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What planes does tom cruise own.

Let’s take a look at Tom Cruise’s aircraft collection.

• Tom Cruise is a licensed pilot with qualifications as a multi-engine instrument-rated pilot and helicopter flying skills.
• Cruise owns a collection of airplanes, including a vintage P-51 Mustang fighter from World War II and a Gulfstream IV G4 jet.
• There may be additional aircraft in Cruise's fleet, such as a HondaJet and a Bombardier Challenger 300 jet, according to a travel expert.

It wasn't just a show for 'Top Gun.' Tom Cruise is one of the few actors who genuinely love aviation. He has been a licensed pilot since 1994 and is able to fly several types of aircraft. However, it doesn't stop with a license. The famous Hollywood actor also has a collection of airplanes varying from vintage fighters to business jets.

What kind of license does Cruise have?

In various discussions, Tom Cruise has revealed that his affinity for aviation was crucial to his initial attraction to the original 'Top Gun.' He shared that he holds qualifications as a multi-engine instrument-rated pilot and has continued to enhance his skill set throughout his life. Notably, he acquired helicopter flying skills for the remarkable stunts seen in the 2018 film 'Mission Impossible: Fallout.'

Plane collection

North American P-51 Mustang fighter

During a segment on The Late Late Show, Cruise took host James Corden for a ride in his own vintage P-51 Mustang fighter plane. Tom Cruise acquired this World War II fighter in 2001, which was initially built in 1946.

The P-51 Mustang was an American long-range fighter bomber that served alongside other conflicts during World War II and the Korean War. It was developed by North American Aviation and was retired in 1984. Nevertheless, even today, the fighter is utilized for air racing by civilian pilots. After being donated to an Illinois museum, the plane underwent restoration in 1997.

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Making his recent performance in ' Top Gun: Maverick ,' Tom Cruise takes to the skies in the P-51 Mustang fighter. What adds intrigue to this is the revelation that he wasn't just portraying the pilot on screen – he was actually at the controls of his very own P-51 Mustang fighter.

Gulfstream IV G4 jet

With an estimated price tag of $20 million, this jet boasts the capability to accommodate as many as 19 passengers. Notably, it reportedly comes furnished with luxuries, including a jacuzzi and a dedicated movie-screening room, according to Business Insider.

The Gulfstream IV G4 is a long-range executive jet designed and built by Gulfstream , a General Dynamics company based in Savannah, Georgia, United States, from 1985 until 2018. Its production spanned from 1985 to 2018, resulting in over 900 G4 units taking to the skies. This jet can cover distances of up to 7,100 kilometers and achieve a top speed of 850 kilometers per hour.

Is there more?

Whether the actor has more aircraft in its fleet has been under speculation as it was never officially confirmed. But according to a Business Insider report, in addition to the vintage fighter jet and the Gulfstream IV G4, Jack Sweeney, who is famous for reporting the travel habits of numerous celebrities, including Elon Musk, said he has been able to identify Cruise's HondaJet and a Bombardier Challenger 300 jet.

Want answers to more key questions in aviation? Check out the rest of our guides here .

Sources: Business Insider , South China Morning Post

Is Tom Cruise a real pilot? All about his flying dream

• by Chege Karomo
•  – on May 26, 2022
•  in People

Tom Cruise returns for the second installment of  Top Gun , which promises to be an improvement on the first one. However, before the film’s premiere, Cruise teamed up with television host and actor James Corden to promote the movie. In 2018, Tom took James skydiving; in 2022, Tom strapped him into a plane piloted by the  Mission Impossible  star. 

“I’m gonna go up in a 75-year-old plane with someone who isn’t a pilot? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,”  Corden protested . 

If it were another actor, it’d be difficult to believe that they were a pilot. However, given Tom Cruise’s penchant for performing his own stunts, it’s pretty easy to fathom Cruise having a pilot’s license. 

Tom Cruise has held a pilot’s license since 1994

Tom Cruise qualified as a pilot in 1994, nearly three decades ago. Cruise reportedly owns several planes, including a luxury Gulfstream jet and his beloved P-51 Mustang, a WWII fighter that’ll appear in  Top Gun . 

“The P-51 Mustang you see in the movie is actually my plane, so I got to pilot in those sequences,” Cruise told  Hello magazine . “I also got to be in the jet fighter a lot more this time, which was thrilling. It was something I had been working up to.”

Cruise told the outlet that  Top Gun  allowed him to fulfill two dreams: flying and acting. “All I ever wanted to be was a pilot or an actor, so Top Gun was a huge moment in so many respects, including my passion for aviation,” Cruise said. “I got to actually fly in an F-14 jet which was a dream come true, and play a character I loved in Maverick.”

Tom told the PA News Service that he advocated for realism in the new  Top Gun , translating to as little computer trickery as possible. For Cruise, a man with a decades-old flying license, flying would be easy, but the rest of the cast needed intense training. 

For three months, the actors developed skills crafted by Cruise and learned how to film while inside the aircraft. However, few can match Tom Cruise, as Miles Teller admitted that he never got used to the feeling:

“We trained for this for a long time, Tom had us in a flight programme for several months before we ever started filming. But it was never something you really ever got, like, super comfortable with, at least for me. It was something that every time I went up, it really tested me and I felt like I wanted to puke pretty much every time.”

Cruise didn’t get to fly the F-18 Super Hornet in  Top Gun

Cruise may be an experienced pilot, but the military doesn’t hand the keys to one of their most prized assets to anyone with a flying license. 

The military hasn’t given a reason why it didn’t offer Cruise the F-18 Super Hornet, but we think money has a lot to do with it. The jet costs $70 million, nearly half of the film’s $152 budget. Few insurers would accept to insure potential damage of such an aircraft. 

Furthermore, despite having a pilot’s license, Cruise may not have the requisite skill to fly an F-18 safely – placing one in his hands would put lives at risk. The crew and cast filmed using real F-18 jets driven by trained Navy pilots. 

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Can Tom Cruise fly fighter jets? When he got his pilot’s licence and how much of Top Gun he’s flying for real

Tom cruise is famous for his commitment to realism, and frequently performs his own stunts.

The much anticipated Top Gun: Maverick i s about to hit the big screen, and critics are already raving about the quality of the flight scenes.

Tom Cruise is famous for his commitment to realism, frequently performs his own stunts, and even broke his ankle while filming Mission Impossible in London in 2018.

But does the daredevil do his own flying? Here’s everything you need to know.

What can we expect from the new Top Gun ?

Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is back and is still feeling the need for speed. His bosses have him in their line of fire, but he remains the best navy test pilot around and commands respect from his flying colleagues.

There is a seemingly impossible mission to blow up an Iranian uranium enrichment plant and Maverick is dispatched to train up an elite team of graduates for the task.

Expect some breathtaking aerobatic displays which, judging by the critics and not entirely surprisingly, outstrip those of the original.

Geoffrey Macnab, writing in i , said “the aerial photography is every bit as spectacular as you would expect”.

The sequel, he adds, “defies cynicism and confirms Tom Cruise’s status as Hollywood’s ‘mission leader’ when it comes to blockbusters ”.

Deadline Hollywood praised the film saying it “tops the original in every way imaginable” adding it is “an example of Hollywood filmmaking at its zenith”.

The original Top Gun was released on 16 May, 1986 and went on to become one of the most famous films of the 80s.

In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, deeming it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Is the flying real?

Cruise is well known for doing his own stunts, and he has built that reputation through decades of action films such as the Mission Impossible and Jack Reacher movies.

“People had asked for a sequel for decades,” Cruise told the PA News service. “And the thing I said to the studio from the beginning was: ‘If I’m ever going to entertain this, we’re shooting everything practically. I’m in that F/A-18, period.”

The cast of Maverick underwent serious training in how to cope in the air, meaning the footage you see is in fact real, not CGI.

The course was developed by Cruise, lated three months, and included tuition in underwater evacuation, aerial aviation and flight itself.

They were also prepared for the dynamic pressures of G-force.

They started in single-engined planes, moved on to a Czech-designed jet trainer called the Aero L-39 Albatros, and then the F-18 Super Hornet.

Miles Teller, who plays ‘Rooster’ the son of ‘Goose’ from the original film, explained: “We trained for this for a long time, Tom had us in a flight programme for several months before we ever started filming.

“But it was never something you really ever got, like, super comfortable with, at least for me. It was something that every time I went up, it really tested me and I felt like I wanted to puke pretty much every time.”

The team also learned to operate cameras and about cinematography as they were essentially filming themselves up there.

But were they actually in control of the aircraft?

Despite this training the Navy did insist on having trained officers at the controls of the F-18 Super Hornet, which is worth £56m.

Glen Roberts, the chief of the Pentagon’s entertainment media office, said a regulation bars non-military personnel from controlling a Defence Department asset other than small arms in training scenarios.

Instead, the actors rode behind F/A-18 pilots, and external shots are of trained Navy pilots.

Cruise, who has been a licensed pilot since 1994, did fly a P-51 propeller-driven fighter plane and a few helicopters for the movie.

The planes aircraft carriers and military bases are also real locations.

Who else stars in the Top Gun: Maverick ?

The cast includes:

• Tom Cruise as Captain Peter “Maverick” Mitchell, a test pilot
• Miles Teller as Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw
• Jennifer Connelly as Penelope “Penny” Benjamin
• Val Kilmer as Lieutenant Tom “Iceman” Kazansky
• Jon Hamm as Vice Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson
• Ed Harris Rear Admiral Chester “Hammer” Cain

It was directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and long-time Cruise collaborator, Christopher McQuarrie.

Top Gun: Maverick is dedicated to the director of the original Top Gun , Tony Scott, who died in 2012.

Lady Gaga has co-written Hold My Hand , the lead song for the sequel’s soundtrack’s.

Those who remember the original Top Gun will recall its big hit song was Berlin’s You Take My Breath Away . It won an Oscar for Best Original Song.

When is Top Gun: Maverick released?

It is set for release in UK cinemas on 27 May.

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What Planes Does Tom Cruise Own? Can He Fly A Jet?

By Ken Hyde

Last updated: February 27, 2024

Tom Cruise is famous for his charming persona, exceptional acting skills, and self-made action scenes that capture the hearts of movie buffs worldwide. His fame has brought him a huge fortune, including an impressive airplane collection worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But can Tom Cruise fly a jet? Take a moment to explore!

In this article:

Tom cruise’s planes :  embodiment of luxury.

Tom Cruise owns a fleet of 4 planes, with some ownership still under speculation. The most famous one is the P-51 Mustang that featured in Top Gun: Maverick. His remaining jets include Gulfstream IV G4 , HondaJet HA-420 , and Bombardier Challenger 300 . All are luxurious and highly valued.

P-51 Mustang

Fans of the iconic movie Top Gun are no strangers to the vintage P-51 Mustang that appears in the final scene alongside Maverick and Rooster. However, not many people know about its owner – Tom Cruise himself.

This Mustang was a single-seat fighter aircraft built during World War II. In 1944, it was produced at the Dallas assembly plant by North American Aviation with serial number 111-36123. Unlike the D models, it features an 11-foot aeroproducts prop, later replaced by a Ham-Stan one for safety purposes. This version also has a unique canopy and a pair of K-24 cameras.

Initial ownership of the P-51 belonged to the U.S. Army Air Force , Civil Air Patrol, and other wealthy individuals. It wasn’t until 2001 that Tom Cruise bought it for an estimated $4 million and stationed it in California.

At one point, the A-list actor decorated the warbird’s side with “Montana Miss” and “Kiss Me, Kate” as a heartfelt gesture to his wife. Unfortunately, recent proof shows that these quotes have disappeared following their separation.

In addition to his former spouse, Cruise has taken some celebrities, such as Jennifer Connelly or James Corden, on a hair-raising flight on the P-51. While Connelly expressed her enjoyment with this incredible experience, the host of “The Late Late Show” suffered from insecurity due to safety concerns.

Gulfstream IV G4

The private jet is one of the most expensive possessions in Cruise’s multi-million-dollar collection. It is a testament to his wealth, with a value of up to 20 million USD .

But what makes this acquisition impressive is the origin of this model. The Gulfstream IV was produced within eight years, from 1985 to 2015 . Most models were sold to the military and government. The fact that Cruise owns one of these and renovates the interior to his taste shows the caliber of his connections behind the curtain.

His private jet embodies luxury and comfort. Its lavish interior overwhelms anyone, even when you only witness it on screen. The large cabin includes 19 seats with plush backrests and soft cushions. But the most outstanding features are the private movie theater and Jacuzzi bathtub, taking your in-flight entertainment to new heights at 40,000 feet. In addition, Cruise also equipped it with a convenient sofa bed and a spacious bathroom with all the essentials.

In addition to comfort, Gulfstream IV is recognized for its high performance. Powered by two Rolls-Royce Tay 611-8 turbofan engines, it serves a range of 4,220 nautical miles (~ 7,815 km) and a maximum speed of Mach 0.88 (~ 675 mph) . That being said, it is the perfect choice to cater to the travel needs of the Hollywood movie star.

HondaJet HA-420

While there’s no official confirmation that Cruise owns this plane, plenty of strong evidence points in that direction. Many sources, such as SlashGear, Bizjournals, or Globalair, have reported on his ownership since 2019.

It’s said that Cruise used the HondaJet HA-420 number N77VA to fly to Burbank airport before taking James Corden on a thrilling flight in his P-51 Mustang.

The HA-420 features two engines and eight seats. At the maximum altitude of 43,000 feet, it reaches around 500 mph and covers a range of 1,200 nautical miles.

Bombardier Challenger 300

This plane is believed to be a part of Cruise’s aviation collection. Though the superstar actor never confirmed this rumor, Celebrity Jets’ Twitter account indicated that Cruise landed a Challenger 300 at Kerry Airport 12 minutes after taking off from Shannon.

The plane features dual engines with 10 seats. It operates for approximately 3,220 miles at a maximum speed of 460 mph and an altitude of 45,000 feet.

Does Tom Cruise Have A Pilot’s License ? 

YES. Cruise’s dedication to aviation extends far beyond the usual penchant for high-end vehicles. His hobby motivated him to pursue and obtain a certificate to become a licensed pilot in 1994. That said, he can handle many aircraft types , similar to how he acted on the silver screen.

Is Tom Cruise a real pilot? Interestingly, he actually takes the role of pilot on screen in real life. 

What Jets Were Used In Top Gun 1986?

The F-14A Tomcat takes the spotlight in the original Top Gen. In addition, there are a few other aircraft, such as the Northrop F-5, Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, and Grumman KA-6D.

Can Tom Cruise Fly An F-18?

Unfortunately, no. Even though Tom Cruise performed many of the action scenes himself in Top Gun 2, he is not qualified to pilot a military aircraft, according to the U.S. Navy.

Was The F-22 Used In Maverick Top Gun ?

The F-22 Raptor did not appear in Top Gun despite audience expectations. The filmmakers omitted this famous military aircraft as it did not fit the movie context set in the Navy. Additionally, its limited interior space prevents filming spectacular footage from inside the cockpit.

Why Didn’t They Fly The F-35 In Top Gun?

Similar to the F-22, filmmakers found it impossible to shoot from inside the F-35’s cockpit because of its single-seat design.

Does Tom Cruise own a fighter jet? Undoubtedly, YES. It is impossible to confirm the exact number of luxurious aircraft and fighter jets that Tom Cruise owns unless you break into his private hangar in Burbank. 

Regardless, all of the gems listed above prove the wealth of this famous actor and his exceptional pilot skills. We will update this list as soon as we have the latest information. Stay tuned!

See more: What Motorcycle Does Maverick Ride in Top Gun 1 & 2? Did Helen Keller Fly A Plane On Her Own?

Ken W Hyde is the founder of The Wright Experience™ . He is passionate about antique airplanes and has restored many of the Wright brothers' planes, including the 1918 Curtiss Jenny and the 1903 Wright Flyer . He is also a pilot and mechanic who has worked for Capital Airlines, Bendix Corporation, and American Airlines.

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Did Tom Cruise Learn to Fly for 'Top Gun'? Here's What You Need to Know About the Aviation Buff

Apr. 21 2020, Updated 11:26 a.m. ET

Everyone's talking about the Top Gun: Maverick trailer and Tom Cruise flying jets in the highly anticipated movie sequel. Many people have been wondering if that's really Tom in the pilot's seat and if he learned to fly for the movie. Here's what you need to know.

Did Tom Cruise learn to fly for 'Top Gun'? The star is actually a real pilot! 

Tom fell in love with aviation while filming the original Top Gun , which was released in 1986. He got his private pilot's license in 1994 and has been active in the flying community ever since. In an interview with Wired , 

Tom confirmed he's a multi-engine instrument rated commercial pilot. That means you could legally hire him to fly you across the country, but we're guessing Tom's schedule is pretty booked up these days.

So is that really him flying the plane in Top Gun: Maverick? 

Yes and no. Tom loves to do his own stunts, and he is fully capable of flying a private plane — but some of the fighter jets in the Top Gun sequel can only be piloted by aviators with military experience. 

In 2018, Paramount confirmed (via Fighter Jets World ) that while Tom does fly "certain aircraft" in Top Gun: Maverick , he will not be flying the F/A-18 fighter jets. That's what editing and CGI are for!

View this post on Instagram Maverick is back. #TopGun A post shared by Tom Cruise (@tomcruise) on Jul 18, 2019 at 12:58pm PDT

Top Gun: Maverick is "a love letter to aviation." 

When introducing the Top Gun: Maverick trailer at Comic Con, Tom told Conan O'Brien the movie was "a love letter to aviation."

"The aerial footage is really beautiful," he said of the film. "I'm a pilot myself, and I love flying, and I love aviation." Tom said his dream, since he was a little kid, "was to make movies and to fly airplanes." With Top Gun: Maverick, he gets to do both on an epic scale. 

This isn't Tom's first flying movie. 

He portrayed real-life TWA pilot turned drug smuggler Barry Seal in the 2017 film American Made, and in 2018's Mission Impossible — Fallout, Tom pulled off a death-defying stunt in a helicopter. He actually got his helicopter pilot's license so he'd be able to fly the real choppers in the film .

"We're always flying from one place to another because Tom's needed in so many places," Mission Impossible — Fallout' s stunt director Wade Eastwood told Thrillist ,. "I would always fly the choppers because I love helicopters and I'm a pilot. Tom is a great pilot, fixed-wing, and he got really into helicopters because they are just cool." 

View this post on Instagram Over 100 jumps - we got it. A post shared by Tom Cruise (@tomcruise) on Jun 12, 2018 at 11:38am PDT

Putting an A-list movie star like Tom into these intense, high-flying scenes is high-risk and high reward, though. As Eastwood explained, "With Tom Cruise, I've got to make it as safe and as powerful and spectacular, but also if he's slightly damaged, we can't shoot anything else."

It's a good thing they're careful, because the world needs more Tom Cruise action movies. 

The New Top Gun: Maverick trailer looks awesome.

Paramount just released the new trailer for Maverick that spills the beans on a few more plot points. The trailer opens up with someone narrating the exploits of Tom Cruise's character to a bunch of new recruits that he's training. In the lineup is Goose's son, played by Miles Teller, who's rocking a mustache, just like his dad did in the first film.

Among his lauded characteristics is the fact that he was "one of the finest pilots" that the Top Gun "program has ever produced" and that his work is "legendary". We also learn that Maverick's been asked back to lead the program, despite the fact that even he admits he didn't think he'd be asked back.

What's really cool is that the soundtrack also seems to play heavily on '80s nostalgia.

There's some awesome synth lines blaring over epic-looking shots, and we're treated to a scene of Maverick wrecking the other pilots in a "dog-fighting" two-on-one match. We also see a glimpse of Jon Hamm, looking very concerned, and tempers flaring between new recruits. We also know that a big death occurs in the movie, as we catch yet another shot of Maverick saluting someone at the funeral.

Does Goose's son suffer the same fate as his father in the new movie? We're also treated to what looks like an aerial battle shot in snow-capped mountains. Will the new movie follow the same plot format as the first film? With a bunch of recruits rising about shallow disputes in a high-stakes, competitive environment, only to take their battle skills to a real-life combat scenario?

We will see when Top Gear: Maverick hits theaters on June 26th, 2020. Are you excited to see Tom Cruise back in action?

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Tom Cruise Owns More Than One Plane – Here Are The Coolest In His Fleet

O ne of Tom Cruise's most famous movie roles is that of fighter pilot Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, a part he first brought to the screen in 1986 in "Top Gun" and reprised in last year's "Top Gun: Maverick."

Both films feature plenty of shots of Cruise behind the controls of an aircraft, a position he is comfortable with off-screen as well. Cruise earned his pilot's license in 1994 and has used the skill in previous films like "Mission Impossible: Fallout" and "American Made."

Cruise is famous for doing his own stunts, and going into the filming of "Top Gun: Maverick," he was determined to use as much real footage as possible and even wanted to fly Maverick's F-18 himself, but the Navy wouldn't let the actor behind the controls of their $70 million war machine. 

Cruise did, however, fly several other aircraft in the film, including helicopters and one of his own planes, a World War II-era fighter-bomber. Let's take a look at that aircraft and some of Cruise's other personal aircraft. (Cruise doesn't just collect aircraft, he also has several cars and other vehicles as well.)

Read more: The 10 Most Legendary Planes Of WW2 Ranked From Worst To Best

P51 Mustang

The military propeller plane Cruise flew in "Top Gun: Maverick" was a P-51 Mustang that was built in 1946 and purchased by Cruise in 2001. Paramount released a featurette about the plane, in which flight instructor and "Top Gun: Maverick" technical advisor Steve Hinton remarked, "There's still a lot of that pioneering spirit of aviation when you're flying a P51. I know Tom loves doing aerobatics, it's a wonderful plane to do aerobatics with." The video also shows Cruise taking co-star Jennifer Connelly for a ride in the plane, something she called "an incredible experience, certainly like nothing I've ever done before. And he's an amazing pilot," she added.

Cruise also took "The Late Late Show" host James Corden for a ride in the P-51, although Corden was noticeably unsettled to be flying in the vintage aircraft, particularly when Cruise warned him about the contingency plan should the plane's lone engine fail -- inverting the plane and ejecting Corden to parachute to the ground.

"I'm just going to turn over and I'm gonna plop you out of the plane," Cruise teased. 

"I don't want to be plopped out," an ashen-faced Corden responded. Cruise took Corden on a thrilling ride, even staging a mock dogfight with another P-51 pilot. 

Gulfstream IV

Cruise's fleet of planes is not limited to vintage fighter-bombers. Cruise reportedly travels in a Gulfstream IV, a $20 million jet equipped with a jacuzzi and private film screening room. The Gulfstream IV was first produced in 1985, just a year before the first "Top Gun" movie was released, and can be configured to carry a maximum of 19 passengers. The twin-engine craft has a maximum range of a little less than 5,000 miles and a top speed of 552 mph. 

Gulfstream made the IV for just eight years, producing only 862 of the model. Most of them were sold to government and military customers, but it's no surprise that a movie star of Cruise's stature and with his military connections was able to get his hands on one and outfit it with the equipment necessary to allow him to cruise the skies in comfort while also being able to review his latest work. 

HondaJet And Challenger 300

Jack Sweeney, who had a since-suspended account on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, was able to identify three other aircraft belonging to Cruise before his account was removed. One was a HondaJet HA-420 with the identification number N77VA, the same plane Cruise arrived at Burbank Airport with when he came to take Corden for a ride in his P-51 Mustang. The HA-420 has two engines, seats eight people, and can fly at a maximum altitude of 43,000 feet. It has a top speed of just under 500 mph and a range of just over 1,200 nautical miles. Sweeney also identified a Bombardier Challenger 300 as belonging to Cruise.

The Challenger is a twin-engine jet that typically seats eight people but can accommodate up to ten. It has a range of 3,220 miles, a top speed of 460 mph, and a maximum altitude of 45,000 feet. Cruise reportedly keeps all of his planes at a private hangar in Burbank, giving him easy access when it's time to take one for a spin.  

Read the original article on SlashGear .

NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Top Gun Maverick: Is Tom Cruise a qualified pilot?

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Top Gun: Maverick  has officially landed in UK cinemas with Tom Cruise returning as hotshot fighter pilot Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell.  

Three decades after the original  Top Gun  movie aired in 1986, the highly anticipated sequel sees Maverick return to the danger zone and teach the latest Top Gun recruits how to fly.  

The Mission Impossible actor had promised to deliver thrilling aviation scenes with some of the most complicated aerial sequences in film history. 

The action star is known for his commitment to doing his own stunts, even going so far as  breaking his ankle on Mission Impossible: Fallout with the footage still making the final movie.

From helicopters to fighter jets, the 59-year-old has demonstrated his aviation skills on screen, but was any of it real? 

Is Tom Cruise a qualified pilot? 

Tom Cruise has actually had a pilot’s licence for almost 30 years now, after securing his qualification in 1994. 

Cruise thought it was worth getting his licence after getting a taste for aviation in the original Top Gun film. 

The real-life action man also has a licence to fly helicopters and demonstrated his abilities in complex aerial sequences in Mission Impossible as well as Top Gun: Maverick.   

In fact, all the aerial sequences in the action-packed sequel are real. Not even one flight in the movie uses CGI, thanks to Cruise’s extensive flying training plan for the actors who had to take to the skies in the movie. 

Throughout the film, Cruise and his co-stars including Miles Teller as his former best friend Goose’s son fly P-51 propeller-driven fighter planes as the military pilots. 

The legendary actor recently showcased his skills for James Corden on the Late Late Show  as he took the Gavin and Stacey star to the Top Gun training school.

Corden was terrified as Cruise began the ascent in a small plane and he declared: ‘I’m going to go up in a 75-year-old plane with somebody who is not a pilot.’

However, Corden faced his fears and strapped in for a whirl in the fighter jet where Cruise let loose with his tricks and flips. 

Cruise sported his iconic smile as Corden bellowed expletives in his ear: ‘Oh my God, shut up! Oh God, you absolute b*****d.’

The actor teased: ‘We’ll just fly straight, just relax, just take it easy for a little bit’ before turning the plane upside down.

‘Oh b*****ks, oh f****ing hell!’ Corden shouted as Cruise beamed. 

Cruise’s rigorous training plan allowed the crew to film the flight sequences in a similar way to GoPro films created by Navy pilots. 

Special rigs were created to go allow six cameras to be fixed inside the cockpit to capture the aircraft and the actor in 6k resolution as they performed each stunt. 

MORE : Tom Cruise reveals how the amazing flight stunts in Top Gun: Maverick were shot

MORE : Top Gun: Maverick producer reveals biggest challenge to making sequel and Tom Cruise mantra that pulled them through

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Does Tom Cruise Really Know How To Fly Jets?

Tom Cruise has made headlines for a lot of unique reasons over the years, from his epic on-set rants to his volatile love life, passionate devotion to Scientology, celebrity feuds, and various disturbing truths that fans tend to ignore . Even his passion for aviation has often gotten folks talking, like when he accepted his 2023 MTV Movie & TV Award from a plane, took James Corden for a flight in a World War II P-51 Mustang, and intensified his weird relationship with the royals with a bizarre fly-by message to King Charles on coronation weekend.

Indeed, fans will know Cruise loves flying, and he's all about doing his own stunts. Remember his climb up Dubai's Burj Khalifa in "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol"? Yes, he really was 1,700 feet in the air, hanging by a thin wire. "The whole thing was one, extended, hair-raising moment," director Brad Bird told the  New York Daily News at the time. How about that scene in "Mission: Impossible Fall Out" where he's dangling off a helicopter? Yes, he did that too. "It's all Tom flying, 100% of it," stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood told the Los Angeles Times . Most impressive, however, are all of the scenes in which Cruise appears to be piloting various fighter jets, which has left many wondering whether the actor can really fly. We can explain.

Yes, Tom Cruise does really know how to fly

Tom Cruise doesn't just talk the talk — he loves flying, and he really does know how to fly. As he told Conan O'Brien in 2019, "As a little kid, I wanted to fly airplanes, and I wanted to make movies." With his work, he's found a way to combine the two, and many of his films, like "Top Gun: Maverick," are an ode to his beloved hobby. "I'm a pilot myself," he enthused. "I love flying, and I love aviation, so this is also just a love letter to aviation." This is why he demanded that he be allowed to fly an F-14 himself, and the studio agreed. "I went through all the pilot training, and then I filmed three flights in the F-14 in one day — it was a dream of mine," he said.

However, Cruise was flying long before then. He originally got his license in 1994, and as he told WIRED in 2017, he can indeed fly airplanes. "I'm a multi-engine instrument-rated commercial pilot," he explained. What's more, he can also pilot a helicopter and got his license so he could film his dream helicopter sequence for "Mission: Impossible – Fallout." Not too shabby! "I fly aerobatics in that," he shared . "I'm a commercially-rated helicopter pilot also." As the movie's stunt coordinator, Wade Eastwood, told Thrillist , Cruise also underwent stunt training and totally crushed it. "Tom is a great pilot," he applauded.

The military refused to give Tom Cruise access to one special plane

Tom Cruise's flight skills may garner plenty of confidence from his crew, but the US Navy didn't fully share that sentiment. In 2020, Cruise told Empire that when he and producer Jerry Bruckheimer started planning "Top Gun: Maverick," he wholeheartedly opposed the use of special effects and demanded that he be allowed to fly an actual F-18. However, despite being allowed to helm an F-14, Bruckheimer told Empire (via USA Today ), "The Navy wouldn't let him fly an F-18." Even so, his skills as a pilot are on full display in the flick. "He flies a P-51 in the movie and he flies helicopters," the producer shared. "He can do just about anything in an airplane."

As for those F-18 sequences, they had to get creative. They agreed to use two-seater F/A-18 Fs instead, so a professional could pilot the plane, the actor could be in the back, and CGI could take care of the rest. As "Maverick" stunt coordinator Kevin LaRosa II told GQ , it was the next best thing. "The beauty is that really is a shot of Tom in the back seat of that F-18, so he is there, being piloted by a genuine naval aviator," he enthused. What's more, Cruise told Channel 4 Sport , he was sort of allowed to fly the plane. "They let me have a stick in the back and a throttle, so there were times where they let me fly in fly formation," he said.

Inside the Flight Training Program Tom Cruise Personally Designed for the Stars of Top Gun: Maverick

Welcome to what his costars call the "Tom Cruise School of Being a Badass.” Hope you brought a barf bag.

That's why Cruise personally developed a rigorous months-long flight training program, which Danny Ramirez dubbed “the Tom Cruise School of Being a Badass” for the cast of Top Gun: Maverick . He wanted to ensure that he and his costars would be able to actually fly their own F-18 jets through the sky to capture the movie's—what's the word?— intense flying sequences. So those scenes where the aviators all look like they're being pummeled to the edge of unconsciousness by G-forces? That's because they are. The movie's crew dabbed the actors' make-up, ensured they knew where the cameras over their cockpits were placed—and then they let 'em fly.

So Men's Health asked Paramount Pictures to give us a crash course in what the movie's cast had to endure for the most intense pre-production film prep ever. Here's what they provided:

The Overview

Top Gun: Maverick’s new aviators had to complete a comprehensive and demanding five-month flight training program devised, coordinated and overseen by Cruise himself, receiving approximately 34 to 36 hours of cumulative flight training each, and personalized nightly feedback from him on their progress. As per his instruction, Cruise’s students worked their way up from Cessna 172 Skyhawks, to Extra 300s, to the L-39 Albatross, to – finally – the F/A-18 Super Hornets.

The Syllabus

The ASTC (Aviation Survival Training Curriculum) that Tom Cruise and all the new aviators on Top Gun: Maverick had to complete to qualify for the extensive flying sequences included classrooms on topics including: Acceleration/G-Forces, Altitude Physiology, Reduced Oxygen Breathing Device Training, Aeromedical Aspects of Ejection, and Aviation Life Support Systems, before proceeding to Ejection Seat Trainer and Virtual Parachute Descent/ Parachute Landing Fall/ Lateral Drift Training.

Water Training

The course then moved to an outdoor pool, for more physically demanding training, such as survival stroke, survival gear inflation and underwater problem-solving. Methods included being rotated underwater in an ejection seat and being dragged across the pool attached to a parachute, from which students had to disentangle themselves.

Enduring G-Forces

When shooting the flying sequences, the actors often had to sustain up to eight Gs (potentially up to around 1,600 pounds of pressure on the body) and had to wear G-suits designed to prevent blackouts and G-LOC (a G-induced loss of consciousness).

Five real Navy bases were used as shooting locations in Top Gun: Maverick : Naval Air Station North in San Diego, Naval Air Station Lemoore in the Mojave Desert, the highly secretive Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California’s Central Coast, Naval Air Station Fallon (the current home of the TOPGUN program, although North Island is depicted as ‘Fightertown USA’ in the film) in Nevada, and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington State.

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Tom Cruise Created a Flight-Training Program for Top Gun: Maverick

Along with his deep ties to Scientology , Tom Cruise is also known for his commitment to real stunts. So it should come as no surprise he wanted the actors in Top Gun: Maverick to actually deliver their lines from the cockpits of moving F/A-18 planes. “I wasn’t ready to make a sequel until we had a special story worthy of a sequel and until technology evolved so we could delve deeper into the experience of a fighter pilot,” Cruise said in a promotional video for the movie.

Without proper preparation, however, g-forces exerted on the body by acceleration can result in illness or a dangerous loss of consciousness. To combat that, he personally designed a rigorous monthlong program that introduced his co-stars to different jets and instructors as they learned to fly and slowly built up their g-force tolerance. According to Men’s Health , the aspiring aviators eventually had to sustain up to eight g’s, or around 1,600 pounds of pressure. The cast — including Monica Barbaro, Glen Powell, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Miles Teller, and Lewis Pullman — filled out daily forms for Cruise to review until they were ready for real Navy pilots to take them up in F/A-18s equipped with six IMAX-quality cameras. (The Pentagon reportedly does not allow nonmilitary personnel to operate F/A-18s.) From puking to getting personalized feedback, here’s what Cruise’s co-stars have described going through during the Top Gun training made by “Maverick” himself.

Miles Teller (Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw)

“Nothing bonds a cast together more than collective suffering,” Teller said in the Cannes production notes for Top Gun: Maveric k. “I think, when you’re going through something and you know how tough it is yourself, and you look to the left of you and to the right of you and you see that person going through it, it kind of pushes you a little harder and further than you would normally go. It’s so unique for us that we will only be able to talk about this with each other for the rest of our lives.” Ahhh, trauma bonding.

Teller explained to Men’s Journal that all the elements of Cruise’s training, even breathing techniques, were utilized during the final sequences shot in the F/A-18s. “Every single day of the shoot we were really getting after it,” he said. “Up until the very last day people were fainting and puking.” In fact, Teller told London Live that he personally felt like vomiting every time he went in the air. “It’s funny,” he said, pausing to chuckle with the interviewer. After a moment, however, he added, “Wasn’t so funny for me.”

Monica Barbaro (Lt. Natasha “Phoenix” Trace)

In the Cannes production notes , Barbaro credited Cruise’s training program with preparing her not only to act in the planes but also turn cameras on and off, check makeup, fix props, and communicate with pilots. She explained to The Wrap that Cruise’s “perfect” training program also included minute-by-minute rehearsals with a pilot in a fake plane so that actors could plan when to say their lines. “It was pretty intense,” she said. “We got to watch Tom do it a few times. I was the first person of us pilots to do it. I was the guinea pig.” And while the cast had to go through all the rigorous flight training before even stepping on set, per the New York Daily News , Barbaro made it clear that the work continued during the ten-month shoot. “If we ever had a day off from filming, we would be sent over to the airport to go fly … to keep sustaining Gs,” she said. “It would’ve been a huge disservice to get out of shape.”

Lewis Pullman (Lt. Robert “Bob” Floyd)

Pullman didn’t mince words when it came to describing the experience of g-forces. “It felt like you had an elephant sit on top of you,” he told the Daily News . “You’re trying to keep all the blood to your brain so you don’t pass out, and you’re trying to remember your lines and you’re trying to look cool doing it.” Or as he later put it to The Ringer , “It’s sort of like your spine is sliding back into the chair and a rhinoceros just popped a squat on your lap.”

Pullman said that Cruise’s training regimen condensed two years of flight training into three months, covering everything Cruise wished he’d been taught on the original Top Gun. According to Pullman, one of the planes used during training actually allowed the cast to pull more g’s than needed for the final shoot. “So if we could master that without a G-suit, once we got up in the F-18s, it would be like we had been running with weights on,” he explained.

He was also impressed by the tailored feedback that came with the program. Initially, Pullman said, the cast thought that no one was reading the evaluation forms they were asked to fill out every day. “But whenever we saw Tom, he would come up to us and say, ‘Hey man, I saw that on your last flight you had a little trouble pulling zero Gs. Here’s what I do,’” Pullman recalled. “It was like, ‘Holy smokes, Tom Cruise is taking the time out of his jam-packed day to give me personal tips.’”

Danny Ramirez (Lt. Mickey “Fanboy” Garcia)

In an interview with Men’s Health , Ramirez called the intensive training program “the Tom Cruise School of Being a Badass.” He added that logging more than 40 hours of flight time “pulling mad Gs” taught him “the art of puking and rallying.” Before he shot Top Gun: Maverick , Ramirez apparently had never known how to recover after vomiting. “So in a confined space, and to be able to push through it, I was very proud of it,” he told The Ringer. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to be cut out of this movie.’” He also shared his admiration for his co-stars who were going through the same training, noting that Barbaro “for sure never puked,” despite pulling the most g’s on the EA-300. “But Lewis [Pullman] has the most grit of anyone I’ve ever met,” Ramirez recalled. “He was going to puke and instead said, ‘Not today,’ and swallowed it all back down.”

Jay Ellis (Lt. Reuben “Payback” Fitch)

“Flying commercial is boring now,” Ellis said when TMZ stopped him, appropriately, outside of LAX. He told the A.V. Club that Cruise’s commitment to reading everyone’s daily questionnaires was humbling. The cast submitted responses on a computer that were then sent to Cruise. “The next day you would get an email from Tom,” Ellis recalled. “And he would say, ‘Hey, I read your questions last night. Going to add a few more days to your flight training. Does next week work for you?’” But Ellis’s training takeaways weren’t limited to aviation. According to Ellis’s interview with Men’s Health , Cruise taught him to keep viewers engaged by being conscious of camera movements, which he later brought to his roles on Mrs. America and season four of Insecure . The skill seems like it’d be useful on any set, but especially so on Top Gun: Maverick, given that director Joseph Kosinski estimated that every 60 to 70 minutes of acting in the sky translated to a mere minute of usable footage.

Greg Tarzan Davis (Lt. Javy “Coyote” Machado)

Davis told The Ringer that he lied during his audition for Top Gun: Maverick and said that he was not afraid of heights. As you might expect, that meant he had some fears to face when it came to flight training. But according to the cast, the training was set up to explain the mechanics and physics of what would happen on the plane before they took flight. “Tom makes sure you feel comfortable with it, then he lets the instructors do what they need to do,” Davis said.

Still, he faced his own physical challenges while in the air taking g’s. In addition to g-forces distorting his face so much that it looked like the life in his body “drained out,” he struggled with motion sickness. Due to the camera setup, he could not look at the horizon to settle his stomach. “You have to look inside the cockpit — that makes you even sicker,” he said. Like his fellow onscreen pilots, Davis also praised Cruise for actively responding to the training questionnaires in hopes of improving the learning experience. “He’s like the greatest Yelp reviewer ever,” Davis said.

Glenn Powell (Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin)

At CinemaCon , Powell explained that Cruise put together the training program so that his co-stars wouldn’t be puking or passing out in government assets. “Half the shots in this movie, I’m literally holding a bag of my puke,” he admitted, noting that pulling g’s was incredibly painful. “Every time we went up there you have to mentally brace for a fight,” he said. “You get on the ground and you’re exhausted. That’s what’s impressive about Tom. He’s flying more than anyone in the movie — he would fly three times a day.” Powell told The Ringer that breathing in the face masks for pilots required pushing out and sucking in air nearly to the point of hyperventilation. Cast members also had to learn to do a flexing maneuver to keep blood from rushing away from the brain and to the legs. But whenever the said maneuver was executed incorrectly? “You can see the tunnel start to close in and you’re like, ‘Oh no,’” Powell said. “You just try to keep pushing blood back in your head so you don’t black out.”

Still, with Cruise in the lead, the training program was inspiring to his younger co-stars. According to Powell, the seasoned actor gave “all the young guns” on the film an iPad with Ground School, which would allow them to study to become pilots in real life. “I started flying on my own, and Tom was with me every step of the way,” Powell said. “After I got my private pilot’s license, there was a note waiting for me on the ground from Tom that said, ‘Welcome to the Skies.’”

• top gun: maverick
• on the record
• monica barbaro
• glen powell
• greg tarzan davis
• danny ramirez
• miles teller
• lewis pullman

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Welcome to Tom Cruise’s Flight School for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

If there was to be a sequel to the ’80s classic ‘Top Gun,’ it was going to need to be even better than the original—and way more realistic. Before the movie hits theaters, the cast of ‘Maverick’ explains what it took to become on-screen pilots.

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In the middle of shooting Top Gun , producer Jerry Bruckheimer realized he had a huge problem: With the exception of Tom Cruise, all the actors playing Navy pilots kept vomiting in the cockpit. “Their heads were down, and when they got their heads up, their eyes were rolling back,” Bruckheimer says. “It was terrible. They were all sick.”

On a scrappy budget with clunky 1980s technology, an untrained cast, and new studio leadership, filming eventually moved to an L.A. soundstage, where those actors could settle their stomachs while pretending to fly on a gimbal instead. The disrupted, piecemealed experience stuck with Cruise long after—despite the movie’s eventual massive box office success and canonization as a modern classic, the A-list actor had little desire to revive Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. “Originally, I wasn’t interested in doing a sequel,” he told Total Film magazine , at least not until technology—and his castmates—could “put the audience inside that F-18.”

Three decades later, Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski flew to Paris to convince him they could. During a 20-minute break on the set of Mission: Impossible—Fallout , Kosinski pitched a sequel centered on Cruise’s aging fighter pilot and his strained relationship with his best friend Goose’s son. “I wanted it to be a rite-of-passage story for Maverick,” says Kosinski, who tried appealing to his star’s extremist sensibilities by promising to shoot everything practically. The director had seen Navy pilots use GoPros on their flights, documenting a first-person experience above the clouds that was “better than any aerial footage I’d seen from any movie,” he says. “I showed that to [Tom] and said this is available for free on the internet. If we can’t beat this, there’s no point in making this movie—and he agreed.”

Over the next 15 months, Kosinski collaborated with naval advisers and aerospace corporations, building six specialized IMAX cameras for an F-18 cockpit, mapping out highwire action sequences through tight canyons, and developing a specialized “CineJet” with aerial coordinator Kevin LaRosa II to capture it all from the air. “A lot of what we did was cutting-edge,” LaRosa says. “That technology came to fruition as the story came to fruition, and Top Gun: Maverick became a real thing.” At the same time, Cruise started his own preparations, vetting a cast of young pilots—Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jay Ellis, Monica Barbaro, Greg Tarzan Davis, Lewis Pullman, and Danny Ramirez—before developing a specialized flight training gauntlet so that everyone could conquer the sky. “He knew the goal was to not only get his footage in the plane, but to get them all in the planes,” Kosinski says. “He just wanted them to be prepared, and he knew exactly what it was going to take.”

Leaning on years of his own piloting experience, Cruise put together a detailed aviation curriculum, connecting actors with trusted flight instructors, building up their G-force tolerance to unthinkable levels, and readying their transition into the F-18 cockpit. The result is breathtaking, a collage of immersive, madcap flying sequences and high-octane performances—a testament to Cruise’s unrelenting drive to pack as much thrill-seeking euphoria into Top Gun: Maverick as humanly possible. “He will do whatever it takes to give audiences the ride of a lifetime,” Powell says. “It’s so infectious to be a part of.”

Part 1: “I Never Signed That Waiver.”

Because Top Gun: Maverick would be shot practically, Kosinski and Bruckheimer needed actors who were unafraid to fly and could subject themselves to intensive training. Not everyone who auditioned was truthful right away.

Joseph Kosinski (director): I made it very clear from the very first meeting: We’re going to shoot this for real. This means you’re going in a real F-18 and flying in these scenes. A lot of people tapped out.

Lewis Pullman (Robert “Bob” Floyd): You go to an audition like that and you’re like, “Damn, that would be cool but it’s never going to happen.” Then they said, “We want to sign you up as long as you’re not scared of flying.” I fly all the time commercially—Spirit Airlines, all the greats. They were like, “It might be a little different than that.”

Monica Barbaro (Natasha “Phoenix” Trace): Joe asked me if I was afraid of flying, to which I said, “No”—then he told me that we’d be flying in jets. I got goosebumps.

Greg Tarzan Davis (Javy “Coyote” Machado): I lied to Joe. I was just given a piece of paper for the audition saying, “Are you afraid of flying?” “Are you afraid of heights?” Of course I said, “No.”

Danny Ramirez (Mickey “Fanboy” Garcia): We had to sign a paper before we stepped into the audition room because otherwise I would have lied to him, and that would have started the relationship on the wrong foot.

Glen Powell (Jake “Hangman” Seresin): I keep hearing all the other guys talk about signing a waiver that you were not afraid of flying. I never signed that waiver.

Pullman: It kind of snuck up on me what we were really doing. They were like, “You’re going to actually fly in these planes.”

Ramirez: I was absolutely terrified whenever I was on commercial flights. My routine was two glasses of wine and Bose headphones to tune everything out.

Kosinski: I looked at hundreds of actors, narrowed it down to my favorite two or three [for each role] and then I sat with Jerry and Tom and, drawing on their decades of experience, we selected our final team.

Jerry Bruckheimer (producer): You look at their body of work, you look at who they are. They sit down in front of you, look you in the eye, and you can tell that they’re committed and that they want to advance their career through a movie like Top Gun .

Kosinski: I think it’s gut instinct, really.

Barbaro: I genuinely love flying. I told Joe in the room that I weirdly enjoy turbulence, and he quietly looked down at his notes like, “OK.” I was like, “That was a weird thing to say.” And then later I thought about it—that was probably the perfect thing to say.

Powell: None of that stuff had ever fazed me. One of the reasons I decided to sign on to the movie was the opportunity to be in the back of real F-18s and shoot this thing all practically. I didn’t want to pass it up. I was all in.

Ramirez: The first week, Monica was like, “It’s crazy this is going to be the peak of our careers,” and Tom’s like, “No, no, no, don’t you repeat that.” He’s like, “We didn’t just cast you guys because you’re great for [your roles]. We cast you because we think you’re going to be the next great movie stars.”

Part 2: “It Feels Like You’re Strapped in by a Couple Shoelaces.”

As part of Cruise’s extensive training program, actors learned to fly inside single-engine Cessnas before graduating to the EA-300 and L-39—aerobatic planes capable of pulling more G’s—to mimic the feeling of being inside an F-18.

Pullman: Tom had personally designed a training regimen that would basically condense two years of flight training into three months—and it was all done in a way that Tom had wished he’d had for himself on the original Top Gun .

Kosinski: He’s a licensed pilot. He flies aerobatics, he flies helicopters, he’s very familiar with what it takes to be in these planes.

Ramirez: Before we even got on a flight, they taught us about what creates lift and the physics of flight. That popped the bubble of fear for me.

Davis: Tom makes sure you feel comfortable with it, then he lets the instructors do what they need to do.

Kevin LaRosa Jr. (aerial coordinator): My dad and I started training all the cast in Cessna 172s. Where to look, how to talk on the radio, how to take off and land, basic flying technique—where and how to look like pilots while flying.

Barbaro: We never flew solo because legally you can’t unless you have a pilot’s license, but we got to a point where we were talking with the tower.

Powell: I’d been cast first, so I’d had a couple more opportunities to be in the Cessna. But I’d never done a takeoff and landing.

Ramirez: We showed up at Van Nuys Airport. I see Glen’s car parked with a big Texas license plate, and I’m like, “Oh, I’ve seen this guy from Scream Queens , he was pretty funny.”

Powell: I remember grabbing a Subway sandwich, getting to know each other in the parking lot. And then it’s like, “All right you guys, ready to fly?!”

Ramirez: It’s my first time, so I’m also a little nervous. As we’re on the runway and taking off, I’m looking at Kevin LaRosa Sr.’s hands, but they’re really relaxed, and they slowly start slipping off. I look over and we’re taking off because Glen is the one pulling back on the controls. I just panicked: Glen Powell from Scream Queens is the first person in this whole movie that’s taking me up in the air? What the hell?

Powell: We got up in the air and I could see he was kind of breathing a little heavier than normal. I looked back and said, “Everything good?”

Ramirez: We ended up flying for about an hour. He lands the plane, and I was like, “I would have never sat in that Cessna had I known that Glen was going to be the one that took me up.”

Powell: We were thrown in the deep end. The amount of trust that these guys had in us from the get-go was wild.

LaRosa: There were definitely actors who were very forward-leaning—fearless, loved every second of it. And then the normal person who’d be like, “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I’m going to do this.”

Barbaro: We moved on to an Extra-300, which does all kinds of crazy loops and can pull nine G’s with two people in it.

LaRosa: G-forces are created when we apply a velocity or direction change to mass. They can be formed by the jet changing direction. The best analogy is when you’re on a roller coaster and you enter a corkscrew or loop, you feel your body being pressed into the seat—that might only be two G’s.

Pullman: Tom figured you could pull more G’s in the Extra-300 than the F-18, so if we could master that without a G-suit, once we got up in the F-18s, it would be like we had been running with weights on.

Powell: It’s almost like you’re spiraling down in a tornado formation, and you get these big wide turns that get smaller and smaller to increase the G’s until you’re on the verge of blacking out.

Davis: I have video footage of my face being distorted to the maximum. All the life drained out of my body.

Pullman: When you go inverted and you’re upside down, you’re just dangling over nothing. It feels like you’re strapped in by a couple shoelaces. I basically took it upon myself to go skydive. I was like, “If I can jump out of a plane willingly, then I can do all this stuff.”

Powell: Monica and I had this amazing competition every time where we could see who could pull more G’s. You’d do these fake bombing runs over and over, and I think Monica and I got to 6 or 7 at one point. That girl is tough.

Barbaro: We moved on to an L-39 jet. We did some dogfighting with each other, and then we got to fly in the F-18s. And then as refreshers we would fly in the EA-300 just to keep up with our training.

Pullman : We would do these little surveys after each flight. You write down how many G’s you pulled, what maneuvers you did, what challenges you may have had.

Davis: It was like a review-all questionnaire. How do you feel up there? What did you learn? How can we improve on your experience to make you more comfortable?

Pullman: In the beginning, we were all just filling them out not really thinking, Who is reading this? But whenever we saw Tom, he would come up to us and say, “Hey man, I saw that on your last flight you had a little trouble pulling zero G’s. Here’s what I do.” It was like, “Holy smokes, Tom Cruise is taking the time out of his jam-packed day to give me personal tips.”

Kosinski: We had our hands full. It was great to have Tom.

Bruckheimer: He checked the log, found out if somebody didn’t show up. He made sure everybody was there and did what they had to do.

Davis: He’s like the greatest Yelp reviewer ever.

In addition to the aerial training, the cast also needed to pass a Naval Aviation Survival Training course to simulate an ocean landing.

Kosinski: For people who didn’t like to swim, it was really difficult.

Ramirez: Tarzan didn’t even know how to swim when the whole thing started. We all felt like little tadpoles, but our instructor was a U.S. Olympic coach.

Pullman: I grew up swimming a lot, but it’s still different from swimming. It was like forced drowning. They drag you on a zip line to simulate being ejected overseas.

Davis: We had to gear up in about 40 pounds of Navy equipment. The helo-dunker submerges itself in water and flips upside down—it’s a complete 180, and you’re tied to a chair and you have to make your way out through a window.

Pullman: You have to have one hand on some part of the cockpit at all points, and if you have both hands off, you get disqualified. It was a challenge, to say the least.

Davis: Then we had a few tries with blackout goggles on our faces, and that’s when Lewis tried to drown me. [ Laughs .] He couldn’t get out the window fast enough.

Pullman: I also had a 101-degree fever that day and I couldn’t change the appointment so I basically had to do it all while incredibly sick.

Powell: You’re literally in a washing machine under water blindfolded and strapped in.

Ramirez: Glen and I had just passed the blindfold test, but Tarzan had failed one of the runs, so Glen was like, “Let’s go in there with him out of solidarity.” I felt a little cocky like, “Hell yeah, I’ve done it already.” We’re upside down, and I keep trying to open this harness, and Glen’s like, “All right, see you later.”

Powell: I’m literally blindfolded trying to find my way out like he is. He tells this story like I looked at him in the eyes and then abandoned him. Danny, you know that’s not how it happened, man.

Ramirez: I’d forgotten the emergency sign for the scuba divers to pull me out. I was about to open my mouth and swallow a bunch of water. Finally the harness slightly opens up, I squiggle my way out of there, break through the window, breach, and take the biggest gasp of air I’ve ever taken. I went up to the guys: “You didn’t see me down there unable to get loose on the screens?” And they were like, “No dude, we thought you were just chilling, you looked so composed and collected.”

Powell: I thought it was really fun, but if you’re having trouble with your harness and something gets stuck, it’s a pretty scary environment. I never panicked, but that moment for Danny I know is pretty scary. If I knew he was having a problem I would have totally gone over to help him. But I had a blindfold on.

Pullman: At the end of the day, everyone was always checking in on each other, making sure nobody was falling behind. It felt like a very safe space and everyone wanted each other to succeed.

Ramirez: The swim element was more like trauma-bonding.

Part 3: “You Can See the Tunnel Start to Close.”

Though none of the actors actually flew F-18s by themselves, they rehearsed repeatedly on the ground with their professional pilots to mimic each other’s movements and maneuvers, making it easier to perform and stay coordinated in the air. Still, sustaining eight G’s and flying at low altitudes provided all kinds of challenges.

Kosinski: We would do a two-hour brief every morning where we would go through everybody’s work—storyboard by storyboard, line by line, where the sun had to be, what the terrain had to be, what the choreography of the planes had to be. We had to make sure the Navy pilots and actors were in perfect sync.

Pullman: That was pivotal. Once you’re up there in the cockpit, you’re kind of on your own. You can’t walk down to Joe Kosinski and be like, “Did we get that take? Can we move on?”

LaRosa: He can’t be in the air with his cast, so he’s so involved in the planning and briefing stage. We always went through the same formula: What are we going to do on this flight? How are we going to obtain all of that on this flight? And we end it with safety being paramount.

Kosinski: After that we would move to something called “the buck,” which was a plywood mockup of the F-18 cockpit with all the instruments and switches in the same place, but on the ground. We would walk through the entire day’s work shot by shot—spray the sweat on, turn the camera on, turn the camera off. It was a very tedious process to go through.

Pullman: Tom would sit on the outside of the buck and run the scene with you and give you direction and tips about how to make it more dynamic or more intense. Because these cameras are more stagnant and fixed onto the frame of the F-18, you have to kind of create your own dynamics within the frame.

Barbaro: There were four cameras facing us that were fastened to the cockpit, and two pointing toward the front of the plane over the shoulder of the actual pilot that was flying us.

Ramirez: As weapons system operators, [Lewis and I] had a tougher task of being back there and not looking in the direction we were flying. When we were banking to the right, we’re looking to the left.

Barbaro: We would have to sort of direct or remind our pilot exactly where to line up with the sun. For example, if I was flying in a certain direction in the morning and Lewis was flying with the same pilot later in the day, they had to fly in the opposite direction so that there was continuity.

Kosinski: I wanted it to be muscle memory because when you’re pulling six or seven G’s, you don’t want to think about anything.

LaRosa: Typically, jets would go on an hour-and-a-half mission, return, and then debrief. We’d sit there and watch all the footage with the pilots and the cast and Joe would say, “Oh I need you to look a little more this way, need you to fix your mask here, furrow your brow more.”

Powell: You’re running cameras, you’ve got to remember your lines, you’ve got to [remember] sun position and keep that consistent, know where the other airplane is so you don’t run into another aircraft, the altitude, the airspeed—all these things have to be together. When you’re up there, you’re the pilot in command, you’re the only one who is in charge of this stuff. It’s a very empowering experience.

During a training run in Top Gun: Maverick, in which the pilots must ascend at a vertical angle to eclipse a mountain peak, Coyote (Davis) blacks out at eight G’s and descends into a free fall before regaining consciousness. One of the movie’s most extreme scenes, it epitomizes the physical toll required to be an F-18 pilot.

Kosinski: It was one of the first sequences we shot, and it was such an important one because the footage that Tarzan got on that flight was so spectacular that when we put it on the big screen, it really motivated everybody.

LaRosa: There’s a shot from behind the F-18 slow-rolling toward the ground. That is a real, practical shot. That’s me in the CineJet chasing an F-18 toward the earth as if the pilot has passed out. We’re doing 400 miles per hour.

Pullman: What we learned in preparation of getting into the F-18 and pulling G’s was you have to do this thing called the “Hick maneuver” to stop the blood from leaving your brain and rushing to your legs. You flex from your calves, to your thighs, to your core, to your chest, to your head in succession so it flushes all the blood up to your head.

Davis: I realized if I were to do the Hick maneuver well, I’m not really passed out, and the audience would see that on camera. So as I’m going, I am literally dying not being able to do the Hick maneuver—and I still have to act.

LaRosa: For Tarzan, he’s on a jet rolling toward the ground.

Davis: I definitely have to trust my freaking pilot. He also played limp, so they could match the cut in the edit. I’m like “Yo, when are you going to pull up?” At one moment we were really close to the ground. Pull up! Pull up!

Kosinski: He swore to God he didn’t pass out, but we all think he might have.

Davis: People thought I really passed out. I did not—that was just some damn good acting.

Barbaro: It takes a lot of core strength and a lot of clenching to stay awake and control the aircraft.

LaRosa: You have like 1,700 pounds of pressure on your chest.

Pullman: It’s sort of like your spine is sliding back into the chair and a rhinoceros just popped a squat on your lap.

Powell: In order to breathe in those face masks, you have to push out air in order to suck in air, so you’re almost hyperventilating in order to breathe. If you’re not doing the Hick maneuver correctly, you can see the tunnel start to close in and you’re like, “Oh no.” You just try to keep pushing blood back in your head so you don’t black out.

Davis: When you have motion sickness, they say to look at the horizon and it will settle your stomach. You can’t do that in the F-18 because the cameras are directly in front of you. You have to look inside the cockpit—that makes you even sicker.

Powell: I’ve got to give Lewis and Danny credit as WSOs. They’re looking all around this canopy and when a turn happens, they’re looking in the opposite direction, which is the easiest way to get sick. It is brutal.

Pullman: I tried [Dramamine] on the first flight, but you have to be so cognitively alert. I couldn’t have any fog, I had to be incredibly sharp up there. So I had to find some ways to settle the stomach.

Ramirez: Lewis and I will be the first to admit that we puked.

Powell: You keep your puke bag in your leg pocket. Sometimes when you’re pulling these really dynamic maneuvers with high G’s, you can’t even bend your body to grab that bag.

Ramirez: You just open it up and send your lunch back down.

Davis: You have to push through, you have to rally. You have to know once you get down, everybody’s going to be watching you.

LaRosa: If someone goes out in an aircraft and gets sick, typically you’re done for the day. You feel washed out and tired, you want to rest. We got our cast to a level where they would get sick and fight through it. There’s no pulling over.

Powell: The rite of passage after every flight is you have to go straight from the plane to the briefing room. You would show your empty puke bag to kind of be like, “Did it.” So I would end up taking two puke bags back there—one to puke in and one to show. And then at a certain point I just owned it.

Ramirez: Monica for sure never puked. She was also the person that pulled the most G’s on the EA-300. But Lewis has the most grit of anyone I’ve ever met. He was going to puke and instead said, “Not today,” and swallowed it all back down.

Powell: I’d have a stick and throttle in the back, and if I could put my hand on the stick and throttle and do some kind of maneuvers, there was something mentally [about] controlling the aircraft instead of being a passenger, it changed everything.

Kosinski: Every day was a struggle for those pilots—and the Top Gun pilots themselves. If you haven’t flown in a week or two, and you get back in that jet, they get sick as well. But you have to just learn how to work through it.

Ramirez: In college, I never learned how to puke and rally. So in a confined space, and to be able to push through it, I was very proud of it. I was like, “I don’t want to be cut out of this movie.”

Part 4: “Tom Cruise Is Maverick.”

Cruise’s reputation as an extreme stunt performer and adrenaline junkie preceded his arrival to set, but throughout shooting Top Gun: Maverick , his ambition and daredevilish feats blended with his character and continued to defy the cast and crew’s expectations.

Kosinski: We were shooting the third-act scene in the snow-covered mountains at Whidbey Island. One day, the weather was so spectacular and we had so much work to do, so Tom flew three sorties in a day. Most of our actors would fly once a day. On the last flight, he came back to the debrief room. I could tell he was exhausted and he just sat down on the chair and he put his black Ray-Bans from Risky Business on. I was like, “How did it go?” And he said, “We crushed it.” And he did crush it.

Davis: At one point we were too high up above the canyons, and Tom saw the footage and was like, “This doesn’t work, there’s no danger in this.” And when he says it, you’re like, “Oh, God, Tom, no.”

Bruckheimer: They were 50 feet off the ground, it’s unbelievable. When the pilot got on the ground, he turned to Tom and said, “I’ll never do that again.” Tom pushes them. He said, “We’ve got to make this look real, we’ve got to do this right, it’s got to be a love letter to aviation. We’ve got to be able to make people feel what it’s like to be in one of these planes.”

Powell: The rules are not the rules, the accepted boundaries are not the accepted boundaries. He’s a guy that is constantly pushing everyone around them to do things they never thought were possible.

Barbaro: He really was an incredible resource. Not only did he design the entire aviation training course, but he also taught us how to make a film, how to study film. He would really look you in the eye, and talk to you, and make you feel heard.

LaRosa: There was one day where he came out of the parachute and helmet shop and passed me to the F-18. He was in his Maverick helmet and his full getup. I just remember looking at him going, “That’s Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell.” Instant goosebumps.

Davis: You’re like, “Wow, this is Maverick. This is the real life Maverick.”

Powell: Tom Cruise is Maverick.

Davis: What is Tom not good at? I remember I threw a pass to him [playing football] and he just went gunning. He took off down the sideline in the sand in jeans, and nobody was catching him. I was like “OK, I’m glad you’re on my team.”

Ramirez: I had just finished my last F-18 flight—we were doing a really intense sequence. We land, we’re in the briefing room, we show the footage. Tom is super excited. “Ah, you nailed it.” We’re all hyped. And then Tom’s like, “You heading back to L.A. today? Grab your bags.” So, Tarzan and I are flying back with Tom in his private jet. He’s like, “Yeah, I just bought this.” We land, and then he just jumps onto his motorcycle and hauls ass away. We’re like, “What the hell?” It was the most Hollywood thing I could have ever imagined.

Davis: He may seem intense, because what we’re doing is serious, but he’s a character.

Bruckheimer: I work with actors that can’t wait to go home. It’s so much fun when you have an actor like Tom who understands all this.

Powell: On this movie I’m doing next with Richard Linklater , Tom’s already given me notes on the script, how to build character. That level of TLC and the fact that I can actually call him a real friend … he’s not just bouncing after wrap, he’s really special.

Pullman: There was this moment where Tom brought us into his trailer to show us the first trailer of Top Gun: Maverick . I will always remember Glen Powell looking at Tom and sort of jokingly going, “Tom, you realize now the only way to top yourself is to shoot a movie in space.” Everyone was laughing. And with a sense of seriousness, Tom just nodded: “Yes, that’s true.” Like, this is what’s next for me, this is my duty . And I think he is going to space with Doug Liman .

Powell: You’ve got to watch saying things like that, because Tom will figure out a way to get there.

Part 5: “Welcome to the Skies.”

During the more than 10 months of shooting (and 800 hours’ worth of footage), Top Gun: Maverick pushed everyone’s technological, physical, and mental limits to the brink, creating an instant bond and camaraderie between the cast and crew.

LaRosa: It is no joke what they were doing every single day.

Kosinski: Nothing was easy on this film. We’d only get a few minutes of usable stuff every day, but it’s the only way to get what we got. That was the way it had to be done.

LaRosa: With practical aerial stunts and aerial cinematography, it’s a more visceral feel. You’re not watching a cartoon, you’re not looking at anything fake. You’re looking at something that actually happened. And that means something to people.

Bruckheimer: When the aerial stuff was done, that was my biggest relief. Machines can break, they can have problems. But the pilots were so terrific; the Navy was so great surrounding us with the best mechanics, best aviators—and the precautions that Tom took, which he always does, made sure our actors were all safe.

Barbaro: There was a scene we shot before we did all our pilot training. But after we learned how to become pilots, we apparently walked with more swagger. They were like, “Oh, you guys are walking differently, we have to go reshoot that scene.”

Davis: When you see us in the bar, those are some cocky mothersuckers in there. Why? Because we went through it.

Powell: I’m really proud to look back and go, “Wow, I accomplished way more than I ever thought was possible,” and it’s because of a guy like Tom, who has been pushing for 40 years.

Barbaro: It’s kind of incredible, we stay in touch all the time. Ten months after being in a particular character’s world, it takes a minute to shed that.

Kosinski: It was clear there was a natural chemistry there that got stronger as they went through the flight training and swim training—and the shoot itself.

Pullman: I definitely miss it. I miss going up there.

Powell: For Christmas, Tom gave all the young guns the iPad with ground school on it, and so we all had the opportunity to study it and pick it up.

Pullman: Everyone wants to continue their aviation journey in some sense or another.

Barbaro: I’m almost done with ground school. I’m kicking myself for not just doubling down during the pandemic, but I have every intention of doing it.

Powell: I started flying on my own, and Tom was with me every step of the way. After I got my private pilot’s license, there was a note waiting for me on the ground from Tom that said, “Welcome to the Skies.”

Davis: Tom got us skydiving lessons. Then we went through drifting lessons. Then weaponry training. Dirt bike lessons. I’ve done everything I can think of.

Pullman: I was craving those adrenaline spikes because there’s nothing like it.

Davis: There’s nothing I can say I’m afraid of. Maybe a bee. Other than that, I can do whatever the hell I want now.

Jake Kring-Schreifels is a sports and entertainment writer based in New York. His work has also appeared in Esquire.com, GQ.com, and The New York Times .

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Top gun 2: why tom cruise wasn't allowed to fly an f-18 fighter jet.

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How Fast Is Mach 10? What Speed Maverick Travels In Top Gun 2

Top gun 2: all 6 jet fighter planes that appear in maverick, how much of top gun 2 is real & how much is cgi.

• Tom Cruise insisted on prioritizing practical effects over CGI in Top Gun: Maverick , adding authenticity to the aerial action.
• Cruise originally wanted to fly a real Boeing F-18 fighter jet in the film, but the US Navy denied his request due to insurance concerns and the high cost of the plane.
• Cruise's dedication to doing his own stunts enhances the storytelling and creates a level of authenticity that can't be achieved in any other way.

Given the actor's reputation for wild stunts, it's not surprising that many viewers were wondering did Tom Cruise actually fly in T op Gun: Maverick . Joseph Kosinski's sequel has surpassed the original 1986 Top Gun with its box office success and a Best Picture nomination. Much of this has to do with how the movie prioritized practical effects over CGI, adding authenticity to the aerial action. That said, while it's no secret that Tom Cruise does his own stunts a lot, some of the tricks proposed for Top Gun: Maverick were a little too ambitious, even by Cruise's standards.

When it came to the long-awaited sequel, Cruise signed on for the project only with the assurance that the film's effects would not be reliant on CGI. Cruise was so ambitious, in fact, that he had initially hoped to fly a real Boeing F-18 fighter jet. A certified pilot, Top Gun: Maverick's Cruise is well-accustomed to high-octane aviation stunts . Many Cruise fans will already be aware that many of the more impressive helicopter stunts in 2018's Mission: Impossible - Fallout were performed by Cruise. However, Bruckheimer maintains that the US Navy ultimately denied Cruise's requests to fly the Super Hornet, which boasts a price tag in excess of $70 million.

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell becomes the fastest man alive as he travels faster than Mach 10, a speed that has never been achieved in real life.

Why It’s Sensible That Tom Cruise Wasn’t Allowed To Fly A Fighter Jet

The navy denied his application.

The Super Hornet jet does feature in the sequel, but Tom Cruise did not fly them in Top Gun: Maverick as those scenes were all completed with assistance from Navy pilots. According to producer Bruckheimer, Cruise does fly a P-51 propeller-driven fighter plane, as well as some helicopters. With the assistance of skilled editing, the action sequences are convincing to even the best-trained eye.

There's no confirmation about why the US Navy might have denied Cruise's aspirations to pilot a Super Hornet , even though the actor has experience flying Top Gun 's supersonic military aircraft . However, the most logical reason would be insurance concerns, which is always enough of a consideration to prevent actors from doing their own stunts.

The cost of the plane also figures into this – a real F-18 Super Hornet would make up roughly half of Top Gun: Maverick 's $152 million budget. That would be likely to create logistical nightmares for the insurance of the film. That's not even to mention insuring Cruise himself, who, though already a certified pilot, may not have the specific training required to fly the F-18 safely.

Insurance woes aside, should an inexperienced pilot such as Cruise lose control of a high-speed aircraft, it could also mean peril for civilians and/or military personnel on the ground. Besides, while Tom Cruise does his own stunts to great effect, the real Navy pilots in Top Gun: Maverick 's brought more than enough authenticity to the sequel.

Top Gun: Maverick put Tom Cruise back in the cockpit after three decades, but which specific jet fighter planes appear in the followup to Top Gun?

Why Does Tom Cruise Like To Do His Own Stunts?

A passion for story telling is why tom cruise doesn't use stunt doubles much.

The real reason why Tom Cruise does his own stunts is simple: it's the best way to tell whatever story is at hand . In the actor's own words, “It has to do with storytelling… It allows us to put cameras in places that you’re not normally able to do.” Indeed, if the lead actor in an action movie is able to physically perform the character's stunts, this removes the necessity to shoot from strange angles or use editing tricks to make dangerous scenes appear real. This ultimately translates to smoother action sequences and scenes closer to the writer, stunt coordinator, and director's vision.

Moreover, whenever Cruise puts himself in danger for a risky stunt, everyone involved - from the film crew to the audience - is much more invested in the results, a level of authenticity that simply can't be achieved in any other way. Outside of the Top Gun series, this stunning effect can also be observed in the stunt-filled Mission Impossible franchise .

The F/A-18 Super Hornet Requires An Advanced Pilot

The aircraft in top gun: maverick are among the hardest to fly.

While Tom Cruise did really fly in Top Gun: Maverick with certain aircraft, confirming his exceptional pilot skills, the F/A-18 Super Hornets are not the kind of plane just anyone can jump into and take off . It requires specially trained pilots to operate these aircraft given their immense power and the danger involved. Some of the impressive specifics about the plane (via: Military.com ) include its maximum speed of 1,190 mph and the ability to climb 45,000 ft per minute. Such power is needed as the Super Hornets have a 30,500 lb weight while empty which can increase to 66,000 lbs with its maximum weapons load.

It seems as though Tom Cruise will do anything for his stunts , and that likely includes the necessary training to handle an aircraft like this. However, even if he was denied that opportunity, the Super Hornets didn't come at a discounted price. It was reported (via Bloomberg ) that the movie r ented the Super Hornets from the U.S. Navy for over $11,000 an hour . However, given that Top Gun: Maverick more than surpassed box office expectations, it seems as though it was a price worth paying.

Top Gun: Maverick features plenty of thrilling flying sequences and stunts. Here's what was done for real by Tom Cruise and the cast and what was CGI.

Tom Cruise’s Wildest Stunt

Top gun: maverick isn't his most dangerous filming experience.

By Tom Cruise's own reckoning, the wildest and most dangerous stunt he's ever performed is when he hung on to a moving plane in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , the fifth movie in the MI series. Not surprisingly, for Tom Cruise, flying a Super Hornet would qualify as a less dangerous stunt, as that would have at least required the actor to be inside the plane. Although Cruise was harnessed to the plane in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation , no amount of safety precautions could account for all the inherent dangers involved with a person wearing virtually no protection while hanging onto a moving aircraft. This just goes to show the level of sheer dedication Cruise brings to his movie projects.

However, recently Cruise has suggested a new stunt in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 might be his wildest stunt yet, which involves Cruise jumping a motorcycle off of a cliff and then parachuting to safety. It is a stunt that took years of planning and training to get right and promises to be another spectacle from the dedicated actor. Clearly, even if Tom Cruise didn't really fly the F-18s in Top Gun: Maverick , he is not slowing down at all when it comes to his onscreen stunts.

Top Gun: Maverick

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Tom Cruise Paid for Glen Powell to Get His Pilot's License After Working on 'Top Gun: Maverick'

Tom Cruise and Glen Powell costar in the upcoming  Top Gun: Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell is officially a pilot — and it’s all thanks to Tom Cruise !

On Tuesday, Powell, 31, revealed on Instagram that he had received his pilot’s license after Cruise paid for his flight school as a Christmas present. In the Instagram post, Powell shared a video of himself celebrating with his instructor after successfully flying his first solo flight.

“Try not falling in love with aviation after living out every pilot’s dream while shooting @topgunmovie,” the actor wrote. “Especially when you see the way @tomcruise flexes it. After wrapping a shooting day, Tom would rocket off into the sunset in his P-51 while I would limply shuffle into the cast van.”

Powell continued: “The wings were just so much cooler than the wheels…and for Christmas, Tom bought me an iPad with my flight school downloaded and prepaid. And yesterday, after months of flying, studying, and testing…I’m the real deal.”

“This is a video of me after my first solo flight,” he added. “It’s a tradition in the aviation community for your instructor to tear away your shirt signifying that teacher’s finally ‘off your back.’ My instructor @wallysaygers is just following ceremony, he doesn’t rip off my clothes after every flight.”

Powell concluded his post by writing, “Thank you Tom for being my hype man every step of the way. If you’re looking for me, look ☝🏼.”

Powell and Cruise, 57, costar alongside Miles Teller , Monica Barbaro , Jay Ellis , Lewis Pullman and Danny Ramirez in the highly-anticipated Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick.

The film takes place more than 30 years after the original Top Gun hit theaters in 1986 and follows Cruise’s iconic character, Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, as he gives additional training to graduate fighter pilots for the Navy.

Teller stars as Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Goose, who died in the 1986 film and was played by Anthony Edwards. Val Kilmer , meanwhile, is reprising his role as Iceman, while Jon Hamm , Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris round out the star-studded cast.

“The movie is in really, really good shape,” Powell told PEOPLE of the sequel last month. “I have never felt more confident about people being so pleased with what we’ve put out in this movie. I know there’s a lot of expectation on it, but obviously pressure’s a privilege, and I think we did it.”

“Tom’s as great as people think he is,” he added. “He’s as nice, he’s as hardworking, he’s as generous, he’s as available. He’s the man.”

Top Gun: Maverick flies into theaters June 24.

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Can Tom Cruise Really Fly a Plane IRL?

Wondering ‘Is Tom Cruise a pilot?’ after watching Top Gun Maverick? Read to find out how Tom Cruise learned to fly a plane and celebrities that can fly a plane.

With the release of Top Gun: Maverick, the highly-grossing sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, there has been a lot of interest in his stunts in the movie. This movie, released in 2022, was a massive success and was widely praised for its realistic portrayal of fighter pilots. Intense stunts and daredevil action sequences have become a trademark of Cruise’s action movies, and his latest movie does not disappoint. 

The movie follows the story of  Pete Maverick Mitchell, a test pilot, and graduate of the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, popularly known as Top Gun. 

Cruise always advocated for realist portrayals in his movies and wanted the usage of CGI  to be as minimal as possible. He performs most of his stunts, and even at 60, Cruise is still trying out new things and fulfilling his passions. 

For Top Gun: Maverick, he ensured that all his co-actors were well acquainted with the workings of the aircraft and trained them himself. They also learned to film while working inside the planes, like Cruise had to do for a few of his previous movies.

The biggest question is, ‘Is Tom Cruise a pilot?’ The possibility of an actor having an aviation background can be unbelievable. However, for a movie star like Tom Cruise, who is constantly pushing the limits of his work, it’s not very hard. 

Can Tom Cruise Fly a Plane?

Yes, Tom Cruise can fly a plane. He has held a pilot license since 1994. Cruise got his private pilot’s license in 1994 and then obtained his commercial license in 1998.  

Although the US military did not let him fly the F/A-18 Super Hornet used in Top Gun: Maverick, he pilots the P-51 Mustang he owns. 

It was speculated that money had something to do with it. The aircraft costs nearly $70 million, which was half the movie’s budget. Due to this, giving insurance for such an expensive plane must have been beyond the producer’s limits.

Another reason could be that Tom Cruise did not necessarily have enough experience or skill to pilot that sophisticated fighter jet, which was risky. Trained Navy pilots performed all the scenes with the F/A-18. 

The P-51 Mustang, which belongs to Cruise, is seen in his appearance on James Corden’s The Late Late Show, where he takes Corden on two rides. Cruise’s level of aviation skills can be seen in this promotional video, as he easily maneuvers his P-51 Mustang and the Aero L-39 Albatros, borrowed from the Patriots Jet team. To be able to pilot such an aircraft, Tom Cruise must have over 1000 hours of jet flying experience.  

Along with his Mustang, Cruise also owns a Gulfstream IV G4 jet. This luxurious aircraft, estimated to cost around $35 million, has a seating capacity of 19 passengers and has an in-built jacuzzi and movie-screening facilities.

In an interview with Hello Magazine, Cruise told them, “All I ever wanted to be was a pilot or an actor, so Top Gun was a huge moment in so many respects, including my passion for aviation.” It is indeed quite amazing to see an actor finding the time and motivation to fulfill all his passions. 

Read More: What Is the Coldest Place in the Universe?

How Did They Fly a Plane in Top Gun: Maverick?

In the movie Top Gun: Maverick, the scenes with planes and flying were applauded for being highly realistic. Anybody would believe that the actors flew all the complicated aircraft and performed the stunts, but that is not true! 

It was not feasible to let inexperienced actors fly the Navy’s assets, like the F/A-18. All the actors flew as passengers with military pilots. However, they had to undergo intense training to work efficiently in those extreme conditions. Tom Cruise himself headed these sessions for his co-actors. They had to prepare well to increase their tolerance to fly without getting sick and prepare for emergencies.

 The team coordinated with the Navy to find the perfect spots to place their cameras inside the plane, which would not disrupt the plane’s navigation systems. The actors had to switch on the cameras themselves because of which, Joseph Kosinski, the director, could see the footage only after the planes returned to the ground. Moreover, the film’s aerial coordinator and camera pilot, Kevin LaRosa, helped them achieve this efficiently.

In an interview with the Men’s Journal , Miles Teller, who plays the role of Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, spoke about the extent to which the team went, to ensure that the film was portrayed realistically. 

“There is no green screen in a Top Gun movie. Every shot, every stunt, was the result of the work, the real sweat, that we all put into it. The production was over the course of a full year, which was definitely the longest shoot I have ever been a part of.” Miles Teller

Talking about his flying experience and training, the actor sounded quite excited. “They would have me go up in an F-18 for an hour or hour and a half, pulling anywhere around seven-and-a-half Gs. Getting to fly around with the best naval aviators in the world.”

The team also had to pass tests for all their training. Teller told them, “Before we got into the jets, we had to pass the Naval Aviation Survival Training course in San Diego.”

Which Movies Has Tom Cruise Flown a Plane In?

1. top gun: maverick (2022).

In his recent film, Top Gun: Maverick, we see Tom Cruise as a pilot, with his P-51 Mustang, and flying as a passenger in the F/A-18 Super Hornet. “I got to actually fly in an F-14 jet which was a dream come true, and play a character I loved in Maverick,” said Cruise about his experience while shooting for the movie. 

Cruise wanted to reduce using CGI as much as possible and ensured that all his co-actors were well acquainted with the aircraft. 

Top Gun: Maverick has also become instrumental in inspiring more young Americans to join the armed forces. The way the military has used films to exert their influence has always evoked a sense of patriotism and thrill and this movie is a perfect example of the same. The impact is an Instagram handle that recently posted about this. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Impact (@impact)

The actors had to film themselves flying in the airborne cockpits, and the director could see the video only after they reached the ground. A lot of training went into ensuring that the actors could handle it. Kevin LaRosa designed an extensive training program for the actors so they could act and maneuver the aircraft. Even though Cruise did not pilot the F/A-18, all that training he received was enough to make his acting as realistic as possible. 

In the original Top Gun(1986), Cruise did not do any flying. Professional navy pilots handled all the stunts and flying. Tom Cruise was either in the backseat of the fighter jet or in a set that mimicked a cockpit. Things changed a lot when the sequel came out in 2022. Cruise had a pilot’s license, and they trained the other actors too. 

2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Mission: Impossible Fallout had Cruise piloting a helicopter. He completed over 2000 hours of helicopter flying to be well-trained. That was a long and dangerous sequence in the movie, and some of the stunts could have resulted in Cruise’s death if the execution had not been perfect. 

In the same movie, Cruise also pulled off a HALO jump, the first ever to be done by an actor. He trained in a big, vertical wind tunnel. Cruise has over 100 hours of skydiving experience, and for this stunt, he jumped from over 20,000 feet and used a parachute at about 2000 feet. 

3. American Made (2017)

In American Made, Cruise hones his aviation skills in a few scenes. The movie follows the story of American pilot Barry Seal, played by Cruise, who transports drugs for the CIA. A controversy did arise from this movie’s set when two pilots died while another was severely injured. 

4. Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation (2015)

Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation, the fifth movie in this franchise, had Tom Cruise hang outside an Airbus A400M as it took off and completed the circuit. There were multiple retakes and Cruise was being supported by just a cord. His commitment to performing such stunts as realistically as possible is commendable. 

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How Did Tom Cruise Learn to Fly a Plane?

Tom Cruise is a multi-engine, instrument-rated commercial pilot. He has a private and commercial pilot license. After the first Top Gun movie, he was motivated to undergo training to obtain his pilot license. In the first movie, Cruise could not handle the experience in the cockpit with the flight pilot and felt nauseous. Now, he can easily pilot the plane and perform complex maneuvers. 

Cruise must have hired a private instructor to train him. He owns a few planes as well, and he regularly practices and flies them. His first step was to obtain a private pilot’s license. 

The process of obtaining a private pilot license is not very complex. 

• After an orientation flight, the interested person can apply for a student pilot’s license. They should fulfill certain conditions – should be of the eligible age (14-16 years and above) and be well acquainted with English. 
• They should also have a medical form called Third Class Medical from an Aviation Medical Examiner(AME). After obtaining both these documents, the student should find a Certified Flight Instructor(CFI). Flight schools, flight training programs, or any certified person with an aircraft could teach you. After training, you should have a certain number of solo flight hours and other requirements . 
• The FAA conducts a written test before the check ride. After this, you will have your “check ride” with a Designated Pilot Examiner. This exam has two parts- oral and practical. You can find additional information regarding this procedure on the FAA website . 
• Based on the performance, the student will receive your PPL (Private Pilot’s License). Obtaining a commercial pilot’s license (after receiving your PPL) has almost the same procedure. 

Cruise has a multi-engine instrument rating. This rating involves more training and tests because the usual pilot’s license is for a single engine. Obtaining a multi-engine instrument rating requires more aeronautical knowledge and flight training. The student has to be prepared for any scenario or emergency, as the examiners will evaluate their ability to handle complex aircraft and face any situation that could arise. 

Tom Cruise should have followed the above-given processes to obtain his license. He also holds an aerobatic rating which helps him to perform all the stunts. 

He must have acquired his helicopter license the same way, and the process isn’t very different. Tom Cruise pushed to gain over 2000 hours of helicopter flying experience for his movie Mission: Impossible- Fallout. 

His expertise is evident when he performs complex maneuvers, in mountainous terrains, like the ‘corkscrew dive’ or the 360-degree downward spiral in Fallout. 

To use the kind of aircraft he pilots (like the Albatros), Tom Cruise must have a type rating, a high-performance endorsement, and more than 1000 hours of jet flying. Type rating essentially means the license to fly a specific model of aircraft. A high-performance endorsement allows the pilot to be the pilot-in-command of heavier and more complex aircraft. The FAA conducts additional training and tests for interested people. 

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Who Are a Few Other Celebrities That Can Fly a Plane?

Many Hollywood celebrities own pilot licenses and, like Cruise, have fulfilled their aviation dreams. Some of them include the following:

• Angelina Jolie – Angelina Jolie is an award-winning actress and humanitarian who is also a pilot. She got her license in December 2004. Soon, she also bought a Cirrus SR22-G2, a single-engine plane. Her son Maddox was her inspiration to take up aviation, as he was interested in aviation at a young age. The actress has revealed that her son has taken up flying classes now. 
• Morgan Freeman – Along with being a renowned American actor and filmmaker, Morgan Freeman also nourishes a love for aviation. He loved war films and eventually received an opportunity to become a fighter pilot. However, Freeman realized his heart was more inclined towards acting and left the Air Force. His love for flying remained, and he got his license in 2002. He owns two planes – a Cessna Citation II and a Cessna 414. 
• Dennis Quaid – Known for his comedy and drama movies, Dennis Quaid, the American actor, is also a pilot. For the film The Right Stuff, Quaid overcame his fear of flying and learned the skill. He owns a Cessna 421 twin-engine and a Cessna Citation II and uses them frequently. 
• Clint Eastwood – Clint Eastwood is an American actor, musician, and politician. He finds himself on this list since he owns a pilot’s license. In an interview in 1997, Eastwood revealed that his favorite hobby is flying and has held a chopper license for a long time. He also owns an Aerospatial AStar helicopter.
• Kurt Russell – He is an American actor who also loves flying. He has owned a license for more than 28 years and has received the Aviation Mentor Award. He also possesses multiple aircraft and has several hours of flight experience.

How Difficult Is It to Become a Pilot?

Theoretically, it is not very difficult in the USA. If the person is eligible and has the time and resources to train themselves, becoming a pilot is quite accessible.

The entire process was explained in the article in detail earlier. However, several factors could make it difficult for people to pursue their aviation dreams. 

1. The Cost

Becoming a pilot is not a cheap affair. To obtain good training and to be able to practice sufficiently, you must have access to such resources. These can be very expensive. The minimum cost to acquire a private pilot’s license is nearly $7600. This rate could differ based on other factors, such as the student’s location and expertise.  

2. English Ability

The student should be able to read and comprehend English quite well. If this poses a problem for the student, it can be quite easily solved if the student is willing to take lessons for the same.

This is a requirement that migrants might find difficult to fulfill, but it won’t be too difficult to master the basics in a short period. 

3. Medical and Physical Fitness

A pilot needs to remain healthy. The student’s health conditions determine the eligibility for the license. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that you meet the health guidelines issued by the FAA.

For a private pilot’s license, you only require a third-class medical certificate, but for further certification, you need advanced medical certificates.

From the accounts of the actors who worked in Top Gun: Maverick, it is quite obvious that air sickness, tolerance, and breathing are the first major difficulties that new aviators face.

They had to regularly fly and remain in shape during the entire shoot. Hence, it is quite important for pilots to be healthy and have strong bodies.

4. Demanding Lifestyle

The lifestyle and working hours in a pilot’s career can be challenging. When you consider being a pilot as a career path, you would have to prioritize your professional life over your personal life to a large extent.

Frequent traveling and staying from home for extended periods would become the norm. This work-life balance is not everybody’s cup of tea, so you should consider this seriously before taking aviation as a career. 

If you are willing to put in time and effort consistently, it will not be too hard to become a pilot. Aviation enthusiasts who want to obtain a license for recreational purposes would not find the process challenging, especially after obtaining the license.

Discipline is required when it comes to the job, and you will have to sort out your priorities carefully. 

An actor, a multi-engine, instrument-rated commercial pilot, a producer, and so much more is what makes Tom Cruise such an exceptional inspiration. Even after crossing 50, he hasn’t slowed down or given in to the limitations imposed on you as you age. 

His dedication and drive to achieve what he wants are admirable. In a day and age in which anything is possible through CGI and editing, making the actor’s job much easier, Tom Cruise is an exception. It is quite enthralling to see an actor committed to giving maximum respect to the story and the action sequences. 

With the resources and wealth that Cruise amasses, he does find it easy to fulfill all his passions. Hard work and perseverance brought him to his present glory, and he never disappoints. Cruise’s dedication to becoming both the things that he always wanted to be, a pilot and an actor, is something we can all learn. 

The only limits are the ones we create for ourselves, and if we put our minds to them, we can achieve at least a few things we love and cherish. Becoming a pilot might sound like a scary path, but with the correct guidance, it is possible!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Does Tom Cruise have a pilot’s license?

Yes, Tom Cruise has owned a pilot’s license since 1994. 

2. Is Tom Cruise a real pilot?

Yes, Tom Cruise is a multi-engine,instrument-rated commercial pilot and owns several planes. He owns a P-51 Mustang and a luxurious Gulfstream IV G4 jet. 

3. Is Tom Cruise a jet pilot?

Tom Cruise owns a pilot’s license that he uses for personal and professional needs. 

4. Is Tom Cruise a certified pilot?

Yes, Tom Cruise is a certified pilot and owns a license. He has a private as well as a commercial license. 

5. Is Tom Cruise a fighter pilot?

No, Tom Cruise is not a fighter pilot. He owns a private and commercial license but he does not work with the military. 

6. Is Tom Cruise a helicopter pilot?

Yes, he has a helicopter license as well. He had trained for more than 2000 hours for the helicopter flying scenes in Mission: Impossible- Fallout.

7. How much is Tom Cruise paid per movie?

At the beginning of his career, he was not paid hefty salaries. He received around $50,000 for one of his early movies, Taps. Gradually, he gained international fame and recognition. His roles in the first Top Gun movie and the romantic drama Jerry Maguire contributed to the same. 

Over the years, his paycheck has increased significantly. From the 1990s onwards, he has received almost $12 million to $100 million per movie through backend deals from his massively successful and profitable projects. 

Author: Ajeya

An avid blogger, meme compiler, quizzer and I'm always on the look-out for the latest trends on the internet, in tech and AI! View all posts by Ajeya

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Tom Cruise Used One Of His Own Planes In Top Gun: Maverick's Final Scene

Nearly 40 years after Tom Cruise flew into our hearts with 1986's "Top Gun," its sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick," has proven that there is still plenty of fuel in the tank for audiences to enjoy. Released during the 2022 Memorial Day weekend, the film, which follows Pete Maverick ( Tom Cruise ) returning to the Top Gun program in order to train a new crop of pilots for a dangerous mission, became a record-breaking juggernaut at the box office. Upon its opening weekend, the film earned over $160 million, becoming the most successful film to open during Memorial Day weekend, besting the previous record-holder, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (via Deadline ). "Maverick" would go on to become the year's current highest-grossing title (via Variety ) with a worldwide box office gross of over $1.4 billion (via Box Office Mojo ). On top of that, the film was lauded by critics and audiences alike, boasting a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes . 

Among the film's most beloved aspects are its daring arrays of stunts and plane flying sequences. "Maverick" saw a different challenge as the rest of the cast had to go through rigorous training in order to direct themselves while simultaneously performing their many high-flying action scenes (via The Independent ). For stunt guru Cruise, however, this was clearly a great chance for him to allow his immense love of aviation to shine once again. And he would do this by showing off his own impressive air vessel in the film. 

Cruise's P-51 Mustang is his pride and joy

The end of "Top Gun: Maverick" would see the use of a P-51 Mustang where Rooster, which Maverick uses to fly with his love interest, Penny (Jennifer Connelly). The impressive machine, which was originally built as a fighter jet in the 1940s for use in World War II, belongs to Tom Cruise. "You know if 'Top Gun' was made in the 1940s ... this airplane is the star of the show," says "Top Gun: Maverick" technical advisor Steve Hinton in a behind-the-scenes featurette (via YouTube ). "Airplanes today are very computer-oriented and P-51 is all push, pull, cables, nothing's automatic." To promote the film's release, Cruise even brought late-night television host James Corden into the plane for a special flight — much to Corden's dismay (via YouTube ).

While Cruise may be well-known for his daring array of stunts within such movies as the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, the actor also has a real-life need for speed, owning a varied collection of valuable automobiles, motorcycles, and planes. This should come as no surprise, considering that Cruise obtained his pilot's license in 1994 (via Style ). His plane collection is especially impressive, as he is reported to own upwards of five private jets, including a Gulfstream IV G4 jet, which he originally got for his then-wife, Katie Holmes. Even his famous Mustang would sport "Kiss Me, Kate" on its side for some time until the two broke up (via Forbes ). 

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Tom Cruise became an expert helicopter pilot just to film one stunt in “Mission: Impossible”

The swashbuckling Tom Cruise has one-upped himself yet again. The Hollywood actor learned how to fly a helicopter specifically so that he could risk his life filming a stunt in the upcoming  Mission: Impossible  sequel, a behind-the-scenes video for the film revealed.

Cruise, 55, earned his pilot’s license in 1994 and has since turned into one of Hollywood’s biggest flying enthusiasts—a hobby he has demonstrated on screen in films like American Made . The star, whose breakthrough role was as a pilot in 1986’s Top Gun , flies planes so often that the US environmental lobby nicknamed him “ Emissions Impossible .” Cruise owns a number of expensive private jets, one of which he was rumored to use to pick up groceries for his then wife, actress Katie Holmes. (Cruise has never publicly denied the rumor.)

But he didn’t have as much experience with helicopters—until  Mission: Impossible – Fallout  came along. The sixth installment in the popular action spy series required that Cruise not only learn how to fly a helicopter, but also become something of an expert helicopter pilot so that he could perform an extremely dangerous stunt on his own.

It’s unclear if the script necessitated that Cruise become a master pilot, or if the actor simply wanted to be one and then decided to use his new skills in the film. In this age of CGI technology and stunt doubles, we’re assuming the latter.

“Flying a helicopter takes a lot of skill,” said Marc Wolff, aerial coordinator for the film. “To put someone like Tom into a situation like this is almost impossible to imagine.” (The italicized emphasis is our own—you see what he did there?)

According to Randy Hepner, an aerial assistant on  Mission: Impossible – Fallout , Cruise accrued 2,000 flying hours in a very short period of time to get up to speed. Normally, pilots would need to train eight hours per day for at least three months just to become a novice pilot. But Cruise needed to be more than a novice pilot: He needed to perform a 360-degree downward spiral maneuver in mountainous terrain.

“Most pilots wouldn’t attempt this,” one stunt coordinator says in the video. “You make a mistake, somebody’s going to die from it,” another adds.

And that’s where the behind-the-scenes clip goes from absolutely incredible to distasteful. On Cruise’s last film,  American Made  (for which he performed his own plane stunts ), two stunt pilots  did  die in a plane crash, in the Colombian Andes outside Medellin, after production wrapped. The families of the two pilots are now suing the producers of the film , alleging that they ignored safety procedures and cut corners to save time and money.

Cruise was not directly involved in the accident, but the lawsuit blames him and director Doug Liman for pushing the limits on set and contributing to an unsafe environment in which an accident might occur. Tom Cruise involved in risky business? Never!

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