Summary
- Top Gun: Maverick showcases a variety of Top Gun planes, both classic and modern, in its spectacular aerial action scenes.
- The original Top Gun used real F-14 Tomcats from the U.S. Navy, but the high costs led to the use of visual effects for the F-14 scenes in Top Gun: Maverick.
- Tom Cruise flew his own P-51 Mustang in Top Gun: Maverick, adding a personal touch to the film and demonstrating his dedication to realism.
Top Gun and its sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, act as showcases for all kinds of Top Gun planes in their spectacular aerial action scenes. The original 1986 movie saw Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) attend the U.S. Navy’s elite Fighter Weapons School, known to the skilled naval aviators who train there as “Top Gun.” Picking up over three decades later, Top Gun: Maverick saw the titular pilot, promoted to Captain, and reassigned to the school as an instructor following a disastrous test flight of a hypersonic jet. As both movies emphasize realism, the Top Gun planes are equally crucial to the franchise as the pilots who fly them.
Neither Top Gun movies disappoint when it comes to their choices of fighter jets; there’s an assortment of great Top Gun planes that’s sure to bring a smile to the face of every aircraft aficionado. Top Gun: Maverick treats the jet fighters like it depicts the characters in and of themselves. The F-14 Tomcat receives the last hurrah worthy of Maverick himself. Tom Cruise even gets the opportunity in Top Gun: Maverick to show off his own P51-Mustang. It’s not just classic aircraft that receives the spotlight either, Top Gun: Maverick highlights the speed and fluidity of modern fighters and even an impressive if fictional, prototype hypersonic jet.
Grumman F-14 Tomcat
The original Top Gun hired real F-14 Tomcats from the U.S. Navy for production. To achieve the impressive aerial shots that Tony Scott wanted for the flying sequences, the manufacturing company, Grumman, was commissioned to construct pods on the Top Gun planes that could accommodate film cameras while being flown. The use of actual F-14s fit with Top Gun being based on a true story, bit it came at a high cost to Paramount Pictures, who had to pay for fuel and the aircraft’s operating costs. It costs approximately $8000 an hour (equivalent to over $21,000 in 2022) to use the F-14s in Top Gun.
While filming Top Gun, Tony Scott requested to film F-14s taking off from and landing on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (not to be confused with the Star Trek spaceship), backlit by the setting sun. Scott requested that the captain of Enterprise adjust his course to accommodate the shot but was told that it would cost him $25,000 (just under $70,000 in 2022) to do so. Top Gun director Tony Scott immediately wrote the captain a check and the aircraft carrier turned for the shot he wanted. The only problem arose when the captain tried to cash the check later, and it bounced.
Despite the U.S. Navy decommissioning them in 2006, Top Gun: Maverick made use of an F-14 for its climax, where Maverick and Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller) escape the enemy in one of their own aircraft. F-14s are still in use by Iran’s Navy, but the production team could not acquire any active aircraft for filming. So instead, Top Gun: Maverick used an engineless F-14A from the San Diego Air & Space Museum for the enemy hangar scene. All the aerial sequences featuring the F-14 were created using visual effects. The depiction of the F-14 in Top Gun: Maverick fits perfectly with the film’s theme of nostalgia.
Northrop F-5F/F-5E Tiger II
Top Gun utilized real-life Northrop F-5 aircraft to depict the fictional enemy MiG-28s. One small detail that reveals that the MiG-28s are fictional is that all aircraft designated as MiGs are given odd numbers in the real world. This is because the real TOPGUN uses the F-5s to simulate aggressor aircraft, a tradition that Top Gun kept by painting the F-5s black to portray the fictional enemy jet fighters.
Douglas A-4 Skyhawk
The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was used in Top Gun to simulate enemy MiG aircraft in the training sequences. The A-4s are flown by TOPGUN instructors Lieutenant Commander Rick “Jester” Heatherly (Michael Ironside) and Commander Mike “Viper” Metcalf (Tom Skerritt) in the movie. One depiction of the A-4 in Top Gun comes when Maverick flies under the 10,000ft hard deck to defeat Viper. The most important scene that the Top Gun planes are involved in is the death of Lieutenant junior grade Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards). Maverick is chasing an A-4 when he flies into Lieutenant Tom “Iceman” Kazansky’s (Val Kilmer) jet wash and crashes.
Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II
The Ling-Temco-Vought A-7 Corsair II was brought in by the U.S. Navy in the 1960s to replace the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Ironically, the use of the A-4 by the U.S. Navy outlasted the A-7 for over a decade. The A-7 was retired by the U.S. Navy only five years after Top Gun, in 1991. The A-4 was retired later in 2003. In Top Gun, a fleet of A-7s can be seen lined up on an aircraft carrier at the end of the movie.
Grumman KA-6D/A-6 Intruder
Two variants of the Grumman A-6 Intruder are seen in the original 1986 Top Gun movie. The A-6 was developed as an all-weather attack aircraft for the U.S. Navy with nuclear capabilities. The U.S. Navy used it between 1963-97. The A-6 Intruder and its aerial refueling variant, the KA-6D, can be spotted in the aircraft carrier credits sequence in Top Gun.
Darkstar
Although the prototype hypersonic jet, Darkstar, that Maverick pilots on a doomed test flight at the beginning of Top Gun: Maverick is fictional, it is based on a real aircraft concept. The Chinese government thought the Mach 10-capable Darkstar was so realistic that they mistook it for a real military project. In a sense, they are correct, as these Top Gun planes are based on the conceptual Lockheed Martin SR-72. Compared to the mind-bending speeds that the Darkstar attains in Top Gun: Maverick, the SR-72 is proposed to be the first aircraft capable of flying at Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound).
Boeing F/A 18E/F Super Hornet
Besides Tom Cruise, the Boeing Super Hornets are the stars of Top Gun: Maverick. The Super Hornets are used by Maverick and his students for their mission to destroy the enemy’s underground uranium enrichment plant. Despite being newer hardware than the F-14s in Top Gun, the Super Hornets are slower, with a top speed of only 1915km/h. These Top Gun planes are not only seen in the final mission but also in the incredible training dogfights. Despite being a certified pilot, Cruise wasn’t allowed to fly an F-18 aircraft by the U.S. Navy. This makes sense, given the Super Hornet’s price tag of $70 million.
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
The F-35s are mentioned throughout Top Gun: Maverick as Maverick’s desired Top Gun planes for the mission. However, he is denied the use of them by his higher-ups. In real life, though, the F-35s planes were not used in Top Gun because they only seat a single pilot. Top Gun: Maverick‘s aerial sequences were filmed mainly practically and thus required two people to occupy the plane: the actor playing the pilot and the actual, trained pilot. However, the F-35s can be seen aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln before Maverick and the team depart for their mission.
Sukhoi Su-57 Felon
The Sukhoi Su-57 Felon plays the villainous part of the unidentified enemy’s highly advanced “fifth generation fighters” in Top Gun: Maverick. Although the enemy’s identity is never revealed in Top Gun: Maverick, the Su-57 is a Russian aircraft. Much is made of the Su-57’s impressive capabilities, especially compared to the Super Hornets. Maverick even warns his students not to dogfight with these Top Gun planes, as the Su-57s are more than capable of outflying the Super Hornets with a top speed of 2,130km/h. The actual danger of the Su-57s is displayed in Top Gun: Maverick‘s climax, when it avoided Maverick’s missile lock and outflanked the F-14.
P-51 Mustang
The P-51 Mustang that Maverick flies in Top Gun: Maverick is not only actually piloted by Tom Cruise, but he also owns it. The Mustang, called “Kiss Me Kate,” was named after Cruise’s then-wife Katie Holmes when he bought it in 2004. The Mustang was manufactured in 1946 before being restored by a previous owner in 1997. Not only did Cruise pilot the Mustang in the movie, but he also made a habit of flying to set in it. The use of real Top Gun planes in both movies shows their dedication to realism and the aircraft depicted in them.
Other Facts About The Top Gun Planes
The biggest lure of both the original Top Gun and the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick was the death-defying flying sequences in the Top Gun planes used in the movies. When it comes to what planes were used in Top Gun, the production of both movies made sure to use both real planes and those based on real planes to authenticate the experience. It also helped that Tom Cruise insists on doing as much as he can without doubles, and that included Cruise flying the P-51 Mustang in the movies, which is especially nice for the actor since he wasn’t allowed to fly certain planes in the first movie for security reasons.
It also wasn’t cheap to use real aircraft for the Top Gun planes. The U.S. Navy charged the Top Gun: Maverick production $11,000 an hour to use its F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets (via Bloomberg). That likely is part of the reason the budget hit $171 million. Luckily, the Navy worked hand-in-hand with the production to help get more realistic shots, as many of the take-offs and landings were from actual Naval training missions that the production team was invited to shoot on-site. In the end, it was a massive success, with the Top Gun sequel making $1.4 billion (via The Numbers) and an almost perfect 99% from fans on Rotten Tomatoes.