Fighter Pilot Breaks Down Every Fighter Jet From Top Gun: Maverick

My name is Matthew Buckley.

My call sign is Whiz, and I'm a fighter pilot.

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I'm going to explain

each and every fighter jet in Top Gun: Maverick.

So I originally saw the first Top Gun in 1986.

It was one of the worst things that ever happened to me.

As a result of that movie,

everybody wanted to be a Navy fighter pilot,

so I had to study and try even harder.

Well, the first thing I think of

when I see the F-14 Tomcat is a target.

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Big airplane, big radar in the front, and massive missiles.

A sidewinder, which is a heat-seeking missile,

the sparrow, the radar missile,

and the big stick called a phoenix

that could shoot probably a hundred plus miles down range.

In the mid '80s when the original Top Gun came out,

the F-14 Tomcat was the preeminent fighter.

It's mission objective was fleet air defense,

responsible for protecting the entire carrier battle group

from the Soviet hoard of bombers that would attack.

At its time, the F-14 Tomcat

was a pretty maneuverable aircraft

An F-14?

We don't even know if that [bleep] can fly.

I think Rooster nailed it

and I think he was being nice.

We also called it a bullet sponge.

So on a good day in the United States Navy

it would be a chore to get an F-14 Tomcat Airborne,

let alone in a foreign country that doesn't have

the same spare parts or the maintenance folks.

There's only one nation on the face of the planet

that still flies the Tomcat and it's Iran.

But to be that tactically proficient

after not flying that jet for a couple years,

just a little bit of a stretch, in my opinion.

Pure love, it's the most beautiful airplane

on the face of the planet.

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The F/A-18 Hornet is the first multi role

fighter attack aircraft,

a single seat twin engine aircraft

and it can fly up to mach 1.7, mach 1.8,

but the F-18 can carry all sorts of weapons,

air to air, all the way up to GPS guided weapons.

And you can even throw gas tanks on the airplane

and it can also serve as a tanker aircraft as well.

[engines roaring]

The filmmakers in Top Gun: Maverick

just did an absolutely incredible job.

The aviation scenes had me moving in my seat

and squeezing my muscles together

as if I was actually in the aircraft.

When you're flying in an F-18 down at 25 feet

going that fast,

your senses are absolutely heightened.

You even sneeze and it's over with.

As the aircraft flies that low to the ground,

the air can't get out of the way of the jet fast enough

and actually kicks up all of that dirt.

The skill required to do that is pretty incredible.

A former blue angel actually flew that maneuver.

Level out, Coyote.

Coyote experiences what we call G-LOC,

G loss of consciousness.

When you start pulling multiple Gs,

for example, I'm 200 pounds,

at eight Gs, it's like a 1600 pound safe

is sitting on top of me.

The blood's leaving your head.

So you actually gotta squeeze your legs

and your abs to try and keep you from passing out.

And if you lose consciousness,

at least back in the day when I started flying fighters,

you die.

The Ground Collision Avoidance system

is a system that we have today.

The jet will give you a couple opportunities to pull up.

It'll start yelling at you and if you don't respond

'cause you're out, the jet will level

the wings automatically and climb you away from danger.

Coyote! Pull up!

Coyote, Coyote! Pull up!

Spent nearly, almost 3000 hours in this airplane.

One of my first true loves, Susie, don't kill me,

and it just, it's a part of me.

It's a piece of who I am.

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I just smile when I see this aircraft,

just the beautiful lines of this airplane,

the hum of the engine,

the Rolls Royce or the Merlin engine.

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They can do about 400 to 450 miles an hour,

very maneuverable airplane for its generation.

The P-51 Mustang is a World War II fighter aircraft

that was used to escort bombers to strike on Germany

but could also be used in ground attack missions

to strafe enemy tanks.

[engine roaring]

Tom Cruise actually owns his own.

You can buy a P-51 Mustang,

unfortunately for a couple million bucks.

It is not a cheap aircraft to own or operate.

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So the F-35, interesting looking aircraft,

not as sexy looking as the F-18 Hornet.

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The F-35 Lightning can go about mach 1.6

about 1200 miles per hour.

If you actually look at the aircraft,

it's a lifting body, aerodynamic, so it can glide.

The single engine also rotates.

So the nozzle actually moves to make the aircraft

turn tighter in a turn circle

and also to fire off weapons.

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So the first time we see the F-35 Lightning 2,

we see it on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln,

CVN-72,

which was the ship I did my first deployment on in 1995.

The F-35 is definitely a fifth generation aircraft.

Many fifth generation aircraft are their own

self-contained strike package, so to speak.

Back in the day when I flew we'd have F-14 Tomcats

doing air superiority, A-6s doing bombing,

and we'd also have jamming aircraft.

Many fifth generation aircraft

are all three of those in one.

They have electronic warfare capability

that can jam the enemy's radar and communications.

They have air to air and air to ground capability as well.

Plus the stealth features are just off the charts.

So fifth generation aircraft,

if you go up and touch them,

it'll actually feel a little spongy,

because they have radar absorbent material.

Aside from the exterior radar absorbent

coating of the aircraft,

they internalize the weapons.

If there's anything hanging off of a fighter jet,

that reflects radar energy.

So all the weapons are internalized

in a fifth generation aircraft.

So the SU-57 Felon,

very appropriately named because they stole this.

This is essentially the F-35 ski, so to speak.

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So the SU-57 Felon is essentially the F-35 copy paste.

Similar weapon systems,

similar electronic warfare capabilities.

[engines roaring]

It's one of the only aircraft on the face of the planet

outside of helicopters that can actually tell

if it's being locked up by an infrared missile

and it can actually shoot at that warhead

and disintegrate it or disable it.

It's called DIRCM,

direct infrared countermeasures.

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Today, dog fighting is extremely rare.

When our enemy pilot leaves his house

and gets to the air station,

we know that that's already happened.

If you're in a dog fight in today's day and age,

a lot of things have broken down.

Whenever you're doing a dog fight,

it's who can turn tighter.

It wasn't too realistic

because the SU-57 can carry

some pretty serious air to air missiles.

So if I were the SU-57 Felon driver,

I would've pitched out of the visual range of the dog fight,

went out a couple miles and turned around

and shot Maverick in the face with a radar missile.

But I wasn't the director.

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The dark star as depicted in Top Gun Maverick,

although a fictional aircraft or maybe not.

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This is Dark Star, we are taxiing

with information alpha.

So the Dark Star jet might actually be real,

developed in what we call the Skunk Works.

The Skunk Works is out in the middle of the Mojave Desert

where they develop all of our black box type of aircraft.

If you can think about it, it probably exists.

There's probably guys and gals in a windowless room

over air conditioned with Mountain Dew and pizzas

designing it and building it.

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The Dark Star aircraft is kind of based

on the SR-71 Blackbird.

It was a very high altitude aircraft on the edge of space

that could do reconnaissance.

On demand recon, as we call it.

Kind of looks stealthy, very sleek, very fast.

And it also has hyper cruise engines.

So for example, an F-18 Hornet that I flew

to get supersonic full left hand forward,

full max afterburner

lot of dinosaurs being burned,

lot of fire out of the back.

As technology and engines improve,

lot less fire required,

lot less energy required to get to a certain point.

And based on how the airframe is designed,

it can actually super cruise,

so it can fly faster, longer,

and on less fuel required and less fire.

So Maverick more or less destroys the Dark Star aircraft,

not a career enhancing move.

I just happened to break a $65 million F-18 Hornet.

I went from the edge of space

to straight down at the Pacific

doing about mach 1.7 and I overstressed the aircraft.

That was not career enhancing either,

but I saved the aircraft.

I didn't eject like Maverick did.

So let's just say I got out as a lieutenant.

I don't know how he made it to captain

busting up airplanes like that,

but after destroying the Dark Star,

he certainly isn't gonna get selected for admiral.

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It's not incredibly difficult to fly a fighter jet,

and I know that might sound a little crazy

based on how it looks,

but the training is so good.

I'm a poor kid from South Jersey, South Philadelphia,

and I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

And if I can do it just about everybody can do it as well.