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Top Gun, Star Trek 4 aircraft carrier makes final journey

 
Published March 6, 2015

The USS Ranger, the aircraft carrier featured in Top Gun and Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home, is making its own voyage home. A five-month cruise is all that stands between the 56,000-ton ship and the scrapyard, CNN reports. Attempts to turn the boat into a museum have failed.

Now, keen fans of '80s movies are probably howling at this point. Wasn't it the USS Carl Vinson that was Maverick and Goose's ship in Top Gun? And surely every Trekkie/Trekker knows that it's the USS Enterprise that played a central role in Star Trek 4. Yes, yes, you're right. But most of the interior shots for those movies were filmed in the USS Ranger. So pipe down.

In all fairness, the Ranger has had a nice, long life. It was launched in 1956 and played roles in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm.