on an aircraft carrier or dogfighting in an F-14 without actually doing it.

While Chierici wouldn’t divulge the cost of the film, he did say it was more than $1 million, most of which was spent filming the aerial shots. They had to rent a specially modified Learjet and state-of-the-art high-definition cameras to shoot the ground-to-air and air-to-air. Editing also was expensive, he says.

Chierici says he actually has two favorite parts in the film.

"I love the beginning when Jay and Meagan are so enthusiastic and excited to finally fly the plane they have always wanted to fly," he says. "Then, in the last 15 or 20 minutes, you see how the two have grown dramatically and matured by the realities of what they’ve seen."

While Chierici won’t be speaking about the film this year at AirVenture, he plans to attend some of the movie viewings, just to see people’s reactions. And the rest of the time, he just wants to see what AirVenture has to offer.

"I grew up flying in the military and now fly commercially," he says. "But two months ago I bought a Mooney with a friend. I’ve got a whole new part of aviation to soak up."

For the moment, AirVenture is the only place you can view the film. Chierici says they just signed a distribution deal with Salient Media, which will allow them to bring it to the masses. Tentatively, it will be released in theaters or on cable later this fall, with DVD sales to follow. For more information, go to www.SpeedAndAngels.com.