What aircraft appear in the movie Top Gun: Maverick?

¿Whaté aircraft can be seen during the new movieíbutt Top Gun: Maverick? Today we tell youáwhat they are and their main characterístatic.

Post written by: Capturesán Rodolfo Estrella
FAA Commercial Pilot
Twitter: @rodo_estrella

They breakó finally one of the moviesículas más expected from toñO, since I waited for heráwe went from the 2020, and has traíI do a lot of comments on its plot, realizationón, ficción and alsoén about the aircraft that we could see there.

maybe top gun: Maverick you didn't like it, being a very personal matter of taste, what we want to talk about today is about the different aircraft that we could see. Thoseí, if you didn't seeúin the skiníbutt, hereí hay spoilers, Eastá warned.

Aircraft seen Top Gun: Maverick

Let's get into the matter and hereí we give them a challengeíO, ¿you can list all the aircraft that you could identify? Writeíbelo to the side and thenés compáRalo with the list that comes immediately and let us know cóhow was it.

Boeing F-18E Super Hornet

Without a doubt the star of the movieíbutt. “Maverick” the main fighter-bomber of the aviation fliesóUS naval: The fourth generation multipurpose fighterón F-18 Super Hornet that begins its career as an F-18 Hornet entering active service in the United States armed forces as a replacement for the veteran “Fleet Defender” the Grumman F-14 Tomcat in 1996, but by the end of the century, the North American military hasíhas planned an extensive modificationón del Hornet original. To in.íethically not to generate controversy by creating a completely new project, if I decidedó keep the Hornet name. Even though the Super Hornet is an airplaneón totally different from the original, that's why the nameón “Super” hornet being a 20% más grande, más heavy, with 30% más fuel capacity and in-flight refueling capacity. Así as advanced radar equipment, electronic countermeasuresóunique and arms control úlast generationón.

Characterígeneral statics:

• Empty weightíO: 14.500 kg.
• Pesos mátakeoff time: 35.000 kg,
• Speed ​​máxima: Mach 1.6 (1.915 km/h)
• Service ceiling máximo: 50.000 pies.
• armament: a likeñóM61 Vulcan 20mm rotary nozzle. 11 external mounts for air-to-air missiles, area-area, cruise missiles, anti-radiation missilesón, anti-ship missiles, ac pumpsífree day and smart bombs. O 5 external fuel tanks for additional range.

Lockheed-Martin F-35C Lightning II

Entering service in 2006 In the United States armed forces the F-35 is a fifth generation fighterón “Stealth” whose orígenes go back to the JSF program or “Joint Strike Fighter” whose objective was to replace a series of fighter aircraft by combining their capabilities in one único avión for the use of the United States and its strategic alliesélogic and complement the operationón of the first fighterínea F-22 Raptor.

For this they were created 3 distinct variants originally serving the Marina branches, Force Aébad is Infantryíto Marina, with similar qualities and abilities, with the big difference that the F-35 that serves the InfanteríThe Navy has the capability of vertical takeoff and landing.

The F-35, although it does not play a major role in the filmíbutt, he can be seen in some excellent shots operating on aircraft carriers.

Characterígeneral statics:

• Empty weightíO: 13.290 kg.
• Pesos mátakeoff time: 32.000 kg-
• Speed ​​máxima: Mach 1.6 (1.976 km/h)
• Service ceiling máximo: 50.000 pies.
• armament: a likeñón 25mm rotary GAU-20., 4 supports in bahíthe internal weapons but 6 external supports for a total load of 18.000 lb. In weapons in combinations ranging from air to air missiles, air to surface missiles, anti-ship missiles, smart guided bombsáto be, gliding bombs and nuclear bombs táso far 1 break upón power.

SR-72 Darkstar

“Maverick” the movie startsíass like an airplane test pilotón experimental called Darkstar, although it is a product of fictionón, it's not exaggerated at all, United States by manyños has been developing high-performance experimental aircraft. In charge of the divisionón “Skunk Works” Lockheed Martin, Among myths and rumors, it is believed that experimental aircraft capable of hyperspeeds have been tested.óunique as shown in the movieíbutt, in fact, for the real ones “AvGeek” we can see the Skunk Works logo on one of the vertical stabilizers of the aircraftón.

Another interesting detail is that this aircraft uses two different types of propellants., two turbojets that are capable of carrying the ship from 0 at super speedsóone and two “Scramjets” that without having parts móvile need a flow supersóonly air to begin operating and take the Darkstar to the incrementíble Mach 10 (12.250 km/h). These engines of course, They are not part of the fictionóIf not, they have already been concepts tested in various aircraft prototypes such as NASA's X-43 in the study of hyperspeed flights..

Many of these projects alsoás of being extremely advanced are super secret and it is believed that many of them were or areán being tested at the Nevada Test and Training Range, popularly known as the mysterious Area-51.

Grumman F-14 Tomcat

The Tomcat, the grandfatherón that we all loved in the first movieíbutt, the one that led Maverick to glory shooting down MIGs and taking pictures of them inverted, returns with many pleasant surprises in the new movieíbutt.

The veteran F-14 that came outó of service in the United States armed forces in 2006, It was a product of what Force A learnedéUnited States area in the Vietnam War, where fighters like the F-4 Phantom were equipped only with missiles for distant combat, believing that the existence of the guided missile made it unnecessary to provide cañones or machine guns for the “dogfight” to fighter jets. Vietnam probó the opposite when they faced Soviet fighterséticos subsónicos, but with ca weaponsñheavy ones like the Mig-15 and Mig-17 así like the supersónicos Mig-19 y Mig-21. That's why in 1970 Grumman F-14 Tomcat heavy fighter-bomber arrives. Whose propóIts initial position was to be a embarked heavy fighter in charge of the defense of the surface fleet.. His characterística más outstanding was being the único poderos operatorísimo long-range Air-to-Air missile AIM-54 Phoenix.

With a designñor innovative with its striking geometric wingsívariable and technologyía toe for déeach, the subsidy is reintroducedón of cañones for him “dogfight” and train the pilots in that art of fighting lost since the second world war.

Although the Tomcat was withdrawn from service by USA, This has a curious story from when the Kingdom of Irán that in the déeach of the 70's´If he was an ally of the US, he receivedó some F-14s to face the Soviet threatética in charge of the Mig-25. Today Goán is considered a país hostile to US interests, but it is the úonly active operator thatún flies the F-14s very restrictedly since the United States does not sendíto spare parts and jealously guards its retired fighters in storage so that there is no smuggling of parts to Irán.

Characterígeneral statics:

• Empty weightíO: 19.800 kg.
• Pesos mátakeoff time: 33.700 kg-
• Speed ​​máxima: Mach 2.34 (2.485 km/h)
• Service ceiling máximo: 53.000 pies.
• armament: a likeñóM61 Vulcan 20mm rotary nozzle. 10 external mounts for air-to-air missiles, until 28 LAU rockets, t recognition systemsáactic in flight, and two external tanks 1000 liters each. Smart guided bombsáto be, cluster bombs and ac bombsífree day. Total combat load capacity: 14.520 lb.

Northrop-Grumman E-2 Hawkeye

Although for many in a minor role, it's interesting broón appears supporting the fighters in alert flightáindicating the presence of enemies in the area. The E-2 is a turbohémedium lice capable of carrying AWACS early warning radar equipment with an incrementíble ability to track up to 2000 objectives smoothedácarefully and control the interceptionón up 40 targets in flight, its striking disc-shaped radar antenna that carries “piggyback” and that turns to 3 revolutions per minute can cover a áarea up to 25 million kiloósquare meter. And it covers spaces up to the surface where on-board radars cannot “ver”.

The E-2 is considered as “the eyes of the fleet” and in missions it is usually the first aircraft to take off and the last to land to maintain continuous surveillance of everything around the fleet. Its importanceáethics is reflected in the filmícula alerting our héroes of enemy presence.

Characterígeneral statics:

• Empty weightíO: 40.200. lb.
• Pesos mátakeoff time: 57.500 lb.
• Speed ​​máxima: 350 knots (650 km/h)
• Service ceiling máximo: 34.700 pies.
• Equipment: APS-145 UHF High Power Doppler Radar

North American P-51D Mustang

Maverick seems to be the ownerñthe private of a marvelous “Cadillac of the Skies” a WWII North American P-51D Mustang and is seen working on it to keep it in excellent condition.

The P-51 has its orígenes in World War II when the English allies sought to add the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk to their forces, however productionón of the Curtiss was at mábegan delivering planes for all fronts of the United States, so it beganó to look for other manufacturers, finding the North American that convincedó its buyers to develop máok a new avión able to face the mámodern German fighters and bombers.

So that the britáonly ones will acceptíto the conditionón that the project was developed in úonly 120 díso it was an incredible challengeíble what he achievedó complete with éa North American country, encountering delays úOnly because the engines were not ready yetía.

speaking of engines, The Mustang has one of the aviation enginesón más all time fine, El Rolls-Royce Merlin.

The verseón P-51D that we see in the movieíWhat was its development?ás advanced, with his characteríStylish bubble-shaped cabin, powerful weaponry was on par or rather superior to its Axis enemies. The Mustang in its versionón D. It was very loved by the bomber squadrons that went out to bomb Germany since it was the úonly hunting that couldíto escort them through its unbeatable range of 2.755 kilómeters with external fuel tanks.

Browseó in many theaters of war and in later conflicts such as the Korean War he highlightedáattacking the ground.

A curious fact about the movieíwhat is that Mustang we see, real number plate N51EW belongs to the actor Tom Cruise.

Characterígeneral statics:

• Empty weightíO: 7603 lb.
• Pesos mátakeoff time: 12.000 lb
• Speed ​​máxima: 703 km/h.
• Service ceiling máximo: 42.000 pies.
• armament: 6 12.7mm Browning machine guns, 3 on each wing, capacity to load 2000 pounds of bombs or 10 rockets of 127 mm at wing supports.

Sukhoi SU-57 “Felon”

The máMaverick's feared adversary, the fighter-bomber they don't want to face and the Super Hornet doesn't stand a chance, This is the advanced fifth generation fighter-bomber.ón Sukhoi SU-57, the úlatest development and aviation's first entirely stealth fighterón Russian, his characterímain aesthetic is that of super maneuverability outside the limits.íaerodynamic mitesámica that demonstrates it in the filmíwhat when he performs the fameíafter the maneuver “Cobra” I returnedéndonos crazy fansáTicos and obviously our friend Maverick.

Además of their characteríaerodynamic staticsámicas, the “Felon” is also characterizedén by a fierce combat charge, capaz de enfrentar simultánely until 16 objectives súmultiples and trace back to 60 targets at ranges up to 400 kilómeters thanks to its powerful Byelka radar. Being able to engage in combat with a sinnúgroup of types of modern missiles that include hyper weaponsóunique as the Vympel R37 super long range missile.

Characterígeneral statics:

• Empty weightíO: 39.983 lb.
• Pesos mátakeoff time: 77.162 lb.
• Speed ​​máxima: Mach 2. (2.135 km/h). o Mach 1.3 (1400 km/h) in super cruise mode.
• Service ceiling máximo: 66.000 pies.
• armament: a coachñón Gryazev-Shipunov de 30mm. 6 supports in bahíinternal weapons and 6 external mounts for weaponry including air-to-air missiles, air to surface missiles, antibuque missiles, anti-radiation missilesón, hyper missilesónicos, smart or AC pumpsífree of 250, 500 And till 1000 lb.

Mil-Mi 24 “Hind”

One of the moments of más tensionón in the skiníWhat is it when Maverick goes head to head against “The Devil's Chariot”. The Dreaded HelicóMil-Mi heavy pterod 24 “Hind”.

Developed during the déeach of the 60, the military soviética sees the need for a “gunship” the artillery aircraft with ademáIt's a little oneñtroop carrying capacity, capable of assisting these troops with heavy weapons with the idea of ​​a great mobility of these. For this, is designedñó a helixóextremely powerful and robust ptero, with blades of héarmored lice and titanium armor for pilots

Despite being a “flying tank” MI-24 is ráI ask, was designedñI love to be aerodináphysically very efficient, With theífine lines and retractable landing gearáctil. One of his characterístics máWhat's interesting is that he has two little onesñas alas one áhe is anedro. What además to generate considerable supportóThey serve as an anchor for a sinnúgroup of weapons, which gives him an intimidating image that is undoubtedly conveyed in the film.íbutt.

further, ¿what to beía of a gunship without a powerful cañón?, MI-24 has a very attractive cañón rotary 4 tubes mounted on a turret mófrontal vile capable of aiming at múmultiple addresses.  m versionsáModern cameras can even be mounted on huge side pods cañones de 23mm.

Characterígeneral statics:

• Empty weightíO: 18.739 lb.
• Pesos mátakeoff time: 23.455 lb.
• Speed ​​máxima: 335 km/h.
• Ofámain rotor meter: 17.3m.
• Service ceiling máximo: 16.100 pies.
• armament: a coachñón rotary 4 12.7mm tubes. Yakushev-Borzov. Side mount a cañón of twin 30mm tubes. Possibility of autoca assemblyñdouble ones 20 mm. In turret mówill. Fixed anchors in passenger windows for port machine gunsátiles. External anchors for 3300 lb. Weaponry that may include AC bombsífree day, rockets, mine dispensers, a likeñadditional removable onesí as wellén anti-tank missiles.

¿You already saw the movieíbutt? Cuétell me in the commentsé I looked like youó…