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.

 

#Day1 pic.twitter.com/7jjPL277Es

— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) 31 maggio 2018

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

Top Gun was released on May 12, 1986 (at least in NYC).

It’s by far the most famous (and in my honest opinion, still one of the best) Hollywood movie about military aviation ever reaching theaters, directed by Tony Scott starring Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards.

According to the creators of the dedicated-website, Top Gun Day, established on May 13, 2011 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the action drama film, is:

like talk like a pirate day, only way cooler because it allows you to quote Top Gun all day long, wear aviator sunglasses (no matter how cheap), pretend you’re a fighter pilot (“it’s time to buzz the fridge”), play volleyball in jeans, and drink Hemlock–wait, wait–I mean ICE water.  Participating in Top Gun Day is so easy even Slider can do it (read the next post title, “How do I Participate?”).

A Top Gun Day is also made of thousands tweets with the #topgunday hashtag (usually with the most famous quotes of the movie) as well as special avatars and pictures.

The Aviationist’s way to celebrate the Top Gun Day is by sharing this funny alternative ending. It was uploaded to Youtube in 2011 but I hadn’t seen it until today.

As you probably know by now, Top Gun 2 is in the works. Tom Cruise was initially thought to be a drone pilot. However, in March 2012, Tom Burbage, Executive VP of Lockheed Martin and General Manager of F-35 Program Integration, unveiled that the F-35 will be used in the movie, with Maverick being a test pilot.

The F-14 was an extremely fascinating machine and the perfect symbol of naval aviation. Let’s hope the F-35 fits the role as well.

Provided that they will be able to fix the aircraft’s tailhook system after the F-35 Carrier Variant’s embarrassing series of failed tests.

Highway to the danger zone!

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