Top Gun: Maverick

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Let’s start dissecting!

Summary: Top Gun (1986) made Tom Cruise a superstar, and now 36 years later he jumps back in role of Pete Mitchell aka Maverick almost like he never even left!Maverick is ordered to train several young pilots for a mission and all the while sees a little bit of himself in them. Tom Cruise comes to terms with the past and it fantastic as Maverick. Miles Teller, Glen Powell and Jennifer Connelly are also great. But the flying scenes are what makes this movie so spectacular, you literally feel like your flying with them.

Aircraft Concept: In the new Top Gun film, Tom Cruise flies a hypersonic plane called the Darkstar. This fictional aircraft is seemingly inspired by a hypersonic military plane called the SR-72, or “Son of Blackbird.” 

Let’s talk about the engineering aspect of the hypersonic plane used in this movie.

“Hypersonic technology, or the ability to travel at 60 miles per minute or faster, is a capability our team continues to advance today by leveraging more than 30 years of hypersonic investments and development and testing experience. The mission is to defend and protect our nation and allies with the discriminator of speed.” (https://lockheedmartin.com/topgun#behindthescenes).

Lockheed Martin conceptual designers, engineers and aircraft model developers bring aircraft concepts to support critical global security missions and advance the future of aviation and technology. They partnered with the Top Gun: Maverick film’s creative team to collaborate on bringing our expertise in hypersonic capabilities and aircraft design to the cinema screen.

Actual Fighter Jets by Boeing Co.: Let’ talk about the training a little. Cruise created an intense five-month aviation program for his cast. Daily they had to record their progress so Cruise could adjust their training. The actors also learned about gravitational forces experienced by pilots and also aerial maneuvers.

Apparently Paramount Pictures Studios spent over $11,000 USD an hour for fighter jets used in Top Gun: Maverick to create the amazingly realistic scenes. The studio struck a deal with the U.S. Navy to lend it F/A-18 Super Hornets combat planes but were not used by the actors.

It takes a big team to collaboratively design and build a fighter jets. An Aerospace Engineer will typically study a little of every discipline involved, and will also focus on a specialty.

Here are some of the engineering specializations that would be involved in designing and building a fighter jet:

  • Electrical
  • Controls
  • Aerodynamics and Airworthiness
  • Thermodynamics
  • Reliability
  • Logistics & Systems
  • Structural Dynamics (vibration) Engineer
  • Quality Control
  • Cyber security & Safety
  • Radar
  • Communications
  • Mission Management
  • Software Engineering
  • Test and Evaluation
  • Manufacturing Engineering

Each of the subsystems on the aircraft will typically be built by a subcontractor, and each of those companies will have their own team of engineers.

Anatomy & Physiology on G-Force & G-Tolerance:

What is G-Force? It is the the force of gravity or acceleration on a body

What is G-tolerance? the maximum gravitation effects that an individual can withstand before blacking out as a result of acceleration drawing blood out of the head toward the feet. (Pilots of high-performance aircraft can tolerate +9 Gz with use of G-suits and straining maneuvers).

Let’s dissect some thoughts about the circulatory system. This system is most significantly affected by increased G-forces. Even at 1G, blood pressure in an upright person is highest in the legs and lowest in the cranium due to gravity. Human bodies have adapted to a 1G environment, so we have physiological mechanisms to compensate. However, higher magnitudes of gravity can cause problems to circulatory regulation. At increased +G forces above physiologic norms, there is a larger discrepancy of blood pressures between cranium and the lower body. Thus, intracranial perfusion cannot be maintained and significant cerebral hypoxia (no blood = no oxygen) quickly follows which leads to unconsciousness.

Increased +Gz disturbs the respiratory system by shifting blood to the lung bases, which collapses the small sacs of air ( alveoli) and creates a general ventilation/perfusion mismatch as air remains in the upper lung where there is little blood flow. As +Gz forces go up, there is less blood flow combined with poorly oxygenated blood compound the brain. High G forces can also cause musculoskeletal pain (back and neck) and small punctate bruises called petechiae from capillaries rupture.  

Cinematography: They used a Sony VENICE extension called the CBK-3610XS and allows for different field of views and angles.

Here are some of the engineering specializations that would be involved in designing and building a fighter jet:

  • Electrical
  • Controls
  • Aerodynamics and Airworthiness
  • Thermodynamics
  • Reliability
  • Logistics & Systems
  • Structural Dynamics (vibration) Engineer
  • Quality Control
  • Cyber security & Safety
  • Radar
  • Communications
  • Mission Management
  • Software Engineering
  • Test and Evaluation
  • Manufacturing Engineering

Each of the subsystems on the aircraft will typically be built by a subcontractor, and each of those companies will have their own team of engineers.

Anatomy & Physiology on G-Force & G-Tolerance:

What is G-Force? It is the the force of gravity or acceleration on a body

What is G-tolerance? the maximum gravitation effects that an individual can withstand before blacking out as a result of acceleration drawing blood out of the head toward the feet. (Pilots of high-performance aircraft can tolerate +9 Gz with use of G-suits and straining maneuvers).

Let’s dissect some thoughts about the circulatory system. This system is most significantly affected by increased G-forces. Even at 1G, blood pressure in an upright person is highest in the legs and lowest in the cranium due to gravity. Human bodies have adapted to a 1G environment, so we have physiological mechanisms to compensate. However, higher magnitudes of gravity can cause problems to circulatory regulation. At increased +G forces above physiologic norms, there is a larger discrepancy of blood pressures between cranium and the lower body. Thus, intracranial perfusion cannot be maintained and significant cerebral hypoxia (no blood = no oxygen) quickly follows which leads to unconsciousness.

Increased +Gz disturbs the respiratory system by shifting blood to the lung bases, which collapses the small sacs of air ( alveoli) and creates a general ventilation/perfusion mismatch as air remains in the upper lung where there is little blood flow. As +Gz forces go up, there is less blood flow combined with poorly oxygenated blood compound the brain. High G forces can also cause musculoskeletal pain (back and neck) and small punctate bruises called petechiae from capillaries rupture.  

Cinematography: They used a Sony VENICE extension called the CBK-3610XS and allows for different field of views and angles. Camera is shown in the image below.

“Real flying. Real G-forces. Pure adrenaline. Go behind-the-scenes of #TopGun: Maverick with Tom Cruise. In theatres May 27, 2022. After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.” Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.”

The storyline and character development was stellar. Finding the little easter eggs from the first film was fun! Go watch it!