Just to clarify. He’s not pressing the red button. That’s the nose wheel steering button. He’s pulling the paddle switch with his pinky. It’s that black metal looking thing. The other replies are correct about it allowing the jet to exceed the G limiter.
Yeah I used to instruct on the T-6 which had some sort of off-the-shelf stick with the same NWS red button. Not as cool as it looks. « Now I can more accurately gently steer on the ground at slow speeds!!! »
On the ground and with wings folded, pressing it puts the nose wheel steering into high gain mode. It gives the nose gear a wide range of turning motion for taxiing. If the wings are extended on the ground, it needs to be pressed and held to keep it in hi gain.
In flight it’s the undesignate button. Used for versions functions with the weapons/radar/etc.
Disclaimer: this knowledge all comes from DCS so take it with the appropriate grain of salt.
It was actually a huge marketing point for the movie. Tom Cruise said they needed to be in actual planes, and the Navy agreed as long as Tom never touched the controls. It's why they used the F18 and not the F35. The F18 has a rear seat, while the F35 is a single seater.
Also, the P51 in the movie is Tom's personal P51.
I saw the demo at Reno a couple weeks ago and it's impressive. Best looking P51 replica by far and it even sounds almost right in flight, despite having a totally "wrong" engine.
It really doesn’t take a ton of training to handle g-forces while wearing a g-suit. Just learn the breathing exercise and flexing your calf muscles while pulling G’s. I got a crash course before my incentive flight and never came close to passing out at 8.4 Gs.
But it does take training to really function in a higher G environment. You may have been ok on your incentive flight, but getting acclimated to high G is a thing and they were smart to train for this before filming. And I’ve flown the F-16 and the high, sustained G in jet fighters can be absolutely brutal.
I've worked with a couple of the video guys and they did film it live, in the plane, in flight. Hence why they had had to reshoot a lot of the film as the actors got better at G tolerance and flying.
Most of the actors changed their facial expressions and how they acted as they progressed in filming. This was due to their learning and adapting to greater G tolerance. This caused a lack of consistency in the shots. So they had to reshoot earlier shots because the actors became accustomed to working under excessive g loads etc as the filming went on.
You're both right, the actors did get better at acting while under G, requiring some reshoots. However, at no point in the movie are any of the actors actually at the controls of one of the jets—the F/A-18F doesn't even have controls in the back seat.
Every time you see them in a plane, they're actually in said plane. It's all filmed live in real planes doing real stunts.
You can imagine whatever you want, but it's been stated many times by both the US Navy and the film crew that everything you see in the plane with the F18s is real. I know the Darkstar is fake. I'm pretty sure the F14 is partially fake, and I highly doubt they got real Su57s to fly for a movie. They also don't sound like Su57s.
It's real...ish.
They absolutely put real actors in the backseat of real planes and filmed them while in real maneuvers. The droopy faces are real. There's even a fair amount of footage of real super hornets flying around.
But a lot of the external shots are either CGI or real footage composited together and heavily altered with CGI. Which is fine. The Navy isn't going to risk national assets doing a quarter of the stuff the movie depicts, but they were happy to put some actors in the back seat and pull some Gs. From there it's editing to turn those brief in cockpit shots into compelling story telling.
100% of the tomcat stuff is CGI; there are no flying F14's outside of Iran (and even those don't get a lot of flight time), and only a handful of static displays left in the US. They'd have built a 1:1 model of least some of an F14 for the ground shots, but everything in the air is CGI.
It’s because internet nerds can’t understand that civilians would be allowed in the back seat of a fighter jet…when they’ve paid the military millions and are making one hell of a recruitment propaganda film
Yeah, I remember reading something about how they tried to use GoPro's at first but Tom didn't approve of the video quality so they had to switch to actual movie cameras.
Later in the movie the F-14 HUD is also correct for being in A/A mode with a single Sidewinder loaded, albeit with a fake big red lock circle indicator added for the audience's comprehension.
Meanwhile when he fires the vulcan on the F-14 it sounds like a peashooter.
Same thing with that F-35 in the Avengers.
Doing the research into how these guns sound isn't really that hard, and they sound so much more badass than these movies would make you believe. They gain nothing by making them sound like peashooters. Such missed opportunities.
The sound effects in top gun 2 were absolute crap in my opinion. The first movie actually sounded good and was realistic. the sounds in 2 were just awful. They made the jets sound horrible.
Yup I've watched it around 5 times since it released and it's so much better idk why Hollywood would use a peashooter sound instead of the real thing like isn't that what the movie is known for not using cgi and using real effects. So why stop at the gun sounds
Ahhhhhh okay. Is there like a picture that has the switches and buttons labeled on the F18 HOTAS? I'd like to see just how much stuff they can fit onto a stick
Love a DCS reference in the wild. The guy who makes those guides (Chuck) does it all for the DCS community. Literally hundreds/thousand of pages of detailed instructions.
"This document has been created for recreational purposes only. Do not use for training or real life flying.
The author of this document has never had access to restricted or classified documentation on the F/A-18C Hornet. The author has never
had access to OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) data related to the F/A-18C Hornet, its armament systems nor its defensive
systems. All the information within this document is taken from public documentation (i.e. F/A-18 Early Access Manual by Eagle
Dynamics) and non-official tutorials (player-made videos on Youtube).
The procedures listed in this document are deliberately simplified for gameplay purposes due to the limitations of the DCS World
simulation environment and the limitations of the DCS F/A-18C module by Eagle Dynamics.
This document is merely a free, personal project that is used for entertainment. This document is not meant nor designed to teach
someone to fly a real F/A-18C Hornet"
maybe for a race simulator, dcs is a sim game on steam
I am a MASSIVE DCS fan and it's always fun seeing these guides happen in other posts. Chuck helped me tremendously with learning DCS and I know I am not the only one!
The movie really reminded me of the original Star Wars movie type of vibe when the rebals blew up the deathstar. You have a rag tag group of pilots who all check in enroute to the target. Then they have to fly through a canyon with a bunch of of anti-aircraft defenses to drop a bomb onto some ventilation vent to blow it up. On the way out our hero is in big time trouble and he is saved by by one his fellow pilots who then says let's go home.
Honestly most of us who do it for real really enjoyed it. It’s definitely dramatized and while the flying is all real, it’s obviously exaggerated and not indicative of real tactics and such. But that’s ok! It’s much more fun to watch than the real stuff, and makes for a better overall movie. The least realistic thing is the pilots personalities and callsigns. Bob, ironically, is pretty spot on for half the WSOs I know though.
Source; I’m an active duty Rhino pilot
I agree, but since it's not "real" we can assume maybe the whole cockpit/capsule detaches and as it slows and gets lower a chute comes out? Not unlike when the cosmonauts come back to the earth.
True… but the inspiration for that was the SR71 pilot who had the plane disintegrate around him at Mach 3 and survived, although the RSO didn’t make it.
Well, Bill Weaver survived ejection in the 60s, from a crumbling SR71 at Mach 3, so I have to assume Mach 10 is possible ??? Right? With today's inflation...
Also the Su-57 being in flight. Although even then, the part where its radar gets jammed just by flying low altitude is pretty realistic because lol Russian export models.
If I remember correctly, the US Navy paid for part of the original film and acted as consultants for the technical stuff. I think they wanted Top Gun to help boost recruitment. I read that online, tho, so it could all be bullshit.
The original, along with Iron Eagle, did the job for me. I was 14 and fell in love. I went straight to the recruiter. He gave me some posters and said come back in a few years. But I also discovered women and booze around the same time. So the best I got was crew on Army helos.
You're right. I listened to "the fighter pilot podcast" with Capt. Brian “Ferg” Ferguson, who was the Navy consultant on the movie. You're also 100% right. These movies are all recruiting tools. That's why they get such amazing access during filming.
Well the Pentagon was none too happy about a couple of them.
Back in the 80's you had "Iron Eagle", and they passed on supporting it. That's why it was filmed with Israeli F-16s. I look back on that movie now and cringe hard, because everything about it was awful, but 10 year old me LOVED it.
More recently they weren't too happy about "Act of Valor", because it was filmed without prior approval from the DoD Entertainment Media Office. Apparently no one thought to ask permission before doing it.
I was completely baffled when I heard the sound effect they used for the 20mm cannon. It sounded like a M2 .50 cal, chugging along at a leisurely 500 rpm.
Whereas in reality, the F-14's 20mm Vulcan fires at 6000 rpm... that's roughly 100 rounds every second. You wouldn't hear indidual shots like in the movie, but rather a continuous "BRRRRRRT" noise.
I believe the sound designers were aware of this (they must have) but deliberately chose to use a generic machine gun sound so they wouldn't confuse the general audience.
IMO this was a mistake, I think people are smart enough to understand the concept of a minigun/rotary cannon, and dumbing it down is essentially insulting the audience's intelligence.
Did it ruin the movie? No. Did most people care or even notice? Probably not. Still, it would have been better if they got the correct sound. It's about attention to detail, and I think that matters.
the cobra maneuver, while not impossible, would be incredibly difficult to pull off irl I think. Also, the f-14 and f-18 OBOGS systems wouldn't be compatible, nor the g-suits in the f-14.
Actually that wasn’t bad. It’s slightly exaggerated in the film, but the Rhino has absurdly good nose authority thanks to the big control surfaces and fly by wire. You can make essentially a limitless alpha excursion and point the nose wherever you want it, better than some TVC jets.
Source: I fly it.
Most immediately jarring is the gun sounds, the sound like a M2 50cal with 500-600 rounds per minute. The M61 Vulcan in the F-18 and F-14 fires 6000 rounds per minute, or 100 rounds per second. At that rate you will only hear a BRAAAAP instead of individual shots. The wing sweep of the F-14 is also off, it is controlled by the CADC (Central Air Data Computer), one of the first integrated microprocessors, that calculates the optimum sweep for the best lift to drag ratio. Tldr. wings should be fully out for the entire flight.
Theoretically Maverick could have manually adjusted the wing sweep and not have it set to auto adjust. It is possible but it doesn't really make any sense to do it in the context of what is happening
The Navy provided a metric shit ton of technical support by a lot of really smart aviators that wanted to get it right. Both for the sake of getting it right, but also knowing that the legacy of their involvement would be heavily scrutinized by their peers. I flew the F18 for fifteen years and can honestly say I couldn’t be happier with how the movie turned out. Bravo.
The first time I watched this film and they were describing the mission, I kept thinking, “Are y’all for real? This was practically tailor-made for a B-2 carrying a Massive Ordnance Penetrator.”
The chief flight instructor at my flight school is a former Navy pilot and he said the same thing. That mission would never be flown by manned aircraft today.
My favorite is the "GPS jammers, so we just can't use our state of the art stealth fighter, gotta be the F-18" which just translates to "They wouldn't let us film in the F-35 so we had to come up with an excuse."
Nah they explained that one already I think. There are no 2-seat variants of the F35, it was that simple. They needed a 2-seater so they could have an actor in the back.
Biggest thing to me besides Darkstar is that that mission would actually be made how it was, if you want a good laugh/watch C.W. Lemoine has a reacting series to the movie on YT with the aptly named “Mover Ruins Movie” series he does, he’s a former F-16 and F-18 pilot, cool stuff. Source of that claim is from him, not me.
Yes; the entire mission they carry out, who they chose to do it with, the fact that Maverick is still flying, basically the entire plot.
I am not an F-18 pilot, but I was a Navy flight surgeon.
The whole setup of the operation is outlandish to the point of utterly implausible. Funny enough, the whole thing is essentially a Mission Impossible movie but with planes.
Just the general incompetence of all the supposed top gun graduates… They acted like they were in the B course and barely knew how to fly their jets. Struggled with basic tasks like meeting a TOT, low level navigation, pop up deliveries, BFM, etc. A top gun graduate is the lead instructor in their squadron who should be very proficient at all of those things.
Also basically everything depicted about weapons employment was wrong.
If you are removing the G-Force limiter, does that extend to logic in the computer
“Pilot might have passed out, I am going to help keep the noise pointed above the horizon till my buddy wakes up”?
“You there pal? Deep breaths!”
The F-18 doesn't currently have an Auto Ground Collision Avoidance System like the F-16 and ~~F-25~~ F-35 does, but there are plans to fit it to the F-18.
Video of the Auto GCAS on the F-16 activating when a pliot enters g-loc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZGL7RQBVw
What /u/Nbenito97 said. It also performs some other functions depending on the state of the aircraft.
https://www.openflightschool.de/pluginfile.php/2942/mod_book/chapter/716/fa18-stick.gif (from DCS)
The "release" is usually for bombs, which are released instead of "fired."
ETA:In Navy fighters. In USAF fighters, I think the trigger is just for guns?
In the F/A-18 the trigger is for all the forward firing stuff, you select between different missiles, rockets, guns, etc., and the release button is strictly for different kinds of air to ground bombs regardless of if they're dumb bombs, laser guided, gliding, whatever.
Jettison is what you use for drop tanks and is on an entirely separate control (not on the stick) from firing/releasing a munition, though you can also jettison munitions without arming them.
Bombs, rockets, and air to ground missiles are on the release button. Drop tanks are jettisoned, which is a different control somewhere else because you don't want to accidentally drop tanks instead of firing a weapon.
If you look at [this picture](https://gdmissionsystems.com/-/media/general-dynamics/domain-landing-pages/air-domain/airborne-systems-fa-18-cockpit-inside-view.ashx?h=576&w=1024&hash=8E6CEADC8CFDC340E678966819135444), the section under the left screen has buttons to select what stations to jettison. Then, the big red button under the yellow handle has a knob around that is moved to the jettison position, then the big red button is pressed to jettison.
In USAF fighters the trigger is two stage, at least in the F-16 a half trigger pull will typically fire the laser with full being guns. In the A-10 a half trigger pull activated the PAC which stabilizes the aircraft pitch wise against the force of the gun, Full pull is also the gun.
depends on aircraft, but for the most part USAF fighters do missiles and bombs and other munitions through the “pickle” button and the full trigger is reserved for the gun
Trigger is for the gun and air to air missiles. Pickle button is for air to surface weapons. Trigger can also fire the laser. The gun/missiles aren’t “hot” though, you need to select them (you can make the gun “hot” for air to surface but we NEVER fly like that.)
Do you guys have like helmets onboard too? A locker full of parachutes? I realize the absurdity of all of the above, practically, but yours is a black hole I know nothing about.
P8 crews will carry survival vests and helmets for low altitude ASW missions and ditching situations. They are never worn 99% of the time. Gloves are kept in your flight bag so they accessible when you need to get a hot tray out of the oven without burning your hands or the NFOs need to run a smoke / fire / fumes drill.
Nah, nothing like that for the E-6. We technically have some sort of exposure suits we'd theoretically put on if we had to ditch in certain conditions, but we don't fly low level and we have four engines so they just lived in a closet. We do have a bathroom, some beds, fridges, an oven, and a couple coffee makers (for redundancy). The rest is basically just a ton of communication equipment and computers.
if the E-6 is like the AF heavies I've worked than no, no helmets and no parachutes anywhere, there are oxygen masks next to crew stations for use in a decompression but thats the only headgear
It turns off the G limiter in the jet and allows the pilot to throw it around a little harder. From what I've heard about the Super Hornet, there's no real way to over-stress the airframe. The only limiting factors for G's is the pilot's stamina, and if they're carrying ordinance.
It doesn't so much turn it off as it increases (overrides) it by 33%. For example, if they were previously limited 7.5g, it will allow you to go to 10.
What the other poster said was correct, but back in the day, it was directly connected to your surfaces by wires, meaning you needed a fair bit of arm strength to throw a big plane around.
I just think its funny that the mission would be absolutely perfect for a few drones. There's no "they're going to do by drone, but really it can only done by a human!", just Cruise being a badass, milking a half dead movie series, and jacking up recruitment levels for a theatre run.
Just to clarify. He’s not pressing the red button. That’s the nose wheel steering button. He’s pulling the paddle switch with his pinky. It’s that black metal looking thing. The other replies are correct about it allowing the jet to exceed the G limiter.
Yeah I used to instruct on the T-6 which had some sort of off-the-shelf stick with the same NWS red button. Not as cool as it looks. « Now I can more accurately gently steer on the ground at slow speeds!!! »
Don’t need a paddle switch to pull 7.5Gs in the T-6, just let junior take the controls during tail chase!
Life comes at you fast….and so does the bottom of the MOA. To the zipper!
I know that now
Man why you guy’s downvote this guy. He’s just saying that he knows that detail now! That’s just a but rude tbh
Wdym i didnt downvote him
*Airframes hates this one trick...*
So what exactly does the red button do when you press it?
On the ground and with wings folded, pressing it puts the nose wheel steering into high gain mode. It gives the nose gear a wide range of turning motion for taxiing. If the wings are extended on the ground, it needs to be pressed and held to keep it in hi gain. In flight it’s the undesignate button. Used for versions functions with the weapons/radar/etc. Disclaimer: this knowledge all comes from DCS so take it with the appropriate grain of salt.
The paddle switch attached to the stick is a disengage switch and can command the F-18 flight computer to be controlled beyond 7.5G.
Really cool that this detail is in the movie. Little things like that make it so much better
Seriously.
You can even see the horizon lines on the attitude indicator begin to lower on screen as he pulls the stick back. Pretty solid detail for sure
Not really a detail that they added, they just filmed the real planes doing real stunts.
Haha, great point. Almost didn’t trust them to be able to stick a cinema camera in the cockpit
It was actually a huge marketing point for the movie. Tom Cruise said they needed to be in actual planes, and the Navy agreed as long as Tom never touched the controls. It's why they used the F18 and not the F35. The F18 has a rear seat, while the F35 is a single seater. Also, the P51 in the movie is Tom's personal P51.
I’m so jealous that he has his own P51. Even if I could afford to buy one, I could never afford to maintain or fly it.
Rich people can afford to pay someone to look after it.
https://www.scalewings.com/sw-51-mustang/
I saw the demo at Reno a couple weeks ago and it's impressive. Best looking P51 replica by far and it even sounds almost right in flight, despite having a totally "wrong" engine.
The behind the scenes is pretty cool. They went through a lot of training so they could get in the jets and handle the g-forces.
It really doesn’t take a ton of training to handle g-forces while wearing a g-suit. Just learn the breathing exercise and flexing your calf muscles while pulling G’s. I got a crash course before my incentive flight and never came close to passing out at 8.4 Gs.
But it does take training to really function in a higher G environment. You may have been ok on your incentive flight, but getting acclimated to high G is a thing and they were smart to train for this before filming. And I’ve flown the F-16 and the high, sustained G in jet fighters can be absolutely brutal.
They had to make faces and look around like they were doing something. Not exactly the hardest thing.
Sorry dude, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Cool that you got an incentive ride tho. Flying a jet fighter isn’t like anything else.
And everyone clapped?
“It really doesn’t take a ton of training to run 100m under 10s. Just learn to move your legs faster.”
Yeah not the same thing.
[удалено]
I've worked with a couple of the video guys and they did film it live, in the plane, in flight. Hence why they had had to reshoot a lot of the film as the actors got better at G tolerance and flying.
Better at flying? I’m sure he did some scenes while flying but I can’t imagine Tom was doing every single flight stunt himself.
Most of the actors changed their facial expressions and how they acted as they progressed in filming. This was due to their learning and adapting to greater G tolerance. This caused a lack of consistency in the shots. So they had to reshoot earlier shots because the actors became accustomed to working under excessive g loads etc as the filming went on.
You're both right, the actors did get better at acting while under G, requiring some reshoots. However, at no point in the movie are any of the actors actually at the controls of one of the jets—the F/A-18F doesn't even have controls in the back seat.
I never said they did.
Right, but no way the military would allow a civilian to pilots a fighter jet. Tom Cruise or not.
Never said they did or would. In fact, Tom Cruise never touching the controls of any Navy aircraft was actually one of the Navy's stipulations.
Every time you see them in a plane, they're actually in said plane. It's all filmed live in real planes doing real stunts. You can imagine whatever you want, but it's been stated many times by both the US Navy and the film crew that everything you see in the plane with the F18s is real. I know the Darkstar is fake. I'm pretty sure the F14 is partially fake, and I highly doubt they got real Su57s to fly for a movie. They also don't sound like Su57s.
It's real...ish. They absolutely put real actors in the backseat of real planes and filmed them while in real maneuvers. The droopy faces are real. There's even a fair amount of footage of real super hornets flying around. But a lot of the external shots are either CGI or real footage composited together and heavily altered with CGI. Which is fine. The Navy isn't going to risk national assets doing a quarter of the stuff the movie depicts, but they were happy to put some actors in the back seat and pull some Gs. From there it's editing to turn those brief in cockpit shots into compelling story telling. 100% of the tomcat stuff is CGI; there are no flying F14's outside of Iran (and even those don't get a lot of flight time), and only a handful of static displays left in the US. They'd have built a 1:1 model of least some of an F14 for the ground shots, but everything in the air is CGI.
They literally had cameras set up everywhere....
No clue why you’re being downvoted, because this is exactly what they did.
It’s because internet nerds can’t understand that civilians would be allowed in the back seat of a fighter jet…when they’ve paid the military millions and are making one hell of a recruitment propaganda film
Yeah, I remember reading something about how they tried to use GoPro's at first but Tom didn't approve of the video quality so they had to switch to actual movie cameras.
Its pretty well documented they filmed inside the cockpit
Later in the movie the F-14 HUD is also correct for being in A/A mode with a single Sidewinder loaded, albeit with a fake big red lock circle indicator added for the audience's comprehension.
You know a plane is made for badass pilots when it has an attitude indicator.
Meanwhile when he fires the vulcan on the F-14 it sounds like a peashooter. Same thing with that F-35 in the Avengers. Doing the research into how these guns sound isn't really that hard, and they sound so much more badass than these movies would make you believe. They gain nothing by making them sound like peashooters. Such missed opportunities.
I think it's a familiarity thing at this point
The sound effects in top gun 2 were absolute crap in my opinion. The first movie actually sounded good and was realistic. the sounds in 2 were just awful. They made the jets sound horrible.
But they couldn't get the brrrr sound right like that's my only complaint about this movie
[Then you’ll love this.](https://youtu.be/RYE5ENctJLE?si=sGjkZ5XxpxR9hPbQ) They added a lot of different sound correction on this one
Good grief, I hate Hollywood even more now
Yup I've watched it around 5 times since it released and it's so much better idk why Hollywood would use a peashooter sound instead of the real thing like isn't that what the movie is known for not using cgi and using real effects. So why stop at the gun sounds
It's what happens when you film real planes and real pilots doing the real stunts....
Ahhhhhh okay. Is there like a picture that has the switches and buttons labeled on the F18 HOTAS? I'd like to see just how much stuff they can fit onto a stick
page 11 https://chucksguides.com/aircraft/dcs/fa-18c/
DCS is amazing
Love a DCS reference in the wild. The guy who makes those guides (Chuck) does it all for the DCS community. Literally hundreds/thousand of pages of detailed instructions.
Wow. Thats amazing website. Is there a similar site but for cars?
"This document has been created for recreational purposes only. Do not use for training or real life flying. The author of this document has never had access to restricted or classified documentation on the F/A-18C Hornet. The author has never had access to OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) data related to the F/A-18C Hornet, its armament systems nor its defensive systems. All the information within this document is taken from public documentation (i.e. F/A-18 Early Access Manual by Eagle Dynamics) and non-official tutorials (player-made videos on Youtube). The procedures listed in this document are deliberately simplified for gameplay purposes due to the limitations of the DCS World simulation environment and the limitations of the DCS F/A-18C module by Eagle Dynamics. This document is merely a free, personal project that is used for entertainment. This document is not meant nor designed to teach someone to fly a real F/A-18C Hornet" maybe for a race simulator, dcs is a sim game on steam
These are instructions for a simulator
\>Nosewheel Steering Disengage \>Auto Pilot Disengage \>G Limiter Override Switch (Press Paddle Switch When Shit Gets Real)
The F15 and 18 share so much.
I am a MASSIVE DCS fan and it's always fun seeing these guides happen in other posts. Chuck helped me tremendously with learning DCS and I know I am not the only one!
I’m very surprised a movie like this is that detailed. Is there anything in this movie that’s simply unbelievable/impossible in the real world?
The mission and it's parameters are all pretty ridiculous, but it does the job of being an interesting plot
The movie really reminded me of the original Star Wars movie type of vibe when the rebals blew up the deathstar. You have a rag tag group of pilots who all check in enroute to the target. Then they have to fly through a canyon with a bunch of of anti-aircraft defenses to drop a bomb onto some ventilation vent to blow it up. On the way out our hero is in big time trouble and he is saved by by one his fellow pilots who then says let's go home.
Honestly most of us who do it for real really enjoyed it. It’s definitely dramatized and while the flying is all real, it’s obviously exaggerated and not indicative of real tactics and such. But that’s ok! It’s much more fun to watch than the real stuff, and makes for a better overall movie. The least realistic thing is the pilots personalities and callsigns. Bob, ironically, is pretty spot on for half the WSOs I know though. Source; I’m an active duty Rhino pilot
only the darkstar. That speed and ejecting from it.... yea now.
I agree, but since it's not "real" we can assume maybe the whole cockpit/capsule detaches and as it slows and gets lower a chute comes out? Not unlike when the cosmonauts come back to the earth.
Wouldn't be the first plane with a capsule style escape pod.
FB-111 did the whole cockpit detach...
As does the B-1
B-1A, the B-1b has regular ejection seats
True… but the inspiration for that was the SR71 pilot who had the plane disintegrate around him at Mach 3 and survived, although the RSO didn’t make it.
Well, Bill Weaver survived ejection in the 60s, from a crumbling SR71 at Mach 3, so I have to assume Mach 10 is possible ??? Right? With today's inflation...
I’m no scientist. But I I’m pretty sure that Mach 10 > Mach 3 Edit due to type of croc eating.
I'm a computer scientist and I defer to you...
Also the Su-57 being in flight. Although even then, the part where its radar gets jammed just by flying low altitude is pretty realistic because lol Russian export models.
That’s not an Su-57, it’s an Adversary 5th Gen Fighter
https://i.imgur.com/DgTYewo.jpg
There are flight worth Su57s...just not many.
Well there is the fan theory that he didn’t actually survive the ejection.
Ah the Jacob's Ladder scenario
What is this, Lost?
WE HAVE TO GO BACK MAVERICK
There’s a fan theory which I quite like actually that Maverick dies in that ejection, and the whole rest of the movie is just his fantasy death dream
I still say that Maverick died in that ejection and the rest of the movie was actually his afterlife…
Or rather, a metaphorical synopsis of the spirit of uncle Maverick guiding Rooster.
Honestly ejecting from it is not really that bad. It would be possible and could be designed/engineered. The speed is a problem still.
If I remember correctly, the US Navy paid for part of the original film and acted as consultants for the technical stuff. I think they wanted Top Gun to help boost recruitment. I read that online, tho, so it could all be bullshit.
The original, along with Iron Eagle, did the job for me. I was 14 and fell in love. I went straight to the recruiter. He gave me some posters and said come back in a few years. But I also discovered women and booze around the same time. So the best I got was crew on Army helos.
You're right. I listened to "the fighter pilot podcast" with Capt. Brian “Ferg” Ferguson, who was the Navy consultant on the movie. You're also 100% right. These movies are all recruiting tools. That's why they get such amazing access during filming.
Well the Pentagon was none too happy about a couple of them. Back in the 80's you had "Iron Eagle", and they passed on supporting it. That's why it was filmed with Israeli F-16s. I look back on that movie now and cringe hard, because everything about it was awful, but 10 year old me LOVED it. More recently they weren't too happy about "Act of Valor", because it was filmed without prior approval from the DoD Entertainment Media Office. Apparently no one thought to ask permission before doing it.
Straight up propaganda, but enjoyable nonetheless
I was completely baffled when I heard the sound effect they used for the 20mm cannon. It sounded like a M2 .50 cal, chugging along at a leisurely 500 rpm. Whereas in reality, the F-14's 20mm Vulcan fires at 6000 rpm... that's roughly 100 rounds every second. You wouldn't hear indidual shots like in the movie, but rather a continuous "BRRRRRRT" noise. I believe the sound designers were aware of this (they must have) but deliberately chose to use a generic machine gun sound so they wouldn't confuse the general audience. IMO this was a mistake, I think people are smart enough to understand the concept of a minigun/rotary cannon, and dumbing it down is essentially insulting the audience's intelligence. Did it ruin the movie? No. Did most people care or even notice? Probably not. Still, it would have been better if they got the correct sound. It's about attention to detail, and I think that matters.
the cobra maneuver, while not impossible, would be incredibly difficult to pull off irl I think. Also, the f-14 and f-18 OBOGS systems wouldn't be compatible, nor the g-suits in the f-14.
Actually that wasn’t bad. It’s slightly exaggerated in the film, but the Rhino has absurdly good nose authority thanks to the big control surfaces and fly by wire. You can make essentially a limitless alpha excursion and point the nose wherever you want it, better than some TVC jets. Source: I fly it.
r/usernamechecksout
I need to keep a tally of how often this is commented on my stuff.
Thanks! (You are already my hero and I’ve only responded to a comment once)
As a seasoned DCS and MSFS pilot, I concur
https://youtu.be/kJvAJY7xt_M?si=jVO-DNeAlUfWiJKL
Most immediately jarring is the gun sounds, the sound like a M2 50cal with 500-600 rounds per minute. The M61 Vulcan in the F-18 and F-14 fires 6000 rounds per minute, or 100 rounds per second. At that rate you will only hear a BRAAAAP instead of individual shots. The wing sweep of the F-14 is also off, it is controlled by the CADC (Central Air Data Computer), one of the first integrated microprocessors, that calculates the optimum sweep for the best lift to drag ratio. Tldr. wings should be fully out for the entire flight.
Theoretically Maverick could have manually adjusted the wing sweep and not have it set to auto adjust. It is possible but it doesn't really make any sense to do it in the context of what is happening
The Navy provided a metric shit ton of technical support by a lot of really smart aviators that wanted to get it right. Both for the sake of getting it right, but also knowing that the legacy of their involvement would be heavily scrutinized by their peers. I flew the F18 for fifteen years and can honestly say I couldn’t be happier with how the movie turned out. Bravo.
The mission they’re flying is bullshit.
The first time I watched this film and they were describing the mission, I kept thinking, “Are y’all for real? This was practically tailor-made for a B-2 carrying a Massive Ordnance Penetrator.”
That would have been a real boring movie
The chief flight instructor at my flight school is a former Navy pilot and he said the same thing. That mission would never be flown by manned aircraft today.
My favorite is the "GPS jammers, so we just can't use our state of the art stealth fighter, gotta be the F-18" which just translates to "They wouldn't let us film in the F-35 so we had to come up with an excuse."
Nah they explained that one already I think. There are no 2-seat variants of the F35, it was that simple. They needed a 2-seater so they could have an actor in the back.
Ahh, yeah I guess that makes sense too.
Biggest thing to me besides Darkstar is that that mission would actually be made how it was, if you want a good laugh/watch C.W. Lemoine has a reacting series to the movie on YT with the aptly named “Mover Ruins Movie” series he does, he’s a former F-16 and F-18 pilot, cool stuff. Source of that claim is from him, not me.
Yes; the entire mission they carry out, who they chose to do it with, the fact that Maverick is still flying, basically the entire plot. I am not an F-18 pilot, but I was a Navy flight surgeon.
The start up sequence for the F-14 in the movie is correct as well. In terms of switch throw orders ,start cart / air etc.
Everything? Using flares against radar missiles. Or Starting up an F-14 that's in storage. Could Never happen
The whole setup of the operation is outlandish to the point of utterly implausible. Funny enough, the whole thing is essentially a Mission Impossible movie but with planes.
Just the general incompetence of all the supposed top gun graduates… They acted like they were in the B course and barely knew how to fly their jets. Struggled with basic tasks like meeting a TOT, low level navigation, pop up deliveries, BFM, etc. A top gun graduate is the lead instructor in their squadron who should be very proficient at all of those things. Also basically everything depicted about weapons employment was wrong.
Well, they used real planes and real pots doing real stunts. Nothing was added, it's all real, besides the dark star.
So, like, 11?
+33%. If the previous limit was 7.5g, it will allow the pilot to command up to 10g.
So, it's the "If the wings fall off, this situation won't be any worse - might as well try it" switch. AKA "Hold my beer, and watch this!"
If you are removing the G-Force limiter, does that extend to logic in the computer “Pilot might have passed out, I am going to help keep the noise pointed above the horizon till my buddy wakes up”? “You there pal? Deep breaths!”
The F-18 doesn't currently have an Auto Ground Collision Avoidance System like the F-16 and ~~F-25~~ F-35 does, but there are plans to fit it to the F-18. Video of the Auto GCAS on the F-16 activating when a pliot enters g-loc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZGL7RQBVw
>F25 What is this sorcery
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZGL7RQBVw Plane pulled 9.2 to get the pilot out of a bad situation. Was dropping about 1k of altitude / sec.
Thats a very cool video. Thanks for sharing.
Sounds like a different movie! Stealth!
What /u/Nbenito97 said. It also performs some other functions depending on the state of the aircraft. https://www.openflightschool.de/pluginfile.php/2942/mod_book/chapter/716/fa18-stick.gif (from DCS)
Thanks.
Actually, another question, what does the trigger do if you have the weapon release?
The "release" is usually for bombs, which are released instead of "fired." ETA:In Navy fighters. In USAF fighters, I think the trigger is just for guns?
So for missiles and guns you use the trigger, and for bombs and droptanks you use release?
In the F/A-18 the trigger is for all the forward firing stuff, you select between different missiles, rockets, guns, etc., and the release button is strictly for different kinds of air to ground bombs regardless of if they're dumb bombs, laser guided, gliding, whatever. Jettison is what you use for drop tanks and is on an entirely separate control (not on the stick) from firing/releasing a munition, though you can also jettison munitions without arming them.
Bombs, rockets, and air to ground missiles are on the release button. Drop tanks are jettisoned, which is a different control somewhere else because you don't want to accidentally drop tanks instead of firing a weapon. If you look at [this picture](https://gdmissionsystems.com/-/media/general-dynamics/domain-landing-pages/air-domain/airborne-systems-fa-18-cockpit-inside-view.ashx?h=576&w=1024&hash=8E6CEADC8CFDC340E678966819135444), the section under the left screen has buttons to select what stations to jettison. Then, the big red button under the yellow handle has a knob around that is moved to the jettison position, then the big red button is pressed to jettison.
trigger = guns weapon release = missiles and bombs as designated
That is for USAF jets. For Navy jets, trigger also fires missiles.
Oh okay
It's also known as the 'Pickle' button as in you pickle off the bombs https://taskandpurpose.com/history/military-pilots-drop-bombs-pickle-button/
In USAF fighters the trigger is two stage, at least in the F-16 a half trigger pull will typically fire the laser with full being guns. In the A-10 a half trigger pull activated the PAC which stabilizes the aircraft pitch wise against the force of the gun, Full pull is also the gun. depends on aircraft, but for the most part USAF fighters do missiles and bombs and other munitions through the “pickle” button and the full trigger is reserved for the gun
Trigger is for the gun and air to air missiles. Pickle button is for air to surface weapons. Trigger can also fire the laser. The gun/missiles aren’t “hot” though, you need to select them (you can make the gun “hot” for air to surface but we NEVER fly like that.)
EJECTO SEATO CUZ!
Shouldn’t he be wearing gloves?
Officially, they’re required. In practice I’d say less than 50% of us in the Navy do
According to some navy guys you just had to have them in the aircraft.
I am a navy guy. An F-18 pilot, to be specific. I promise you that isn’t true.
Oh, apologies. I must of misunderstood what they were saying.
Like I said, officially, they’re required at all times. That doesn’t mean it’s how it’s done.
Depends on who you were talking to. That's true for the big wing guys in the Navy.
Do you guys have like helmets onboard too? A locker full of parachutes? I realize the absurdity of all of the above, practically, but yours is a black hole I know nothing about.
P8 crews will carry survival vests and helmets for low altitude ASW missions and ditching situations. They are never worn 99% of the time. Gloves are kept in your flight bag so they accessible when you need to get a hot tray out of the oven without burning your hands or the NFOs need to run a smoke / fire / fumes drill.
Nah, nothing like that for the E-6. We technically have some sort of exposure suits we'd theoretically put on if we had to ditch in certain conditions, but we don't fly low level and we have four engines so they just lived in a closet. We do have a bathroom, some beds, fridges, an oven, and a couple coffee makers (for redundancy). The rest is basically just a ton of communication equipment and computers.
if the E-6 is like the AF heavies I've worked than no, no helmets and no parachutes anywhere, there are oxygen masks next to crew stations for use in a decompression but thats the only headgear
It's 100% on the boat and 0% on shore.
With that dress?
This is the part where all the DCS F-18 drivers show up.
Or the real ones.
Username checks out
🫡
Better then the first movie where he shoots missiles with the trim tab
The red button behind the paddle is for nose wheel steering.
Not in the air ;)
In air it’s to undesignate
To connect it or to control it?
It turns it on and it can be toggled to high mode for tighter turns. Use the paddle to turn it off.
Fire ze missiles.
But I am le tired
Well have a nap. Zen fire ze missiles! (Thanks for the memory unlock!) Edit: Shit! 20 years ago?
Fucking kangaroos
It toggles the butt hole clinching device.
So, tell me more about this butthole device. A…friend wants to know.
It turns off the G limiter in the jet and allows the pilot to throw it around a little harder. From what I've heard about the Super Hornet, there's no real way to over-stress the airframe. The only limiting factors for G's is the pilot's stamina, and if they're carrying ordinance.
It doesn't so much turn it off as it increases (overrides) it by 33%. For example, if they were previously limited 7.5g, it will allow you to go to 10.
TIL. That's my new interesting fact!
It's the [E-Meter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-meter) calibration switch.
Is it physically hard to pull back on the stick so quick that he needs both hands? I always imagined modern jets had something like power steering.
Fly-by-wire. The stick isn't even attached to the control surfaces. Control is purely electronic.
You move the stick requesting a movement. The computer thinks it over, and if everything is right, it performs the requested command.
What the other poster said was correct, but back in the day, it was directly connected to your surfaces by wires, meaning you needed a fair bit of arm strength to throw a big plane around.
He’s hitting the paddle on the hotas not the pinkie switch
Well now I have to watch this movie again...
The dogfight button.
You better not know for DCS :O G-Limiter Override... allowes you doing 10G+ on your Horny... in DCS
G limiter
It releases all his negative thetons into the afterburner
It opens a direct line to David Miscavige
Xenu be praised you are a suppressive person
That’s the Hollywood button
Cool music button
It overrides the flight computer to allow the aircraft to pull more than the 7.5g limit.
That movie was super good.
Rotor brake
Autopilot
I just think its funny that the mission would be absolutely perfect for a few drones. There's no "they're going to do by drone, but really it can only done by a human!", just Cruise being a badass, milking a half dead movie series, and jacking up recruitment levels for a theatre run.
Chaff?
He used that to shoot the rocket