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The behind-the-scenes story of shooting those crazy Top Gun: Maverick flying sequences

Tom Cruise insisted that his costars be filmed in actual flying jets.

Senior Writer

How do you convincingly shoot scenes in which actors look like they are flying in jets with extreme G-forces contorting their facial features as the planes perform extreme aeronautical maneuvers? You get the actors to do it for real. That, at least, was the conclusion of Tom Cruise when he began to think about how to shoot Top Gun: Maverick (out May 27), the action sequel in which his titular flying ace must prep a younger generation of pilots for a highly dangerous mission.

"It's the craziest idea," says Glen Powell , who plays one of the pilots Maverick trains in the film. "You kind of don't believe it. It was like: Okay, this is a really cool idea but it's never going to work."

Yet work it did, with Cruise, Powell, and other cast members believably looking in the film like they are really in the skies because they really were in the skies.

"It was a lot of work," admits Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski . "It was very tedious and difficult at times, but the footage speaks for itself."

When filmmaker Tony Scott directed the original 1986 Top Gun , he too had hopes of shooting actors in the air but was thwarted when cast members began throwing up whenever they were taken for a ride. "Though I was never really doing it, I learned the mechanics of operating the plane," Top Gun star Val Kilmer recalled in his 2020 memoir I'm Your Huckleberry . "We went up in the jets several times and... I have to report that I was the only one who didn't regurgitate, which, given the gut-wrenching drops and spins of those ferocious flights, was no mean feat."

In the years after Top Gun made him a global star, Cruise became a pilot himself thanks to Sydney Pollack, who directed him in 1993's The Firm and gave the actor flying lessons as a present. Cruise was determined to depict the aerial sequences in Top Gun: Maverick as realistically as possible, an ambition shared by Kosinski.

"I've always loved aviation, I was making model airplanes from a young kid and studied aerospace in school," says the director. "Every movie's a challenge, you know. I love that. If you don't have butterflies going into a project, it's probably not the right thing. I always want to look for something new to try and, yeah, this was a tough one but I had Jerry [Bruckheimer, the film's producer]. I had Tom, I had a great cast, and a story that we really believed in. So we gave it our best shot."

Cruise had played a military-school student in the 1981 film Taps and, together with costars Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, attended a training boot camp ahead of the shoot. Inspired by that experience, the actor decided to put his fellow cast members through a training regimen which would allow them to be filmed in flying jets looking like actual, non-vomiting pilots.

"That was Tom's expertise," says Kosinski about Cruise's insistence that the actors be properly prepared for the shoot. "He's a pilot, and he's done aerobatics, and he was in the first Top Gun . He knew that they wouldn't be able to get in the plane and hold their lunch down and be able to do these scenes, so he created a training program that they all went through."

The actors began the schedule flying in single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawks before moving on to the Extra 300, which is capable of more acrobatic maneuvers, finally graduating to L-39 Albatross single-engine high performance jets, which prepped them for the F/A-18s in which they would be filmed during the shoot.

"Tom used part of the budget of this movie in order to ensure that we were comfortable and able to emulate a real-life fighter pilot," says Powell. "There's no way without that regimen — a thing that he didn't have on the first movie — that we would be able to pull off these performances. There's full scenes up in the air and we would have been passed-out bodies just going for a ride."

Did Powell throw up over his plane? "Not on the plane," says the actor. "You've got bags obviously. I never missed a shot in the bag."

While the pilots were preparing to act like real pilots, Kosinski was figuring out how to shoot them doing so. "[That] took a lot of preparation," says the director. "We had to work for about 15 months with the navy to figure out how to get cameras in the cockpit. We ended up getting IMAX-quality cameras into the cockpit with the pilots and the actor."

During the shoot itself, Kosinski had the strange experience of "directing" actors who were many miles away during the actual filming.

"I'm there, with the actor, when they're getting in the jet, I'm setting the cameras up, making sure all the angles are exactly what we need," says the filmmaker. "But once that jet pulls out onto the runway, they're gone for the next hour or two. As soon as they land, we take the footage, we went into the debrief, we put it all in and watched it together. We give them notes on what didn't work, and we'd cheer when something was great, and then we'd give them notes and send them up again in the afternoon. It was a very unique way to direct, because it was a lot of prep and a lot of rehearsal. And it was very tedious — you're only getting a minute or two of good stuff every day. But it's the only way to get footage that looks like this."

The flight sequences in the finished film are certainly thrilling (EW's Leah Greenblatt praised Kosinski for "sending his jets swooping and spinning in impossible, equilibrium-rattling arcs"), aided by the fact that the cast's faces can be seen enjoying and enduring the aerial acrobatics.

"You just feel the peril for everyone in the movie in a different way," says Powell. "If you were using CGI, audiences are very smart, they can tell the difference. When you are whipping through canyons at 650 knots, you can't fake that, and you can't fake the Gs on actors faces."

So, if Top Gun: Maverick is a success, can Kosinski imagine overseeing more of such sequences in a sequel?

"It's all about the story for Tom," says the filmmaker. "If we can figure out a way to tell what Maverick's up to next, who knows?"

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Related content:

• The sky's the limit for Top Gun: Maverick hotshot Glenn Powell
• Why Top Gun: Maverick starts exactly the same way as the original film
• Review: Top Gun: Maverick is a high-flying sequel that gets it right

Related Articles

Is Tom Cruise a real pilot? All about his flying dream

• by Chege Karomo
•  – on May 26, 2022
•  in People

Tom Cruise returns for the second installment of  Top Gun , which promises to be an improvement on the first one. However, before the film’s premiere, Cruise teamed up with television host and actor James Corden to promote the movie. In 2018, Tom took James skydiving; in 2022, Tom strapped him into a plane piloted by the  Mission Impossible  star. 

“I’m gonna go up in a 75-year-old plane with someone who isn’t a pilot? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,”  Corden protested . 

If it were another actor, it’d be difficult to believe that they were a pilot. However, given Tom Cruise’s penchant for performing his own stunts, it’s pretty easy to fathom Cruise having a pilot’s license. 

Tom Cruise has held a pilot’s license since 1994

Tom Cruise qualified as a pilot in 1994, nearly three decades ago. Cruise reportedly owns several planes, including a luxury Gulfstream jet and his beloved P-51 Mustang, a WWII fighter that’ll appear in  Top Gun . 

“The P-51 Mustang you see in the movie is actually my plane, so I got to pilot in those sequences,” Cruise told  Hello magazine . “I also got to be in the jet fighter a lot more this time, which was thrilling. It was something I had been working up to.”

Cruise told the outlet that  Top Gun  allowed him to fulfill two dreams: flying and acting. “All I ever wanted to be was a pilot or an actor, so Top Gun was a huge moment in so many respects, including my passion for aviation,” Cruise said. “I got to actually fly in an F-14 jet which was a dream come true, and play a character I loved in Maverick.”

Tom told the PA News Service that he advocated for realism in the new  Top Gun , translating to as little computer trickery as possible. For Cruise, a man with a decades-old flying license, flying would be easy, but the rest of the cast needed intense training. 

For three months, the actors developed skills crafted by Cruise and learned how to film while inside the aircraft. However, few can match Tom Cruise, as Miles Teller admitted that he never got used to the feeling:

“We trained for this for a long time, Tom had us in a flight programme for several months before we ever started filming. But it was never something you really ever got, like, super comfortable with, at least for me. It was something that every time I went up, it really tested me and I felt like I wanted to puke pretty much every time.”

Cruise didn’t get to fly the F-18 Super Hornet in  Top Gun

Cruise may be an experienced pilot, but the military doesn’t hand the keys to one of their most prized assets to anyone with a flying license. 

The military hasn’t given a reason why it didn’t offer Cruise the F-18 Super Hornet, but we think money has a lot to do with it. The jet costs $70 million, nearly half of the film’s $152 budget. Few insurers would accept to insure potential damage of such an aircraft. 

Furthermore, despite having a pilot’s license, Cruise may not have the requisite skill to fly an F-18 safely – placing one in his hands would put lives at risk. The crew and cast filmed using real F-18 jets driven by trained Navy pilots. 

Read Next: Is The Darkstar a real plane? Its real-life inspirations explained

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Tom Cruise Created a Flight-Training Program for Top Gun: Maverick

Along with his deep ties to Scientology , Tom Cruise is also known for his commitment to real stunts. So it should come as no surprise he wanted the actors in Top Gun: Maverick to actually deliver their lines from the cockpits of moving F/A-18 planes. “I wasn’t ready to make a sequel until we had a special story worthy of a sequel and until technology evolved so we could delve deeper into the experience of a fighter pilot,” Cruise said in a promotional video for the movie.

Without proper preparation, however, g-forces exerted on the body by acceleration can result in illness or a dangerous loss of consciousness. To combat that, he personally designed a rigorous monthlong program that introduced his co-stars to different jets and instructors as they learned to fly and slowly built up their g-force tolerance. According to Men’s Health , the aspiring aviators eventually had to sustain up to eight g’s, or around 1,600 pounds of pressure. The cast — including Monica Barbaro, Glen Powell, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Miles Teller, and Lewis Pullman — filled out daily forms for Cruise to review until they were ready for real Navy pilots to take them up in F/A-18s equipped with six IMAX-quality cameras. (The Pentagon reportedly does not allow nonmilitary personnel to operate F/A-18s.) From puking to getting personalized feedback, here’s what Cruise’s co-stars have described going through during the Top Gun training made by “Maverick” himself.

Miles Teller (Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw)

“Nothing bonds a cast together more than collective suffering,” Teller said in the Cannes production notes for Top Gun: Maveric k. “I think, when you’re going through something and you know how tough it is yourself, and you look to the left of you and to the right of you and you see that person going through it, it kind of pushes you a little harder and further than you would normally go. It’s so unique for us that we will only be able to talk about this with each other for the rest of our lives.” Ahhh, trauma bonding.

Teller explained to Men’s Journal that all the elements of Cruise’s training, even breathing techniques, were utilized during the final sequences shot in the F/A-18s. “Every single day of the shoot we were really getting after it,” he said. “Up until the very last day people were fainting and puking.” In fact, Teller told London Live that he personally felt like vomiting every time he went in the air. “It’s funny,” he said, pausing to chuckle with the interviewer. After a moment, however, he added, “Wasn’t so funny for me.”

Monica Barbaro (Lt. Natasha “Phoenix” Trace)

In the Cannes production notes , Barbaro credited Cruise’s training program with preparing her not only to act in the planes but also turn cameras on and off, check makeup, fix props, and communicate with pilots. She explained to The Wrap that Cruise’s “perfect” training program also included minute-by-minute rehearsals with a pilot in a fake plane so that actors could plan when to say their lines. “It was pretty intense,” she said. “We got to watch Tom do it a few times. I was the first person of us pilots to do it. I was the guinea pig.” And while the cast had to go through all the rigorous flight training before even stepping on set, per the New York Daily News , Barbaro made it clear that the work continued during the ten-month shoot. “If we ever had a day off from filming, we would be sent over to the airport to go fly … to keep sustaining Gs,” she said. “It would’ve been a huge disservice to get out of shape.”

Lewis Pullman (Lt. Robert “Bob” Floyd)

Pullman didn’t mince words when it came to describing the experience of g-forces. “It felt like you had an elephant sit on top of you,” he told the Daily News . “You’re trying to keep all the blood to your brain so you don’t pass out, and you’re trying to remember your lines and you’re trying to look cool doing it.” Or as he later put it to The Ringer , “It’s sort of like your spine is sliding back into the chair and a rhinoceros just popped a squat on your lap.”

Pullman said that Cruise’s training regimen condensed two years of flight training into three months, covering everything Cruise wished he’d been taught on the original Top Gun. According to Pullman, one of the planes used during training actually allowed the cast to pull more g’s than needed for the final shoot. “So if we could master that without a G-suit, once we got up in the F-18s, it would be like we had been running with weights on,” he explained.

He was also impressed by the tailored feedback that came with the program. Initially, Pullman said, the cast thought that no one was reading the evaluation forms they were asked to fill out every day. “But whenever we saw Tom, he would come up to us and say, ‘Hey man, I saw that on your last flight you had a little trouble pulling zero Gs. Here’s what I do,’” Pullman recalled. “It was like, ‘Holy smokes, Tom Cruise is taking the time out of his jam-packed day to give me personal tips.’”

Danny Ramirez (Lt. Mickey “Fanboy” Garcia)

In an interview with Men’s Health , Ramirez called the intensive training program “the Tom Cruise School of Being a Badass.” He added that logging more than 40 hours of flight time “pulling mad Gs” taught him “the art of puking and rallying.” Before he shot Top Gun: Maverick , Ramirez apparently had never known how to recover after vomiting. “So in a confined space, and to be able to push through it, I was very proud of it,” he told The Ringer. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to be cut out of this movie.’” He also shared his admiration for his co-stars who were going through the same training, noting that Barbaro “for sure never puked,” despite pulling the most g’s on the EA-300. “But Lewis [Pullman] has the most grit of anyone I’ve ever met,” Ramirez recalled. “He was going to puke and instead said, ‘Not today,’ and swallowed it all back down.”

Jay Ellis (Lt. Reuben “Payback” Fitch)

“Flying commercial is boring now,” Ellis said when TMZ stopped him, appropriately, outside of LAX. He told the A.V. Club that Cruise’s commitment to reading everyone’s daily questionnaires was humbling. The cast submitted responses on a computer that were then sent to Cruise. “The next day you would get an email from Tom,” Ellis recalled. “And he would say, ‘Hey, I read your questions last night. Going to add a few more days to your flight training. Does next week work for you?’” But Ellis’s training takeaways weren’t limited to aviation. According to Ellis’s interview with Men’s Health , Cruise taught him to keep viewers engaged by being conscious of camera movements, which he later brought to his roles on Mrs. America and season four of Insecure . The skill seems like it’d be useful on any set, but especially so on Top Gun: Maverick, given that director Joseph Kosinski estimated that every 60 to 70 minutes of acting in the sky translated to a mere minute of usable footage.

Greg Tarzan Davis (Lt. Javy “Coyote” Machado)

Davis told The Ringer that he lied during his audition for Top Gun: Maverick and said that he was not afraid of heights. As you might expect, that meant he had some fears to face when it came to flight training. But according to the cast, the training was set up to explain the mechanics and physics of what would happen on the plane before they took flight. “Tom makes sure you feel comfortable with it, then he lets the instructors do what they need to do,” Davis said.

Still, he faced his own physical challenges while in the air taking g’s. In addition to g-forces distorting his face so much that it looked like the life in his body “drained out,” he struggled with motion sickness. Due to the camera setup, he could not look at the horizon to settle his stomach. “You have to look inside the cockpit — that makes you even sicker,” he said. Like his fellow onscreen pilots, Davis also praised Cruise for actively responding to the training questionnaires in hopes of improving the learning experience. “He’s like the greatest Yelp reviewer ever,” Davis said.

Glenn Powell (Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin)

At CinemaCon , Powell explained that Cruise put together the training program so that his co-stars wouldn’t be puking or passing out in government assets. “Half the shots in this movie, I’m literally holding a bag of my puke,” he admitted, noting that pulling g’s was incredibly painful. “Every time we went up there you have to mentally brace for a fight,” he said. “You get on the ground and you’re exhausted. That’s what’s impressive about Tom. He’s flying more than anyone in the movie — he would fly three times a day.” Powell told The Ringer that breathing in the face masks for pilots required pushing out and sucking in air nearly to the point of hyperventilation. Cast members also had to learn to do a flexing maneuver to keep blood from rushing away from the brain and to the legs. But whenever the said maneuver was executed incorrectly? “You can see the tunnel start to close in and you’re like, ‘Oh no,’” Powell said. “You just try to keep pushing blood back in your head so you don’t black out.”

Still, with Cruise in the lead, the training program was inspiring to his younger co-stars. According to Powell, the seasoned actor gave “all the young guns” on the film an iPad with Ground School, which would allow them to study to become pilots in real life. “I started flying on my own, and Tom was with me every step of the way,” Powell said. “After I got my private pilot’s license, there was a note waiting for me on the ground from Tom that said, ‘Welcome to the Skies.’”

• top gun: maverick
• on the record
• monica barbaro
• glen powell
• greg tarzan davis
• danny ramirez
• miles teller
• lewis pullman

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Winning the Skies Without Losing Your Lunch: Filming ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

The makers of the “Top Gun” sequel discuss the challenges of filming practical aerial stunts.

• Share full article

By Amy Nicholson

Before Tom Cruise signed on to star in the original “Top Gun,” he asked to take a test flight in a jet. Cruise wasn’t yet world famous, so when he arrived at the hangar, his long hair still in a ponytail left over from “Legend,” the pilots, according to one of the film’s producers, Jerry Bruckheimer, decided to give this Hollywood hippie the ride of his life. Zipping at 6.5 G’s — more than twice the G-forces some astronauts endure during rocket launches — Cruise felt the blood drain from his head. He vomited in his fighter-pilot mask.

He agreed to make the film.

Cruise continued to fly so fast, and so frequently, that he learned to squeeze his thighs and abs to stay conscious. His stomach adjusted to the speed. When the director Tony Scott put a camera in the cockpit, Cruise could smile for his close-ups. His castmates weren’t as prepared.

“They all threw up and their eyes rolled back in their heads,” Bruckheimer said in a phone interview. The original footage “was just a mess,” he admitted. “We couldn’t use any of it.”

“Top Gun” made Cruise a superstar — and the experience of shooting it stuck with him so much, he was convinced he needed to lead a three-month flight course for the cast of “Top Gun: Maverick,” a sequel, now in theaters, that has had 35 years to build up suspense. In the new movie, Cruise’s Capt. Pete Mitchell (known as Maverick) readies a dozen young pilots for a dangerous mission to destroy an underground uranium plant in an enemy land. Behind the scenes, Cruise did roughly the same thing, gradually raising the actors’ aerial tolerance, and confidence, from small prop planes to F-18 fighter jets. “He’s got every kind of pilot’s license that you could possibly imagine — helicopters, jets, whatever,” Bruckheimer said.

In essence, “Top Gun: Maverick” is a 450 mile-an-hour flying-heist caper. The mission leaders devise a difficult set of challenges for the pilots: zoom low and quick, vault a steep mountain, spin upside-down, plummet into a basin and survive a near-vertical climb at 9 G’s while dodging missiles.

Cruise, a contender for the most daredevil actor since Buster Keaton, was adamant that every stunt be accomplished with practical effects. Each jet had a U.S. Navy pilot at the controls, while its actor spun like a leaf in a windstorm. The deserts and snow-capped peaks in the background are real, and so are many of the performers’ grimaces, squints, gasps and moans.

“You can’t fake the forces that are put on your body during combat,” the director Joseph Kosinski said by phone. “You can’t do it on a sound stage, you can’t do it on a blue screen. You can’t do it with visual effects.”

From the safety of theater seats, the audience faces its own challenge: unlearning the computer-generated complacency that’s turned modern blockbusters into bedazzled bores. The imagery of the sky and ground spiraling behind the actors’ heads in “Top Gun: Maverick” looks like it must be digital wizardry. It isn’t.

The movie’s aerial coordinator, Kevin LaRosa II, and its aerial unit director of photography, Michael FitzMaurice, filmed from above using three aircraft: two types of jets with exterior cameras mounted on wind-resistant gimbals, and a helicopter, which proved best at capturing the speed of actors whizzing by. One specialized jet could film the same scene using two different lens focal lengths to double the footage captured on a single flight. Once LaRosa heard that the long-anticipated sequel was finally going to become a reality, he also developed his own aircraft, a shiny black plane with cameras that can withstand up to 3 G’s.

“That had never been done before,” LaRosa said in a video interview. As he flew next to the cast, LaRosa dodged trees while keeping an eye on the monitors to make sure FitzMaurice, controlling the cameras from the back of the plane, had gotten the shot.

Kosinski, the director, also spent 15 months working with the Navy to develop and install six cameras in each F-18 cockpit, which meant passing rigorous safety tests and securing the military’s all-clear to remove its own equipment. Luckily, Kosinski said, there were “Top Gun” fans among the commanding officers. “All the admirals that are in charge right now were 21 in 1986, or around there when they signed up,” he said. “They supported us and let us do all this crazy stuff.”

Usually, the Navy forbids pilots from flying below 200 feet during training. One of the film’s most staggering images is of Cruise in an F-18 whooshing just 50 feet above the ground, a height roughly equal to its wingspan. The plane flew so close to the earth that it kicked up dust and made the ground cameras shake. The pilot landed, turned to Cruise, and told the superstar that he’d never do that again.

The actor Monica Barbaro didn’t know how nervous she should be when she agreed to play the pilot Natasha Trace (nickname: Phoenix).

“When I met Joe in my callback, first thing he had me sign a waiver saying that I didn’t have a fear of flying,” Barbaro said by phone. “I just got goose bumps. I was so excited.”

Each flight day kicked off with a two-hour briefing for the pilots and film crew to go over every upcoming shot, movement and line of dialogue. Next, that sequence’s actors and pilots would rehearse the maneuvers in a wooden mock-up of the jet cockpit until the motions were ingrained. Then, they took to the sky to film as many takes as possible before the jet, or the performers, ran out of fuel. In the afternoon, they did it again.

Soaring above the crew, Barbaro and the rest of the cast took on a Swiss Army knife of skills. Instead of hitting her mark on the ground, she had to hit it in the air. The sun was her spotlight. A pilot’s kneeboard on her lap displayed her script, her movements and her necessary coordinates, plus reminders to check her parachute and shoulder straps, fix her hair and makeup, adjust her flight visor, flip on the bright red switch that controlled the cameras, and note down the time codes. Finally, Barbaro had to do her actual job: act.

“Tom just really encouraged everybody, if you are going to throw up, just learn how to do it and move past,” Barbaro said. “We would applaud when anyone threw up, so it became celebrated.” Glen Powell (he plays the hot shot Lt. Jake Seresin, who is called Hangman) even brandished his barf bag while gliding upside-down and flashing a thumbs up.

Barbaro held onto her lunch. But after her first dailies, she said, her face appeared so calm, it gave the impression that the clouds whooshing behind her were simply a green screen. Cruise’s training had prepared her too well.

She was sent back into the sky for a retake.

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‘Top Gun: Maverick’ director explains what it took to ace Tom Cruise’s awesome flight scenes

‘You just can’t fake what it’s like to be in one of these airplanes,’ says director Joseph Kosinski.

Anyone who fueled up on Top Gun: Maverick this summer knows the chart-shattering sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 classic features some of the most realistic and hair-raising aerial acrobatics ever committed to film. What you may not know, though, is how Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski collaborated with a team of ace real-life pilots to capture the movie’s authentic aerial combat sequences.

There’s no CGI along for the ride as Cruise and his crack team of present-day daredevils take what seems like an impossible fight to the movie’s unnamed bad guys. That’s because the onscreen action was captured exactly as it actually happened — a feat that required tons of practical expertise from the U.S. military pros who fly the film’s cutting-edge Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (as well as legacy aircraft like Cruise’s old-school Grumman F-14 Tomcat) — all as part of a day’s work.

“I saw online that some Navy pilots were putting on YouTube these videos where they would film their training exercises by putting a little GoPro on the canopy next to them,” Kosinski told The New York Times of his initial research into how Maverick would set up its in-flight action. “And so there was this kind of off-kilter angle that was capturing their training flight, and when I saw that, I was like, this is more interesting than any aerial sequence I’ve seen in a movie in a long time. So, [I wanted to] get the choreography of dog fighting, and do it in a two-seat airplane so Tom can be in the back and the [actual] Top Gun pilot can be in the front and [a real] Top Gun pilot is in the same thing that Tom’s wearing.”

Though Cruise is famous for performing his own stunts , there are some things that just have to be handled by the experts — and that includes piloting an extraordinarily expensive aircraft paid for by the U.S. Department of Defense. Kosinski said Cruise challenged all of the film’s flying cast to get themselves into “the same aviation shape that he was,” easing the illusion that the helmeted pilots actually at the helm were Cruise and the rest of the cast.

“…I can shoot Tom with these cameras, and it’ll look like Tom’s flying it,” Kosinski explained. “That was the inspiration. Then we went to Top Gun [the real-life, Nevada-based Navy Fighter Weapons School ], and we worked with the best pilots in the world flying these sequences for us.”

Committing so much effort to nailing the real look and feel of a dogfighter’s view from the cockpit, confessed Kosinski, “was a lot of work.” But, he said, there’s simply no CGI substitute for capturing the real thing. “You just can’t fake what it’s like to be in one of these airplanes,” he said. “You can’t fake the imagery of what it’s like to be going 600 miles an hour 30 feet above the ground through a canyon. I think, as an audience member, something in your brain tells you it’s real, and there is a visceral response, and so I’m glad we did it.”

The blockbuster sequel continues to swoop box office receipts , collecting a global $1.4 billion and $731 million domestic haul as the year’s highest-flying movie (as well as Cruise’ highest-grossing film ever). If you missed the movie’s initial flight in theaters, not to worry: Top Gun: Maverick has just come in for landing at on-demand streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime and Apple TV+.

Looking for some action and adventure? Peacock has a slew of titles to get your heart rate up, including The Fast and the Furious, Ambulance, and Flashpoint. 

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How the ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Cast Trained to Fly Fighter Jets

By Jazz Tangcay

Jazz Tangcay

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Audiences coming out of “ Top Gun: Maverick ” this weekend want to know one thing, are the actors really flying those fighter jets? The answer in short is, yes.

Tom Cruise , who returns as “Maverick,” is renowned for doing his own stunt work, and he wanted his stars Miles Teller, Monica Barbaro and Glen Powell to learn how to fly. That’s where the film’s aerial coordinator, Kevin LaRosa Jr. , stepped in.

LaRosa Jr. worked with Cruise to put together an intense flight program that began with the cast flying in a smaller aircraft. “We started with the Cessna 172 and we took them through basic flying. This allowed them to see what it was like to take off, land and know where to look and put their hands,” LaRosa. Jr. explains. That starter plane also allowed the actors to get a feel of what a small g-force felt like.

And just like in a real training program, once the actors were comfortable with that, they graduated to the next level and it was onto the aerobatic airplane, the Extra 300. “This was similar to what the general public would see at an airshow where those planes do crazy maneuvers. It can pull up to eight g forces. It’s exhilarating,” says LaRosa Jr.

Again, the exercise would build up their G-tolerance. “That to me is almost like muscle memory. If I don’t fly for a long time, I might go up and get sick. But if I fly every day and pull those Gs, it’s almost like brain muscle and you’re going to get used to it, and get better.” He adds, “We built them up to the point where they were mainly not getting sick.”

Next was the L-39 Albatross. “This allowed them to experience a fighter trainer jet. When they graduated from that, we had aviators.” LaRosa Jr. adds some cast members are working on getting their full license. Glen Powell, who plays Hangman, did get his.

By the time the actors were put into F/A-18, LaRosa Jr. says, “They were confident and they felt good. They were used to those G-forces, and then they could focus on working with Joseph and Tom on telling this amazing story.” He continues, “They didn’t have to worry that they were in this high-performance fighter jet flying through canyons.”

As someone who has dedicated his life being an aerial coordinator, flying and teaching, LaRosa Jr. praises the talent of the cast. Barbaro, he says was the most impressive. “She absolutely killed it, and did a good job of adjusting to the physiological effects of everything.”

Equally as impressive was Powell, who got sick while filming the F/A-18 scenes. Says LaRosa Jr., “He would go and take care of his business and then get right back in the game. of the most impressive things was watching how some of the cast were able to process that and recover themselves.”

The training program set the actors up, so when they were ready to fly and film, Cruise’s determination of wanting the best performances possible were delivered.

For the mission training program that the pilots go on, LaRosa Jr. says the jet-to-jet photography allows audiences to go live with the fighter jets while IMAX cameras were mounted to the inside and outside of the F/A-18. “As the audience, it feels like we’re riding in there with them.” LaRosa Jr. adds, “When you mix all of those things together, you end up with the perfect mix of aerial storytelling.  It is a perfect blend of living with our actors who are absolutely in those aircraft, maneuvering and pulling G’s and also letting the audience see where we are to get spatial orientation and to see these aircraft maneuvering down low and in and around the training range.”

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Inside the Flight Training Program Tom Cruise Personally Designed for the Stars of Top Gun: Maverick

Welcome to what his costars call the "Tom Cruise School of Being a Badass.” Hope you brought a barf bag.

That's why Cruise personally developed a rigorous months-long flight training program, which Danny Ramirez dubbed “the Tom Cruise School of Being a Badass” for the cast of Top Gun: Maverick . He wanted to ensure that he and his costars would be able to actually fly their own F-18 jets through the sky to capture the movie's—what's the word?— intense flying sequences. So those scenes where the aviators all look like they're being pummeled to the edge of unconsciousness by G-forces? That's because they are. The movie's crew dabbed the actors' make-up, ensured they knew where the cameras over their cockpits were placed—and then they let 'em fly.

So Men's Health asked Paramount Pictures to give us a crash course in what the movie's cast had to endure for the most intense pre-production film prep ever. Here's what they provided:

The Overview

Top Gun: Maverick’s new aviators had to complete a comprehensive and demanding five-month flight training program devised, coordinated and overseen by Cruise himself, receiving approximately 34 to 36 hours of cumulative flight training each, and personalized nightly feedback from him on their progress. As per his instruction, Cruise’s students worked their way up from Cessna 172 Skyhawks, to Extra 300s, to the L-39 Albatross, to – finally – the F/A-18 Super Hornets.

The Syllabus

The ASTC (Aviation Survival Training Curriculum) that Tom Cruise and all the new aviators on Top Gun: Maverick had to complete to qualify for the extensive flying sequences included classrooms on topics including: Acceleration/G-Forces, Altitude Physiology, Reduced Oxygen Breathing Device Training, Aeromedical Aspects of Ejection, and Aviation Life Support Systems, before proceeding to Ejection Seat Trainer and Virtual Parachute Descent/ Parachute Landing Fall/ Lateral Drift Training.

Water Training

The course then moved to an outdoor pool, for more physically demanding training, such as survival stroke, survival gear inflation and underwater problem-solving. Methods included being rotated underwater in an ejection seat and being dragged across the pool attached to a parachute, from which students had to disentangle themselves.

Enduring G-Forces

When shooting the flying sequences, the actors often had to sustain up to eight Gs (potentially up to around 1,600 pounds of pressure on the body) and had to wear G-suits designed to prevent blackouts and G-LOC (a G-induced loss of consciousness).

Five real Navy bases were used as shooting locations in Top Gun: Maverick : Naval Air Station North in San Diego, Naval Air Station Lemoore in the Mojave Desert, the highly secretive Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California’s Central Coast, Naval Air Station Fallon (the current home of the TOPGUN program, although North Island is depicted as ‘Fightertown USA’ in the film) in Nevada, and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington State.

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Can Tom Cruise fly fighter jets? When he got his pilot’s licence and how much of Top Gun he’s flying for real

Tom cruise is famous for his commitment to realism, and frequently performs his own stunts.

The much anticipated Top Gun: Maverick i s about to hit the big screen, and critics are already raving about the quality of the flight scenes.

Tom Cruise is famous for his commitment to realism, frequently performs his own stunts, and even broke his ankle while filming Mission Impossible in London in 2018.

But does the daredevil do his own flying? Here’s everything you need to know.

What can we expect from the new Top Gun ?

Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is back and is still feeling the need for speed. His bosses have him in their line of fire, but he remains the best navy test pilot around and commands respect from his flying colleagues.

There is a seemingly impossible mission to blow up an Iranian uranium enrichment plant and Maverick is dispatched to train up an elite team of graduates for the task.

Expect some breathtaking aerobatic displays which, judging by the critics and not entirely surprisingly, outstrip those of the original.

Geoffrey Macnab, writing in i , said “the aerial photography is every bit as spectacular as you would expect”.

The sequel, he adds, “defies cynicism and confirms Tom Cruise’s status as Hollywood’s ‘mission leader’ when it comes to blockbusters ”.

Deadline Hollywood praised the film saying it “tops the original in every way imaginable” adding it is “an example of Hollywood filmmaking at its zenith”.

The original Top Gun was released on 16 May, 1986 and went on to become one of the most famous films of the 80s.

In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, deeming it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Is the flying real?

Cruise is well known for doing his own stunts, and he has built that reputation through decades of action films such as the Mission Impossible and Jack Reacher movies.

“People had asked for a sequel for decades,” Cruise told the PA News service. “And the thing I said to the studio from the beginning was: ‘If I’m ever going to entertain this, we’re shooting everything practically. I’m in that F/A-18, period.”

The cast of Maverick underwent serious training in how to cope in the air, meaning the footage you see is in fact real, not CGI.

The course was developed by Cruise, lated three months, and included tuition in underwater evacuation, aerial aviation and flight itself.

They were also prepared for the dynamic pressures of G-force.

They started in single-engined planes, moved on to a Czech-designed jet trainer called the Aero L-39 Albatros, and then the F-18 Super Hornet.

Miles Teller, who plays ‘Rooster’ the son of ‘Goose’ from the original film, explained: “We trained for this for a long time, Tom had us in a flight programme for several months before we ever started filming.

“But it was never something you really ever got, like, super comfortable with, at least for me. It was something that every time I went up, it really tested me and I felt like I wanted to puke pretty much every time.”

The team also learned to operate cameras and about cinematography as they were essentially filming themselves up there.

But were they actually in control of the aircraft?

Despite this training the Navy did insist on having trained officers at the controls of the F-18 Super Hornet, which is worth £56m.

Glen Roberts, the chief of the Pentagon’s entertainment media office, said a regulation bars non-military personnel from controlling a Defence Department asset other than small arms in training scenarios.

Instead, the actors rode behind F/A-18 pilots, and external shots are of trained Navy pilots.

Cruise, who has been a licensed pilot since 1994, did fly a P-51 propeller-driven fighter plane and a few helicopters for the movie.

The planes aircraft carriers and military bases are also real locations.

Who else stars in the Top Gun: Maverick ?

The cast includes:

• Tom Cruise as Captain Peter “Maverick” Mitchell, a test pilot
• Miles Teller as Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw
• Jennifer Connelly as Penelope “Penny” Benjamin
• Val Kilmer as Lieutenant Tom “Iceman” Kazansky
• Jon Hamm as Vice Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson
• Ed Harris Rear Admiral Chester “Hammer” Cain

It was directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and long-time Cruise collaborator, Christopher McQuarrie.

Top Gun: Maverick is dedicated to the director of the original Top Gun , Tony Scott, who died in 2012.

Lady Gaga has co-written Hold My Hand , the lead song for the sequel’s soundtrack’s.

Those who remember the original Top Gun will recall its big hit song was Berlin’s You Take My Breath Away . It won an Oscar for Best Original Song.

When is Top Gun: Maverick released?

It is set for release in UK cinemas on 27 May.

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So How Does One Teach Tom Cruise To Fly Top Gun: Maverick Fighter Planes, Anyway? How The Aerial Coordinator Did It

How did Tom Cruise learn how to fly fighter planes in Top Gun: Maverick?

To be able to get back behind the cockpit for Top Gun : Maverick must have been a real dream for Tom Cruise . He wanted to reprise his role of “Maverick” in the Top Gun sequel for the purpose of being able to fly those jets again. While it would have been too easy to make Tom Cruise be surrounded by a green screen, he’s actually skyrocketing into the air, with those aviation scenes being 100% real. Here is how Top Gun: Maverick ’s aerial coordinator was able to teach Cruise and the rest of the cast how to fly a fighter jet.

In the original Top Gun, Tom Cruise and the other actors were actually in the air on real fighter jets, but it was required for someone else to be piloting the plane. But that was over three decades ago and the cast actually learned to fly fighter jets for Top Gun: Maverick. According to KTLA 75 , the cast was put through an extensive training program to soar through the skies which were run by the film’s aerial coordinator and camera pilot, Kevin LaRosa. He said by the time the cast got into the aircraft, they were “seasoned pros” able to “deliver epic performances.”

Mission: Impossible ’s Tom Cruise can be seen flying in Top Gun: Maverick , but as a civilian, he could not fly the primary fighter jet of the film, the F-18 Hornet. He had to start on certain aircrafts like the entry-level airplane, a Cessna 172, to learn the basics. The next level airplane would be the Extra EA-300 used in air shows for aerobatic stunts. Every plane the cast flew was meant to build up their “G tolerance” in order to look like pros on camera. Afterwards, the cast moved up to maneuverable fighter jet L-39 to finally the F-18. So Tom Cruise was still not allowed to actually fly an F-18 for the movie, but LaRosa gave them the training to help him make it look like he can.

Once the actors were inside of the cockpits, the actors actually had to direct themselves and figure out the camera shots since a director obviously could not be up in the air with them. This meant the filmmakers had to wait until the actors landed to see which footage could be used, and sometimes do-overs were necessary. LaRosa had no problem striving for perfection in wanting the actors to keep going again and again until it was done right. If you’d like some proof if the Top Gun star still has it in him, you can see watch the epic video of Tom Cruise flying planes.

Kevin LaRosa clearly came up with an amazing training program for Top Gun: Maverick , as the aerial sequences were among the things singled out by the critics . Many commented that they loved the exterior airborne shots and being able to hear the realistic roaring of the engines. Various critics also commended the film for not going the CGI route and having the actors actually fly in the airborne cockpits. This proves one again that going the practical route is sometimes better than just using CGI.

You can see Tom Cruise and the rest of his fellow actors in the new movie release of Top Gun: Maverick , which is playing in theaters now. 

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Did Tom Cruise Learn to Fly for 'Top Gun'? Here's What You Need to Know About the Aviation Buff

Apr. 21 2020, Updated 11:26 a.m. ET

Everyone's talking about the Top Gun: Maverick trailer and Tom Cruise flying jets in the highly anticipated movie sequel. Many people have been wondering if that's really Tom in the pilot's seat and if he learned to fly for the movie. Here's what you need to know.

Did Tom Cruise learn to fly for 'Top Gun'? The star is actually a real pilot! 

Tom fell in love with aviation while filming the original Top Gun , which was released in 1986. He got his private pilot's license in 1994 and has been active in the flying community ever since. In an interview with Wired , 

Tom confirmed he's a multi-engine instrument rated commercial pilot. That means you could legally hire him to fly you across the country, but we're guessing Tom's schedule is pretty booked up these days.

So is that really him flying the plane in Top Gun: Maverick? 

Yes and no. Tom loves to do his own stunts, and he is fully capable of flying a private plane — but some of the fighter jets in the Top Gun sequel can only be piloted by aviators with military experience. 

In 2018, Paramount confirmed (via Fighter Jets World ) that while Tom does fly "certain aircraft" in Top Gun: Maverick , he will not be flying the F/A-18 fighter jets. That's what editing and CGI are for!

View this post on Instagram Maverick is back. #TopGun A post shared by Tom Cruise (@tomcruise) on Jul 18, 2019 at 12:58pm PDT

Top Gun: Maverick is "a love letter to aviation." 

When introducing the Top Gun: Maverick trailer at Comic Con, Tom told Conan O'Brien the movie was "a love letter to aviation."

"The aerial footage is really beautiful," he said of the film. "I'm a pilot myself, and I love flying, and I love aviation." Tom said his dream, since he was a little kid, "was to make movies and to fly airplanes." With Top Gun: Maverick, he gets to do both on an epic scale. 

This isn't Tom's first flying movie. 

He portrayed real-life TWA pilot turned drug smuggler Barry Seal in the 2017 film American Made, and in 2018's Mission Impossible — Fallout, Tom pulled off a death-defying stunt in a helicopter. He actually got his helicopter pilot's license so he'd be able to fly the real choppers in the film .

"We're always flying from one place to another because Tom's needed in so many places," Mission Impossible — Fallout' s stunt director Wade Eastwood told Thrillist ,. "I would always fly the choppers because I love helicopters and I'm a pilot. Tom is a great pilot, fixed-wing, and he got really into helicopters because they are just cool." 

View this post on Instagram Over 100 jumps - we got it. A post shared by Tom Cruise (@tomcruise) on Jun 12, 2018 at 11:38am PDT

Putting an A-list movie star like Tom into these intense, high-flying scenes is high-risk and high reward, though. As Eastwood explained, "With Tom Cruise, I've got to make it as safe and as powerful and spectacular, but also if he's slightly damaged, we can't shoot anything else."

It's a good thing they're careful, because the world needs more Tom Cruise action movies. 

The New Top Gun: Maverick trailer looks awesome.

Paramount just released the new trailer for Maverick that spills the beans on a few more plot points. The trailer opens up with someone narrating the exploits of Tom Cruise's character to a bunch of new recruits that he's training. In the lineup is Goose's son, played by Miles Teller, who's rocking a mustache, just like his dad did in the first film.

Among his lauded characteristics is the fact that he was "one of the finest pilots" that the Top Gun "program has ever produced" and that his work is "legendary". We also learn that Maverick's been asked back to lead the program, despite the fact that even he admits he didn't think he'd be asked back.

What's really cool is that the soundtrack also seems to play heavily on '80s nostalgia.

There's some awesome synth lines blaring over epic-looking shots, and we're treated to a scene of Maverick wrecking the other pilots in a "dog-fighting" two-on-one match. We also see a glimpse of Jon Hamm, looking very concerned, and tempers flaring between new recruits. We also know that a big death occurs in the movie, as we catch yet another shot of Maverick saluting someone at the funeral.

Does Goose's son suffer the same fate as his father in the new movie? We're also treated to what looks like an aerial battle shot in snow-capped mountains. Will the new movie follow the same plot format as the first film? With a bunch of recruits rising about shallow disputes in a high-stakes, competitive environment, only to take their battle skills to a real-life combat scenario?

We will see when Top Gear: Maverick hits theaters on June 26th, 2020. Are you excited to see Tom Cruise back in action?

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Screen Rant

Top gun 2: why tom cruise wasn't allowed to fly an f-18 fighter jet.

Although he pilots several different aircraft in Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise was denied clearance by the U.S. Navy to fly the F-18 jet.

• Tom Cruise insisted on prioritizing practical effects over CGI in Top Gun: Maverick , adding authenticity to the aerial action.
• Cruise originally wanted to fly a real Boeing F-18 fighter jet in the film, but the US Navy denied his request due to insurance concerns and the high cost of the plane.
• Cruise's dedication to doing his own stunts enhances the storytelling and creates a level of authenticity that can't be achieved in any other way.

Given the actor's reputation for wild stunts, it's not surprising that many viewers were wondering did Tom Cruise actually fly in T op Gun: Maverick . Joseph Kosinski's sequel has surpassed the original 1986 Top Gun with its box office success and a Best Picture nomination. Much of this has to do with how the movie prioritized practical effects over CGI, adding authenticity to the aerial action. That said, while it's no secret that Tom Cruise does his own stunts a lot, some of the tricks proposed for Top Gun: Maverick were a little too ambitious, even by Cruise's standards.

When it came to the long-awaited sequel, Cruise signed on for the project only with the assurance that the film's effects would not be reliant on CGI. Cruise was so ambitious, in fact, that he had initially hoped to fly a real Boeing F-18 fighter jet. A certified pilot, Top Gun: Maverick's Cruise is well-accustomed to high-octane aviation stunts . Many Cruise fans will already be aware that many of the more impressive helicopter stunts in 2018's Mission: Impossible - Fallout were performed by Cruise. However, Bruckheimer maintains that the US Navy ultimately denied Cruise's requests to fly the Super Hornet, which boasts a price tag in excess of $70 million.

How Fast Is Mach 10? What Speed Maverick Travels In Top Gun 2

Why it’s sensible that tom cruise wasn’t allowed to fly a fighter jet, the navy denied his application.

The Super Hornet jet does feature in the sequel, but Tom Cruise did not fly them in Top Gun: Maverick as those scenes were all completed with assistance from Navy pilots. According to producer Bruckheimer, Cruise does fly a P-51 propeller-driven fighter plane, as well as some helicopters. With the assistance of skilled editing, the action sequences are convincing to even the best-trained eye.

There's no confirmation about why the US Navy might have denied Cruise's aspirations to pilot a Super Hornet , even though the actor has experience flying Top Gun 's supersonic military aircraft . However, the most logical reason would be insurance concerns, which is always enough of a consideration to prevent actors from doing their own stunts.

The cost of the plane also figures into this – a real F-18 Super Hornet would make up roughly half of Top Gun: Maverick 's $152 million budget. That would be likely to create logistical nightmares for the insurance of the film. That's not even to mention insuring Cruise himself, who, though already a certified pilot, may not have the specific training required to fly the F-18 safely.

Insurance woes aside, should an inexperienced pilot such as Cruise lose control of a high-speed aircraft, it could also mean peril for civilians and/or military personnel on the ground. Besides, while Tom Cruise does his own stunts to great effect, the real Navy pilots in Top Gun: Maverick 's brought more than enough authenticity to the sequel.

Top Gun 2: All 6 Jet Fighter Planes That Appear In Maverick

Why does tom cruise like to do his own stunts, a passion for story telling is why tom cruise doesn't use stunt doubles much.

The real reason why Tom Cruise does his own stunts is simple: it's the best way to tell whatever story is at hand . In the actor's own words, “It has to do with storytelling… It allows us to put cameras in places that you’re not normally able to do.” Indeed, if the lead actor in an action movie is able to physically perform the character's stunts, this removes the necessity to shoot from strange angles or use editing tricks to make dangerous scenes appear real. This ultimately translates to smoother action sequences and scenes closer to the writer, stunt coordinator, and director's vision.

Moreover, whenever Cruise puts himself in danger for a risky stunt, everyone involved - from the film crew to the audience - is much more invested in the results, a level of authenticity that simply can't be achieved in any other way. Outside of the Top Gun series, this stunning effect can also be observed in the stunt-filled Mission Impossible franchise .

The F/A-18 Super Hornet Requires An Advanced Pilot

The aircraft in top gun: maverick are among the hardest to fly.

While Tom Cruise did really fly in Top Gun: Maverick with certain aircraft, confirming his exceptional pilot skills, the F/A-18 Super Hornets are not the kind of plane just anyone can jump into and take off . It requires specially trained pilots to operate these aircraft given their immense power and the danger involved. Some of the impressive specifics about the plane (via: Military.com ) include its maximum speed of 1,190 mph and the ability to climb 45,000 ft per minute. Such power is needed as the Super Hornets have a 30,500 lb weight while empty which can increase to 66,000 lbs with its maximum weapons load.

It seems as though Tom Cruise will do anything for his stunts , and that likely includes the necessary training to handle an aircraft like this. However, even if he was denied that opportunity, the Super Hornets didn't come at a discounted price. It was reported (via Bloomberg ) that the movie r ented the Super Hornets from the U.S. Navy for over $11,000 an hour . However, given that Top Gun: Maverick more than surpassed box office expectations, it seems as though it was a price worth paying.

How Much Of Top Gun 2 Is Real & How Much Is CGI

Tom cruise’s wildest stunt, top gun: maverick isn't his most dangerous filming experience.

By Tom Cruise's own reckoning, the wildest and most dangerous stunt he's ever performed is when he hung on to a moving plane in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , the fifth movie in the MI series. Not surprisingly, for Tom Cruise, flying a Super Hornet would qualify as a less dangerous stunt, as that would have at least required the actor to be inside the plane. Although Cruise was harnessed to the plane in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , no amount of safety precautions could account for all the inherent dangers involved with a person wearing virtually no protection while hanging onto a moving aircraft. This just goes to show the level of sheer dedication Cruise brings to his movie projects.

However, recently Cruise has suggested a new stunt in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 might be his wildest stunt yet, which involves Cruise jumping a motorcycle off of a cliff and then parachuting to safety. It is a stunt that took years of planning and training to get right and promises to be another spectacle from the dedicated actor. Clearly, even if Tom Cruise didn't really fly the F-18s in Top Gun: Maverick , he is not slowing down at all when it comes to his onscreen stunts.

Top Gun: Maverick

Tom Cruise was skeptical to star in 'Top Gun' until he flew with the US Navy's Blue Angels: They 'flipped him and did all kinds of stunts'

• Tom Cruise was mixed about doing his blockbuster 1986 film, "Top Gun."
• Producer Jerry Bruckheimer said it was him flying with the Navy's Blue Angels that finally sold him.
• "[He] said, 'Jerry. I'm making the movie. I love it,'" Bruckheimer said of Cruise.

When " Top Gun " came out in 1986, it thrust Tom Cruise into superstardom after the movie became one of the biggest hits of that year thanks to its thrilling realistic jet fighter sequences and the song "Danger Zone" from Kenny Loggins.

But the movie's producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, told Variety that it took some convincing to get Cruise to sign on and play the movie's star, US Navy pilot, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.

"It wasn't easy," Bruckheimer told the trade, which is celebrating the movie's 35th anniversary. "We wanted Tom after we saw 'Risky Business' and he kind of hemmed and hawed."

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Though Variety points out other actors like Matthew Modine, Nicolas Cage, Sean Penn, Matthew Broderick, and even Tom Hanks were being considered for the role, Bruckheimer clarified it was always Cruise they wanted to play Maverick.

So, to convince the rising star, Bruckheimer said they got bold and offered Cruise to fly with the famed US Navy flight stunt squadron, the Blue Angels .  

"He drove up there on his motorcycle and he had just finished a movie with Ridley Scott, 'Legend,' and his hair was long and in a ponytail," Bruckheimer recalled when Cruise showed up at the Naval Air Facility in El Centro, California.

"They took one look at him and thought, we're going to give this hippie a ride ," Bruckheimer continued. "They took him up on an F-14 and flipped him and did all kinds of stunts to turn him around [to] make sure he never got back in a cockpit. But it was just the opposite."

Bruckheimer said Cruise landed, walked right to a phone and called him.

"[He] said, 'Jerry. I'm making the movie. I love it,'" Bruckheimer said.

"Top Gun" would not just launch Cruise on the path to A-list stardom thanks to how good he looked in a bomber jacket, it began his thirst for thrill-seeking in his movies. 

Cruise has gone on to do the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, where he does many of his own stunts . And "Top Gun: Maverick," a long-awaited "Top Gun" sequel (which comes out in November), will feature Cruise flying a jet .

"He became an amazing aviator himself," Bruckheimer said. "He can fly just about any plane they can make."

Watch: How Tom Cruise pulled off 8 amazing stunts

• Main content

The Navy Stopped Tom Cruise from Flying an Actual Jet in Top Gun: Maverick

He pilots a p-51 propeller-driven fighter plane and various other aircraft in the sequel..

Tom Cruise was barred by the Navy from flying an actual F-18 Super Hornet jet in Top Gun: Maverick, even though he pilots several other aircraft in the sequel.

According to USA Today , Jerry Bruckheimer, who co-produced the original Top Gun, spoke to Empire Magazine about the long-awaited sequel. He hinted that fans can expect plenty of thrilling action sequences in the movie, as glimpsed in the trailers , with Cruise piloting a P-51 and various other helicopters and aircraft — bar Maverick's F-18 jet.

Apparently, Cruise put in a request to fly the Super Hornet but he was denied clearance by the Navy. Instead, IMAX cameras were installed inside the F-18 cockpits to shoot certain scenes while skilled Navy pilots took care of the actual flying, which Bruckheimer assures will give the experience of "what it's like to be in an F-18 in that cockpit with those pilots."

"When you're pulling heavy Gs, it compresses your spine, your skull. It makes some people delirious. Some people can't handle it," said Cruise, who, as a producer on the film, signed his co-stars up for intense training and aerial boot camp. "So I had to get them up to be able to sustain high Gs. Because they have to act in the plane. I can't have them sick the whole time."

Tron: Legacy and Oblivion's Joseph Kosinski directs the decades-later sequel, which sees Cruise reprising his role as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. Now a flight instructor, Maverick must head back into the danger zone and confront his past while training a new squad of graduates for a perilous mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice.

2021 Movies Preview

Top Gun: Maverick will finally arrive in cinemas on November 19. Val Kilmer will be returning as Tom "Iceman" Kazansky alongside franchise newcomers Ed Harris, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell, and Miles Teller in a lead role . Notably absent from the cast is Kelly McGillis who played Maverick's love interest, Charlie Blackwood, in the original film.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

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Tom Cruise surprises James Corden with fighter jet flight: 'You're an actor, not a pilot'

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James Corden lived the Top Gun: Maverick experience to the extreme when Tom Cruise visited The Late Late Show .

In 2018, Cruise took Corden skydiving ; this time, he flew him in a vintage fighter plane and a modern war jet.

"I'm gonna go up in a 75-year-old plane with someone who isn't a pilot? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Corden says before running in the opposite direction.

Cruise promises Corden that he's not just an actor, but a pilot too, to which Corden retorts, "With all due respect, you played a lawyer in A Few Good Men , I wouldn't want you to represent me in court."

Through Corden's quips asking for the plane's Wi-Fi password and holding up a sign that reads "Help me," he laughs through much of the fear, mixed in with some blood-curdling screams.

As Cruise smiles for the duration of flight, in his element, he plays with Corden, taking him along for a dogfight with a neighboring plane, flying right over mountains and dropping at a 90-degree angle.

"The fact that this is your idea of a fun day out just tells me how different we are as human beings," a winded Corden says.

When the pair gets out of the plane and heads back to camp, Cruise reveals that the day is not yet over. They prepare for a second flight the way any high-intensity fighter pilots do: a game of slow-motion volleyball and a "You've Lost That Lovin Feelin" serenade.

"You're the first half of the film Goose," Cruise reassures Corden, comparing him to the Anthony Edwards Top Gun character before his death in the second half of the film.

Terence Patrick/CBS

The new Hollywood power duo ends their night in a tent, where Corden confesses, "Tom, if you kill me tomorrow, I'll haunt you for the rest of your life." Cruise replies, "James, if I kill you tomorrow, I'll be dead too."

When Corden and Cruise board the next plane, a much cushier, newer vehicle, the host seems to feel more at ease. Upon Corden's request, the action star says, "We'll just fly straight, just relax, just take it easy for a little bit" while he shakes his head at the camera. But Cruise doesn't hold out, nearing the plane to trees and cliffs and pulling off 360-degree loops and spins.

Finally done with the adventure, Corden seems relieved to be returning to the comfort of his studio: "You can be my wingman anytime," Cruise says. "You know what? I think I'm good," Corden replies with a laugh.

Hopefully for Corden's sake, Cruise won't sign him up for any other wild antics in his eighth and final season.

Sign up for  Entertainment Weekly 's free daily newsletter  to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

James Corden leaving  The Late Late Show  in 2023

Tom Cruise revisits Goose's  Top Gun  death in Lady Gaga's 'Hold My Hand' music video

Why  Top Gun: Maverick  starts exactly the same way as the original film

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Tom Cruise Takes James Corden to the Danger Zone with Frightening Flight in 'Top Gun' Fighter Jet

Monday's Late Late Show with James Corden featured the host going on a pair of flights with Top Gun: Maverick star Tom Cruise

Dave Quinn is a Senior Editor for PEOPLE. He has been working at the brand since 2016, and is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book, Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of the Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It.

James Corden feels the need — the need for a speedy landing.

The Late Late Show host, 43, had an adventurous two days with Tom Cruise on Monday night's show, joining the Top Gun: Maverick actor for a terrifying trip in the air on a pair of fighter jets.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime getaway that Corden wasn't necessarily excited about. In a package of the high-flying experience, he played as an unwilling participant in Cruise's plan — admitting, "When Tom Cruise calls, you sort of have to say yes."

Cruise, for his part, was thrilled to be palling around with Corden again, as the 59-year-old actor previously jumped out of an airplane with Corden while promoting 2018's Mission: Impossible — Fallout .

"I'm very excited that James is doing this," Cruise said, before piloting Corden in both planes. "Was he the first late night show that I asked? Hell no. He was just the first one, the only one , to say yes."

To kick things off, Cruise took Corden for a ride in a 1944 fighter airplane, Corden quickly putting up a sign in the window that said "Help Me."

Things got serious when a dueling plane popped up to challenge them. "We're in a dog fight," Cruise said, as Corden screamed, "I don't give a s---."

For more on Tom Cruise and James Corden flying on fighter jets, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.

"You did good," Cruise assured Corden after they landed, the comedian teasing, "The fact that this is your idea of a fun day out tells me how different we are as human beings."

Just when Corden thought he'd survived, Cruise informed him the two would be going up again, this time in a jet fit for modern aerial warfare.

Amid Corden's "I don't want to do it" objections, Cruise told the host, "You are my Goose," a reference to his Top Gun character's best friend in the original 1986 movie.

"When you said I'm your Goose it makes me feel excited and then I realize that Goose dies in the film," Corden explained in response. "You're the first half of the film Goose," Cruise insisted. "That 'You've Lost that Loving Feeling' Goose."

"That's the Goose I want to be," Corden quipped. "I want to be in a bar, singing..."

From there, Cruise and Corden followed through with some additional Top Gun experiences (like a game of volleyball and a camping getaway) before heading up in their flight.

"You look like a fighter pilot, I look like a hamster," Corden said, as they suited up for the flight.

Corden loosened up for his second flight, even channeling his "Carpool Karaoke" segment by singing Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Old Time Rock and Roll" — two tunes famously featured in Cruise's movies.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE 's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

But when Cruise started stunting, even flipping the plane upside down, Corden got scared. "Oh my God," he screamed. "This is absolutely ludicrous. This is the craziest thing... this is the stupidest thing I have ever done."

"You absolute bastard," he told Cruise. "I've got an idea, why don't we fly straight for a bit?"

"Okay, we'll fly straight," Cruise said, before flipping them over again.

Back on the ground, Cruise praised Corden for how he handled it all. "You can be my wingman anytime," he said.

"You know what, I think I'm good," joked Corden.

Top Gun: Maverick opens in theaters on Friday. The long-awaited sequel sees Cruise making his triumphant return as Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, this time returning as an instructor for the elite fliers three decades after his graduation from the TOPGUN Naval aviation program.

Among his young charges is Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, the son of Goose ( Anthony Edwards in the first movie). Miles Teller , who plays Rooster, is among the actors cast as new class of pilots. Also joining are Glen Powell , Greg Tarzan Davis and Lewis Pullman .

Aside from the hands-on skills required for the film, Cruise still had more to share with his costars, when the training was over and the cameras turned off.

"There were times after we were wrapped for the day, we would spend an hour circled around him, listening to the stories that he's been through," Davis, 28, told PEOPLE in a new all- Top Gun special edition .

Added Pullman, 29, "Every one of the pilots has a story of him talking about what he thinks is great about them, what they can do with that quality. He teaches you, basically, how Tom Cruise became Tom Cruise ."

The Late Late Show with James Corden airs weeknights (12:30 p.m. ET) on CBS.

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Getting to Antarctica: The Pros and Cons of Flying vs Sailing

View of Ocean Adventurer from above. Photo: Judi Cohen

At one time, travelers could only reach Antarctica by ship from South America, and crossing the notoriously rough Drake Passage was considered a rite of passage for adventurous explorers. Although 90% of travellers to the Antarctic still arrive by ship, some cruise lines now offer the option of flying across the Drake, saving time, and reducing the risk of seasickness for those affected by rough seas. Choosing between an all cruise, fly/cruise or fly/fly expedition will be a personal decision. There is no right or wrong answer.

Helping your clients plan a trip to Antarctica and deciding between a fly/cruise, fly/fly, and an all-cruise option? Here a few things they should know, along with the pros and cons of each option.

All-cruise Most people who travel to Antarctica reach the Antarctic Peninsula on a cruise ship departing from South America. An all-cruise trip typically involves embarkation in Ushuaia (Argentina) with a two-day crossing of the Drake Passage between Ushuaia and the Antarctic Peninsula, and a two-day crossing on the return. Most Antarctica cruise itineraries are a minimum of 10 days.

While the Drake can have gentle swells of up to 10 feet, sometimes called the Drake Lake, it can experience waves of up to 40 feet, along with gale force winds, tossing ships from side to side like toys, and causing many people to experience seasickness for the entire crossing. When the Drake has these conditions, it's referred to as the Drake Shake.

All-cruise advantages

• Cruising along the Beagle Channel leaving Ushuaia, and during the Drake Passage, can offer a wildlife and birders' paradise with giant albatrosses and multiple seabirds, and often there are whale pods seen from the ship along the way.
• The two days at sea provide loads of time to attend lectures with the expedition team, subject matter experts, and scientists, ahead of arriving on the White Continent. Guests can also enjoy the time to decompress and disconnect from their normal lives since internet can be a challenge in the Drake.

All-cruise disadvantages

• On a 10-day itinerary, crossing the Drake takes up four of the precious days, leaving six days in the Antarctic to venture off the ship and onto the land.
• If you are prone to seasickness, four of the crossing days could be considered "lost time" as you stay in the cabin until the seasickness passes.
• For people looking for a shorter holiday, the extra days at sea equal more days off work.

Fly/cruise and fly/fly Fly/fly expeditions allow travelers to skip the two-day crossing of the Drake Passage, instead flying between Punta Arenas, Chile and King George Island in just two hours. A fly/fly Antarctic itinerary can be just eight or nine days.

For those wishing to cruise the Drake one way only and fly the other, some cruise lines offer a fly/cruise option. Such itineraries can be 10 to 13 days, or longer.

On arrival at King George Island a bus takes guests to the bay front where Zodiacs are used to transfer passengers to their ship. In the past it was necessary to walk from the aircraft to the bayfront, however, bussing is now more convenient. Once aboard their ship, the expedition leader will likely explain that it will be necessary to cruise across the Bransfield Strait overnight. Crossing from King George Island to the Antarctic Peninsula can be quite rough, and seasickness can occur. That said, the crossing takes only takes a night and by the next day, the waters are calm again. It is much easier and shorter than the two-day Drake crossing.

Fly/cruise and fly/fly advantages

• On an eight-day fly/fly itinerary, with the flight in each direction taking only two hours, passengers typically have five days on the ship to take Zodiac excursions and hike on land in the Antarctic Circle.
• Fly/fly options are ideal for those who are short on time but still want to experience Antarctica as fully as possible.
• Passengers do not have to stress about getting seasick over a two-day crossing of the Drake in each direction.
• The view from the plane offers breathtaking aerial views of the mountains, water, glaciers, and icebergs, and is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
• A fly/cruise itinerary provides the opportunity to experience the Drake Passage just in one direction and enjoy a short flight in the other direction. It’s the best of both worlds.

Fly/cruise and fly/fly disadvantages

• Weight restrictions on charter flights limit checked baggage to 15 kg and carry-on baggage to 5 kg. Packing light with only the essentials is critical. (One exception to this weight restriction is with Silversea Cruises, which offers business class flights between Punta Arenas and King George Island with a more generous weight limit of 23 kg for checked baggage and 8 kg for carry-on baggage.)
• Charter flights into and out of King George Island can be canceled and delayed due to prevailing weather conditions, potentially causing delays in departing from Punta Arenas to King George Island, cutting time short on the ship, or delaying clients' return home by hours or even days.
• Onward travel planning needs careful consideration due to possible delays. Clients should read the fine print in the cruise lines' materials and in their booking confirmations to be aware of contingency plans, delays, and cancellations due to weather.
• The cost for a fly/cruise or fly/fly itinerary is typically much higher than an all -cruise expedition, due to the use of charter flights and additional hotel nights in Chile.

Cruise lines offering fly/cruise and fly/fly options Several cruise lines offer Fly/Cruise and Fly/Fly options in addition to traditional all-cruise options during their 2024/25 Antarctic season. Note that some cruise lines show pricing for the cruise portion in Antarctica separate from the cost of the flight between Chile and King George Island. These include:

Quark Expeditions offer fly/fly itineraries between Punta Arenas and King George Island with trip durations between eight and 10 days. Pricing includes charter flights and a pre- and post-hotel stay in Punta Arenas.

Silversea offers fly/fly cruises, called Antarctic Bridge Cruises, using business class private jets from Punta Arenas.The line's cruises are of varying trip lengths onboard Silver Cloud and Silver Endeavour. Longer itineraries include crossing the Drake on the ship in one direction with stops in South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, with disembarkation in Puerto Williams.

Lindblad Expeditions is offering fly/cruise options starting in Nov. 2024, where clients cruise the Drake Passage aboard National Geographic Explorer and then fly from King George Island to Puerto Natales.

Antaractica21 offers four variations of its fly/cruise and fly/fly expeditions departing from Punta Arenas, Chile, onboard the Magellan Explorer and the Ocean Nova.

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The Operational Factors That Influence A Jetliner's Cruise Speed

• Aircraft cruise speeds vary based on optimization of fuel burn, range, and efficiency.
• Jet engine efficiency increases with altitude and speed due to factors like air density and thrust.
• The range of a jet aircraft depends on speed, drag, and fuel efficiency, impacted by factors like weight and wind.

Have you ever noticed varying cruise speeds during flight? Taking a quick look at the in-flight screen (on most long-haul aircraft), one can notice that the aircraft cruise speed typically varies between 480 mph and 550 mph (780 - 900 km/h) during flight. Why do aircraft not fly at the maximum cruise speed they are designed for? There are several factors that determine how the aircraft's cruise speed is set.

Most jetliners cruise in the range of 475 to 550 knots (800 - 900 km/hr). Pilots must think from the performance standpoint when configuring the aircraft for flight, and identifying the optimum cruise speed based on different parameters. Cruise speed determines how much fuel the aircraft will burn over the course of flight, how long the aircraft can stay airborne, and most importantly, how far (in distance) the aircraft can travel given all parameters.

This article takes a deep dive into how an aircraft's cruise speed is determined and what factors play a role in optimizing the cruise speed for specific flights, while reflecting on the information from Stratos Jets and the Defense Technical Information Center.

The efficiency of a jet engine

The engines are an important part of the aircraft as they generate the thrust that is required to push the aircraft forward. The efficiency of a jet engine is measured mainly by calculating the efficiency of the kinetic energy that is converted to propulsive work. This is called the propulsive efficiency of the engine. It can be written as below:

• Propulsive Efficiency = Wa / We
• Wa = Work done on moving the aircraft
• We = Work done by engines to accelerate the airflow

After derivation, the formula for propulsive efficiency can be written as:

• Propulsive Efficiency = 2V / V+Vj

In the equation, V is the speed of the aircraft, and Vj is the speed of the air coming out of the engines.

From the equation, it can be seen that as the speed of the aircraft (V) increases, the propulsive efficiency of the engine increases. This is because as the aircraft accelerates, less and less work is done on the airflow by the engine to get it out of the engine at a faster speed. Imagine a jet aircraft idling its engine during the taxi phase of the flight.

Even at a low forward speed (taxi speed), the engines continue to expel the air at a very high velocity. So, at a low aircraft speed, a lot of energy is wasted just keeping the engine running without seeing much of an effect on the aircraft. As the aircraft speeds up, it goes closer and closer to the exit velocity of the engine, and the aircraft uses its engines more efficiently.

Does Climate Change Impact Aircraft Engine Efficiency?

As the altitude increases, there is an increase in True Air Speed (TAS) of the aircraft. Because of this, there is a marked increase in the propulsive efficiency of the engine. One other factor also comes into effect. With altitude, the air density is lowered. This means that the compressor of the engine can rotate at a higher speed without reaching its mechanical limit. This allows for a higher compression of airflow inside the engines, which again improves efficiency. The colder air also helps because it keeps the turbines at a lower temperature so that the engine is kept from reaching its thermal limits.

The final effect is due to compressibility. As the aircraft speeds up above 0.2 Mach, the airflow starts to compress ahead of the engine. This highly compressed dense air gives a thrust boost, increasing the efficiency as the work that has to be done by the compressor is reduced. This is known as the ram effect.

So, it can be concluded that to make a jet engine efficient, low temperatures, high speed, and high altitude become very important. This is why jet aircraft cruise at very high altitudes.

What Factors Determine The Performance Of A Boeing 737 MAX When Cruising?

The thrust drag curve.

• Total drag = Parasite drag + Lift-induced drag
• Parasite drag increases with airspeed
• Lift-induced drag decreases with airspeed

There are two major sources of drag on an aircraft - the parasite drag and induced drag. Parasite drag is proportional to the square of the speed, and thus, as the speed increases, the parasite drag increases. The induced drag, on the other hand, is a byproduct of lift. It decreases with an increase in aircraft speed, as with an increase in speed, a smaller angle of attack is required to generate lift.

The induced drag and parasite drag can be shown in graphical form with drag on the y-axis and the aircraft speed on the x-axis. The drag can be renamed 'thrust required,' as the thrust required is the amount of excess thrust required to overcome the drag. The graph for thrust required and speed is shown below:

As can be seen in the graph, an increase in speed increases the total drag, and a decrease in speed decreases the total drag. A speed can be derived from the curve called Vmd (minimum drag speed). This speed is the speed that is found at the lowest point on the curve. Flying above or below this speed increases the total drag on the aircraft.

It is also important to understand the effects of certain conditions on the drag curve. For instance, an increase in weight increases the induced drag as the aircraft is required to be flown at a higher angle of attack. The increase in induced drag moves the total drag curve up and right, showing a marked increase in drag. This, in effect, increases the speed for Vmd. Similarly, an increase in parasite drag by lowering the flaps, and the landing gear moves the curve left and up. This increases the total drag, and the speed for Vmd reduces.

The range of a jet aircraft

The range is, very simply speaking, the fuel mileage of an aircraft. When we say range, we are talking about how far an aircraft can travel with a given amount of fuel. The range formula can be written as:

• Range = Distance (nautical miles) / Fuel (kg)

This formula is not very useful for deducing much about range. So, it can be written as:

• Range = Distance (nautical miles per hour) / Fuel Flow (kg per hour)

The distance per hour is equal to speed or the True Air Speed (TAS), and thus it can also be written as:

• Range = TAS / Fuel Flow .

This range is known as the Specific Range (SR). Hence, the equation becomes:

• Specific Range (SR) = TAS / Fuel Flow

The fuel flow can be further expanded as follows:

• Fuel Flow = Fuel Flow per Unit Thrust x Total Thrust Required.

Fuel flow per unit thrust is called Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC). So, it can be written as:

• Fuel Flow = SFC x Total Thrust Required

The total thrust required is also known as drag. So, for a jet aircraft, the specific range can be given as:

• Specific Range (SR) = TAS / (SFC x Drag)

From the final equation for SR, it is seen that an increase in speed increases the range. Similarly, a decrease in drag and SFC also increases the range.

The SFC reduces with an increase in altitude due to the increase in efficiency of jet engines, which was explained in detail previously. And the total drag also decreases with an increase in altitude due to reduced air density.

It was previously shown that to fly for minimum drag, an aircraft is required to fly at the speed that corresponds to the lowest drag. We found out that this speed occurs at the bottom of the total drag curve and is known as the minimum drag speed, Vmd. We are also quite aware that to increase the SR of an aircraft, the drag must be at a minimum.

When The Plane Is Flying Itself: What Tasks Must Pilots Fulfill During A Flight's Cruise?

Interestingly, the SR is also increased by increasing forward speed. So, does SR increase if we go above Vmd? Let us look at the total drag curve below.

The curve is quite flat at the bottom. And this means that the speed of the aircraft can be slightly increased with a small drag penalty. This increase in drag does negatively affect the SR. However, the increased speed counters for this, by increasing the SR. The most efficient speed for SR occurs at the tangent point of the drag curve at about 1.32 Vmd. So, for a jet aircraft, the speed for the best SR is 1.32 Vmd. This speed is more commonly known as the speed of Maximum Range Cruise or MRC.

Many factors can affect the MRC speed. An increase in weight increases the drag on the aircraft and moves the total drag curve up and right. This also increases the speed for MRC. So, to fly at MRC, a heavier aircraft requires a higher speed. A change in aircraft configuration (lowering of flaps and gear) moves the total drag curve up and left, increasing total drag and, at the same time, the speed for MRC reduces.

The wind also affects the SR. A tailwind has the effect of increasing the ground speed of the aircraft. This means that the aircraft covers more distance in a given amount of fuel flow. This increases the range of the aircraft. A headwind reduces the SR as it reduces the ground speed of the aircraft, which means that it travels less distance at a given amount of fuel flow.

The MRC speed is rarely flown operationally. Besides, the aircraft can be flown at a speed that is 4% more than MRC with just a 1% reduction in SR. This speed is called LRC (Long Range Cruise) speed. This is shown in the graph below. The graph shows that when SR is plotted against speed, the top of the graph is nearly flat where speed can be increased a bit without a great loss in SR. In airline operations, the speed during a cruise is a little more complex. It may be something between MRC and LRC or sometimes even higher than LRC. This will be discussed next.

The Cost Index and Operational Cruise Speed

It was explained in the previous paragraphs that for an aircraft to fly at the most efficient speed, the drag must be low and, at the same time, it was seen that an increase in speed increases the efficiency of the flight by reducing the time spent in the air. All of this concerned one single factor. It was all about reducing fuel flow.

What Do Pilots Do When Flying The Long Cruise Section?

When looking at the operations of an airline, fuel alone does not account for the money that is spent. Money is also spent on paying the pilots, cabin crew, and engineers. Airlines also bleed money when delays occur and when the aircraft is not utilized as much as routine maintenance for which it gets grounded.

These are all time-related costs. That is, these costs can be greatly reduced by reducing the time the aircraft spends in the air. So, we can come up with a relationship between fuel costs and time costs. This relationship can be written as an equation:

Cost Index (CI) = Cost of Time (CT)/Cost of Fuel (CF)

An increase in CT increases the CI and an increase in CF reduces the CI. If an airline wants to save fuel costs, it wants its aircraft to be flown at a low CI and if it wants to save time-related costs, it wants its aircraft to be flown at a high CI. These days, modern aircraft flight management systems can take in CI data and fly the aircraft at the optimum speed. The airline calculates the best CI for their operations based on their operational costs and gives it to their pilots. During pre-flight, the pilots enter this CI into the flight management system and the aircraft flies at the speed of this CI.

What are your thoughts on the determination of cruise speed of flights and various parameters that are considered when calculating the cruise performance of an aircraft? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

Eclipse expected to cause travel chaos; here’s how to navigate the roads and skies

(CNN) - Millions of Americans are expected to travel to see the total solar eclipse on April 8. Cities and towns along the route of totality are expecting big crowds.

While the boost in visitors is good for local economies, the extra people are expected to cause chaos on the roads and in the skies.

“You really need to plan ahead to be safe,” said Elizabeth Carey, director of public relations for AAA Western and Central New York.

Communities from Mexico to Canada are in the path of totality, meaning the moon will completely cover the sun, creating total darkness during daylight. Some areas like western New York are expecting a million visitors.

AAA has several tips for drivers like navigating the old-fashioned way with a map, especially if you’re traveling in less populated areas.

“In a very rural area, you’re talking about wilderness with no cell service,” Carey said.

AAA also recommends drivers not try and watch the eclipse while driving, have their headlights on, don’t wear eclipse glasses while driving, and watch out for animals.

“It could trigger wildlife to be out and about,” said Carey.

If you’re flying, the Federal Aviation Administration is warning travelers to expect long lines and possible delays at airports. Monday’s eclipse falls during the busy spring break travel season.

The FAA says they’re expecting more than 46,000 flights the day after the eclipse.

Copyright 2024 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.

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