Tom Cruise Teases “Top Gun 2” Movie With An F/A-18F Super Hornet Photo

May 31, 2018 Military Aviation
David Cenciotti

Looks like Top Gun sequel may feature the Super Hornet instead of the F-35.

Tom Cruise has just teased the long-awaited Top Gun movie sequel (expected in July 2019) with an interesting photo posted on Twitter with the text “Feel the need” and #Day1. The image, that marks the beginning of filming and production work, shows U.S. Navy pilot Capt. Pete Mitchell, wearing the flight suit with a TOPGUN patch on his shoulder and what appears to be an F/A-18F Super Hornet in the background. This seems to suggest “Maverick” retains a pilot role (and possibly he’s still assigned to the U.S. Navy Naval Fighter Weapons School even though the patch may only mean he graduated there) and that he flies the Super Hornet and not an F-35C, the U.S. Navy’s most modern aircraft, as most had predicted.

Since the first movie was released back in the 1980s, TOPGUN has moved from Miramar to NAS Fallon, Nevada even though, according to our friends at Combat Aircraft  the trees in the shot suggest that the photo wasn’t taken at the base home of the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center, near Reno.

One thing worth noticing is the fact that “Mav” has his famous HGU-33 helmet in his hand even though that kind of old-fashioned helmet has long been replaced within the U.S. Navy and other air arms around the world by the more modern Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System or HGU-68/P helmets.

 

We will keep you updated as more details on Top Gun 2 emerge.

About David Cenciotti
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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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5 Comments

  1. Sad. They’d be better off setting the movie in Iran, which at least still flies a real fighter.

    Still, should be a ‘fun’ movie. F/A-18 or F-35, unless Tommy boy dies immediately after entering combat, whatever they have it doing in the movie will be as realistic as ‘Airwolf’.

  2. I’m betting he’s CO of NFWS and ends up running into a student that is like him when he was young. Kinda like he’s now Michael Ironside’s “Jester” to some young cocky “Maverick”. F-35? Well, F/A-18 looks similar to the F-14, so that’s why I assume they chose it. That, and, the Navy has a lot more F/A-18s to offer the production company than F-35Cs. After all, the F-35C isn’t even IOC yet. And we know how Hollywood wants to keep it, um, real! : )

  3. Because pointless sequels thirty years later is something world desperately needs.
    Also,Tom Cruise.I sincerely doubt that thing will be better than that Chinese knock-off..
    What was the name…
    Ah.Sky Hunter.No wonder i forgot the name immediately,though movie was reasonably enjoyable.

  4. The squadron patch goes on the chest. The topgun patch on the shoulder just means you’re a graduate, not necessarily assigned as an instructor. It’s just a hollywood promo shot, quit trying to read so much into how the leaves are scattered.

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