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.
