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The LEGO Group has produced numerous airplane and airport building sets over the decades, from crude, squared-off mini models comprising a handful of bricks to larger, more detailed representations of airliners, cargo planes, and small GA-type aircraft.

Lego has even made several name-brand representations, including the Learjet, Sopwith Camel, and the Sud Aviation Caravelle. None, however, are likely to excite LEGO-enthusiast pilots as much as the company’s latest offering, Concorde.

• READ MORE: Concorde in Photos

One can only imagine how many interpretations of the iconic supersonic airliner LEGO fans of all ages have constructed, but this latest version probably is what many of them wanted.

The 2,083-piece set is a scale model of the historic aircraft that builders can pose on its display stand in various flight modes. The set also offers detailed landing gear, a tilting nose section, and a removable roof showing the cabin interior.

Built in the 1960s as part of a joint venture between the United Kingdom and France, the real Concorde could cruise at about twice the speed of sound, or Mach 2. This impressive pace cut travel times between the U.S. and Europe down to reasonable lengths. Flights from Paris to New York took about three and a half hours, though one of the airplanes set a record of just under three hours.

The Lego model is 41.5 inches long, 17 inches wide, and more than 6 inches high. Sets will be available starting September 7 at a price of $199.99.

The post LEGO Group Gets Aviation Fans’ Attention with Unveiling of Concorde Set appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

If you know a woman with a career in aviation or the sciences, chances are good she has a collectible Barbie doll celebrating her career. Barbie was created to inspire girls to pursue occupations past motherhood.

That may be difficult to envision, given the release of the Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, which has been described as a comedy served up on a platter of pink. The film opens nationwide Friday.

Barbie the Role Model

The iconic plastic doll was introduced to America in 1959. The toy was created by Ruth Handler, who with her husband, Elliot, owned Mattel Toys. The Handlers had a daughter, and Ruth noted that all the dolls on the market were babies, as if to encourage little girls to become mothers. She pitched the idea of an adult doll that could have different careers. The first dolls were fashion models, secretaries, and teachers—then Barbie, like her human counterparts, started expanding her horizons. 

For girls who wanted these careers outside of the home, seeing Barbie do it was inspiring.

Full disclosure: I have never owned a Barbie. The closest I came is a Tribute to Valor doll (collectible) that is a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP). It was a gift from a friend a few years back. I preferred to play with space toys or play pilot from the roof of my fort in the backyard. My sisters played with them, however, and I recall what a big day it was when my younger sister received the Barbie Friendship playset, which was an airliner.

The playsets were basically plastic and vinyl boxes that stored the dolls, but when opened were stages for play, such as Barbie’s Camper, Dream House, etc.

The Barbie Friendship was made to look like a United Airlines Boeing jet. It was white on the outside with red-and-blue stripes. When you opened it, it looked like an airliner in silhouette, with  the nose and tail. The play stage inside is a galley because in the 1970s Barbie was a stewardess. 

Fast-forward to the 1980s. Around this time, the term stewardess was dropped in favor of the gender-neutral flight attendant, and more women entered the cockpit as pilots. Airline Pilot Barbie, wearing a uniform with a tie and cap, is released. 

Later versions of Airline Pilot Barbie came with a doll-sized roller bag as an accessory. On the back of the doll packaging it reads: “Want to be an airline pilot?” then provides tips like “study hard and graduate from college,” “Fly at least 35 hours” (we are to assume Barbie trained in a Part 141 program), “Pass tests writing and talking about airplanes,” “be at least 21 years old,” and “Prove you can fly alone, at night, across the country, and using on the instrument dials in the airplane.” Obviously, it is an oversimplification of what it takes to be a professional pilot, but perfect for the target age group of 6-year-olds.

The box also has a list of facts about aviation, including this note: “About 2 percent of all the commercial pilots in the world are women.”

Barbie soon obtained a jet of her own that came in purple, pink, blue, or yellow. The jet was usually sold separately.

Mattel also did a dual release: Barbie as a pilot and Ken, her gentleman friend (no one is really sure what the real story is about their relationship) joined her as a flight attendant.

Barbie Joins STEM

In 2001, the National Science Foundation introduced the STEM program (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) as a means of getting more girls interested in careers in the sciences. The designers of Barbie quickly pounced on this new market.

In addition to Airline Pilot Barbie, Air Force Pilot Barbie and Army Officer Barbie made the scene, as did Astrophysicist Barbie, complete with a plastic telescope, and Astronaut Barbie with a plastic space helmet and glow-in-the-dark space rocks. A Black version of astronaut Barbie was also released. Today, Mattel produces the dolls in multiple skin tones, eye and hair colors, hairstyles, and body types.

Although Mattel will not release the actual sales numbers, in 2021 it was noted that more than 86 million Barbie dolls have been sold around the world.

The post Barbie’s Reach to the Sky appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Mark Zuckerberg is taking his beef with Elon Musk from the Vegas Octagon to the skies.

Well, kind of. The Meta founder and CEO, whom Musk recently challenged to a cage fight, among other taunts, obtained a student pilot certificate in March, according to FAA records. If Zuckerberg is serious about becoming a fully certified pilot, he would join a short list of Silicon Valley skippers—one that already includes Musk.

No wonder he doesn't have time to post on threads any morehttps://t.co/1284YsJ5QT

— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) July 18, 2023

Zuckerberg has reached great heights in his time with Meta, building the company into a multibillion dollar powerhouse. But to reach new altitudes as a pilot, he has a ways to go.

The student pilot certificate he secured is actually quite easy to obtain. So long as the prospective student pilot is eligible—at least 16 years of age and able to read, write, and speak English—the most arduous part of the process is getting a medical certificate through an Aviation Medical Examiner office.

Now, Zuckerberg will need to hit the books and get started on his flight hours requirement with a certified flight instructor. On average, students fly around 55 hours before securing a private pilot license, which is what the billionaire tech mogul would likely target. But it could take him as little as 35 hours, depending on the flight school he selected during the student pilot application process.

Should he obtain full certification, he would join a small group of tech executives who have already gotten their wings.

Open AI CEO Sam Altman, who received his pilot license in 2010 per The Information, is one of them. So too is Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, a licensed helicopter pilot. Stripe CEO Patrick Collison is also in the club, as is his brother and co-founder John, noted as a frequent flier.

But the most famous chief executive aviator is, of course, SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter CEO Musk. The mercurial business mogul no longer flies since he’s too tied up with work, he once told The Washington Post. But in a 2018 interview with Business Insider, Musk said he owned three planes: a Piper Meridian single-engine turboprop, a two-engine Cessna Citation CJ2, and the high-velocity Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros, which he said was the “most fun” of the bunch.

Despite his experience flying fighter jets—which he compared to Top Gun—Musk in 2020 ironically told a room full of Air Force pilots that the fighter jet’s era “has passed.” Still, the world’s richest man remains tethered to aviation through his work with SpaceX—and potentially Tesla down the line.

Zuckerberg would also join the ranks of celebrity pilots, some of whom are more surprising than others.

FLYING has covered Harrison Ford’s aviation achievements (and failures), Tom Cruise’s Top Gun-esque stunts, and John Travolta’s aircraft donations. But the names of A-list aces goes on and on.

Legendary musician Jimmy Buffett is an avid flier and the owner of six airplanes. Actress Hilary Swank learned to fly for her role as Amelia Earhart in 2009’s Amelia. And James Franco, who played World War I pilot Blaine Rawlings in 2006’s Flyboys, was so into the role that he got certified in real life. Other famous fliers include Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, and Kurt Russell.

Though he just launched Threads, a social media app to rival Twitter, Zuckerberg should have plenty of time and money to put into his own pilot certification process. And having already poked the bear in more ways than one, he may even be able to goad Musk out of retirement.

The post Mark Zuckerberg Looks to Join Circle of Celebrity Pilots appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Many aerospace engineers can trace their interest in designing and building airplanes back to paper airplanes they created as children, often for flying for distance contests. Sometimes, that passion never goes away.

Two Boeing engineers—Dillon Ruble and Garrett Jensen—who are second- and third-generation Boeing employees, now hold the Guinness World Record for flying a handmade paper airplane. The pair, who are based in St. Louis, set the new record in Crown Point, Indiana, in December of 2022.

Record-Breaking Flight

The Ruble and Jensen design flew 290 feet, which, for perspective, is slightly less than the length of a U.S. soccer field.

Ruble and Jensen both studied aerospace and mechanical engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Their design broke the previous record of 252 feet, 7 inches, set by a team from Malaysia and South Korea in April 2022.

The previous record was set in 2012 by Joe Ayoob and paper airplane designer John M. Collins, who flew a paper airplane a distance of 226 feet, 10 inches.

It Takes a Village

During the paper airplane distance competition, which was held at an indoor football stadium, Ruble and Jensen were supported by team members Nathan Erickson, Jeremy O’Brien, and Pat Neiman.

Their jobs ranged from setting up the table to calibrating and properly configuring equipment to taking accurate measurements. Flags were used to mark the distance of previous records. Glen Boren and Fire Chief Mark Baumgardner assisted in measuring the distance.

The Flight, By the Numbers

The winning design was inspired by hypersonic aerospace vehicles. According to Jensen, the pair used A4-sized paper, which is 8 by 11 inches, in the heaviest weight they could find, because the heavier the paper the greater the momentum when it is thrown. They spent several hundred hours developing the design and practicing the throw.

It takes more than 20 minutes to accurately fold the record-breaking paper airplane design, which Ruble noted, “Is a little different from your traditional ‘fold in half, fold the two corners to the middle line down the middle.’ It’s pretty unique in that aspect. It’s definitely an unusual design.”

According to Ruble, the airplane is named Mach 5 because hypersonic vehicles travel at speeds over Mach 5, which is five times the speed of sound.

On the day of the attempt, they achieved the record on the third attempt with Ruble throwing.

Jensen, ever the engineer, explained the math of the event, saying, “We found the optimal angle is about 40 degrees off the ground. Once you’re aiming that high, you throw as hard as possible. That gives us our best distance. It took simulations to figure that out. I didn’t think we could get useful data from a simulation on a paper airplane. Turns out, we could.”

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The holidays are upon us, which means it’s the time of year to hunker down with friends and family—or by yourself in a cozy corner in blissful solitude—and binge watch some movies. What movies do folks who think about things that fly all day long like to watch when enjoying some downtime? 

Here’s a run down of holiday favorites the staff of FLYING are looking forward to watching this year.

Die Hard (1988)

“It’s the ultimate Christmas movie, a ‘feel good’ love story about commitment, sacrifice, and family. Kidding. It’s a really good action movie with a great American hero.”

– Craig Fuller, chief executive officer

Home Alone (1990)

“Technically the family flies to Paris and leaves Kevin at home.”

– Preston Holland, chief operating officer

“Best holiday movie, period. I don’t think there is a single person in an airport that doesn’t see someone running and immediately relate it to the film. Or, when you are late to a flight and running, you are subconsciously playing out the scene in your mind. Also, never put your boarding passes next to napkins at a dinner table with pizza and milk. You might accidentally throw one away after a cup of milk spills, mistake it for a napkin, and then not realize your child is missing at the gate.”

– Andy Welch, director of ad operations 

Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992)

“The Home Alone franchise brought so much delight to my family when the boys were in grade school, but this sequel is my favorite. We all could relate to the way young Kevin (Macauley Culkin) loses his family in crowded O’Hare Airport and winds up getting on the wrong flight— bound for New York—after following a guy who sort of looks like his father and is similarly dressed. It holds up well today.”

– Jonathan Welsh, senior travel writer

Christmas Crash (2009)

“Here’s one many folks might have missed, but fans of Michael Madsen dating back to Reservoir Dogs can never get enough of him. He and Alexandra Paul play a couple on the edge of divorce when they wind up taking a pleasure flight in a very cool Cessna 180 on floats (or was that a 185?). The airplane suffers a failure and goes down in a lake. The romantic drama takes off.”

– Jonathan Welsh, senior travel writer

Christmas Takes Flight (2021) 

“From RomDram to RomCom: This under-the-radar flick actually has lots of themes and scenes for pilots and aviation fans, from airline operations to women in aviation and flying family legacies. We have all known or at least heard about the challenges that family-run aviation companies face. This is a sweet Hollywood slant on the topic.”

 – Jonathan Welsh, senior travel writer

Hook (1991)

“Because flying like Peter Pan has always been my personal dream, and Christmas in London *is* magical.’’

– Julie Boatman, Editor-in-Chief

The Rocketeer (1991)

“The Rocketeer tops my list of holiday movies because it reminds me of my father. Dad went west years ago, and I think of him every day. When the movie came out I was in the early stages of my flying career, and eager to share my adventures with my father who shared my interest in aviation and aviation history. The movie is set in 1938, when my father was a small boy who was already enamored with all things flying. We had great fun identifying the aircraft in the movie such as the Curtiss Jenny and the GeeBee. We both loved the mixing of real people such as Howard Hughes and fictional characters such as Cliff Secord to tell the story. We often watched the movie at family gatherings, stopping to identify the airplanes in the scenes.

For us, the star of the movie is the zeppelin. When my father was a little boy he was playing in a creek when the Hindenburg flew overhead. A man wearing a bluecoat with three gold stripes on the wrist and a white cap—presumably a member of the crew shouted down to my father, ‘How is the fishing?’ in heavily accented German. It was a life-changing event for Dad. Neither one of us liked the zeppelin ‘playing the heavy’ in the movie, but we did have enthusiastic debates as to how the great airship made it to Hollywood without attracting attention, as the winds of war were starting to churn.”

– Meg Godlewski, technical editor

The Aviator (2004)

“I know there are pilots who are critical of the movie for violating the laws of physics and flying, but I am not one of them. The 2004 film is rife with vintage aviation and it stars Leonardo DiCaprio, who, I maintain, is aesthetically pleasing enough to give him a pass on the technical details.  It was released around Christmas and I watched it with the friend I spent the holidays with. We both worked at an aviation magazine and had done a special issue on airplanes in the movies called ‘Lights, Camera, Airplane,’ and we’d learned a lot about Howard Hughes and his contributions to both the film and aerospace industry.”

– Meg Godlewski, technical editor

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964)

“Where would they be without Rudolph to light the way? Everyone needs a leader. Still love this and watching Frosty every year.”

– Roxanne Sweazey, senior business development manager

Love Actually (2003)

“Love Actually is absolutely on my annual holiday rotation each year, much to my husband’s dismay. It’s got a little bit of everything—a dancing prime minister, a kid in a lobster costume, heaps of unrequited love, a grieving widow trying to find his footing, peppy Christmas songs, and the kind of marital discord and subterfuge that gnaws a hole through your stomach. Just when you think you can’t take anymore, the movie hits you with that scene at Heathrow Airport of families reuniting. It puts a lump right in your throat. And isn’t the journey back home to a safe landing what it’s all about? This year, I’ll be suggesting we pair this movie with a ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ chaser as an emotional palate cleanse.”

– Kimberly Johnson, managing editor

The post <i>FLYING’s</i> Favorite Holiday Movies appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

If you have not gotten around to seeing Devotion, the naval aviation film set during the Korean War, you should make a point of doing so. Maybe tonight. For airplane fans in particular, it could be the beginning of a serial viewing habit.

Besides, don’t you want to be prepared when your hangar neighbors and other airport friends start debating over the best aviation movies ever made? Failing to catch this feature would be like entering a discussion of aviation literature without having read Fate Is The Hunter.

There are a number of reasons it took me a long time to see the movie, from the heating system failing at my local cinema the first time I tried to watch it, on a very cold evening, to the anticipated discomfort of watching a story that covers a difficult period in our nation’s history. And we already know how this one ends

Still, there are so many more good reasons to see the show than there are good excuses for missing it. It has strong acting and direction, wardrobe and makeup seemed spot-on, and there were enough interesting aircraft—real ones—on screen to keep planespotters very busy. Indeed, after speaking with the film’s aerial coordinator, Kevin LaRosa II, also known as K2, I realized Devotion is an event every aviation enthusiast should experience.

LaRosa is vice president of aerial film production for Helinet Aviation Services and has shot compelling airborne footage for a wide range of films from the low-altitude sweeps over Napa Valley vineyards in the comedy Wine Country to the most exciting air combat and ground attack sequences in Top Gun: Maverick. But he says he has particularly strong feelings about the work he and his colleagues performed for Devotion.

• READ MORE: Pilots Will Love Top Gun: Maverick—It’s a Lot More Real

He is quick to point out that this film differs from Maverick in many ways. “The two films are apples and oranges, really,” he says. “Devotion is very gritty. It takes place during wartime and it’s a true story. It pulls the viewer in.”

Then there are the airplanes. Like some of our favorite character actors, a squad of vintage iron—including a handful of Vought Corsairs, two Grumman F8F Bearcats, a Douglas Skyraider, and a MiG-15—make a huge contribution to the film’s authenticity. Their pilots, including Steve Hinton and John Maloney, who have vast experience in movie flying as well as Unlimited Class air racing, had no trouble getting close to the camera, LaRosa says.

“There are lots of big radial engines in your face,” he says. A few times they had to back off a bit, like while shooting the Skyraider’s front end in flight, giving that rare aircraft’s many fans a good look at its legendary Wright R-3350 Duplex Cyclone radial. “Whatever electrical energy that engine was generating would start to blow out the cameras if we flew too close,” he says.

The memorable footage came from a camera mounted on the tail of LaRosa’s Aero Vodochody L-39 CineJet. The jet got lots of action chasing warbirds while filming them at speed. For sweeping shots of fighters flying past, he filmed from a helicopter. The mix was fairly even between jet and chopper, with “a little bit of drone” here and there, LaRosa says.

The film uses CGI when necessary, such as when director J.D. Dillard needed to show a flight of Skyraders but had just one real aircraft on hand. “But the closeups are real airplanes,” LaRosa says. “J.D. made great decisions on which scenes needed to use real aircraft.” So the Corsairs dog-fighting with the MiG? Those are real.

There was also some trickery, such as placing actors in the rear seat of a Hawker Sea Fury to enhance the impression that they are actually flying their fighters. Too bad we don’t get to see the rest of that machine on screen. 

Devotion is also about far more than airplanes. It delves into prejudice, complicated race relations, human relationships during war and peace, and the social norms of the mid-20th century America. The story begins in early 1950 when Lieutenant Thomas Hudner (Glen Powell) transfers to the Navy’s VF-32 squadron, which is training at Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode Island. The squadron commander pairs him with Ensign Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), the unit’s only African American pilot. They begin a long, sometimes difficult process of building a professional and personal relationship.

The film’s intimacy makes it more than an aviation extravaganza. The camera brings the audience very close most of the time, whether the scene involves a heart-to-heart conversation between Jesse and his wife, Daisy, or Jesse and Tom in the squadron locker room, or pilots running their hands slowly across the fabric-covered control surfaces of their aircraft during a preflight walk-around.

We find that the characters in this undertold story often are as compelling as the airplanes they fly. Even the Skyraider’s giant 3350 does not eclipse their performances.

This may be a busy time of year, but try to make room in your schedule for this one.

The post <i>Devotion</i> Is Worth Watching If You Haven’t Already—Or Even If You Have appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Aviation films are rare. Good ones that emphasize the pilots’ perspective and properly showcase the hardware are extremely rare.

With the opening this week of Devotion, a movie about the relationship between Jesse Brown, the U.S. Navy’s first black fighter pilot, and Thomas Hudner, his wingman, 2022 becomes a landmark year for airplane fans. The long-awaited release of Top Gun: Maverick last spring is still generating buzz among pilots. And the new film—based on a true story and set during the Korean War—promises to keep the conversation going.

• READ MORE: Pilots Will Love Top Gun: Maverick—It’s a Lot More Real

We have yet to see Devotion, but we do know a few things about the production. The following is a short list of things to look for and themes to be aware of while watching.

Something seems familiar: If you enjoyed Top Gun: Maverick, you might find similar appeal in Devotion because the two productions share some of the same personnel. You might know that Glen Powell, the actor who plays Hudner in the new film, also portrayed fighter pilot Hangman in Maverick. But behind the scenes was Kevin LaRosa, the Hollywood aerial coordinator and vice president of aerial film production for Helinet Aviation Services. He helped make Maverick’s flight sequences so compelling and did similar work on Devotion. See if you can spot a signature style in which the flight scenes are put together.

When in doubt, ask Dad: The life of a Navy pilot is stressful. It gets worse when a deployment means you will not see your family for months. Devotion director J.D. Dillard wanted to convey the depth of emotional difficulty Brown was experiencing while fighting far away from his wife and young daughter. He turned to a reliable resource: his father, who was a naval flight officer beginning in the 1980s—30 years after Brown’s story takes place. As an African American, he, too, had to deal with prejudice and what Dillard called the “isolation” of being in a high-stress environment and not seeing anyone else who looks like you. “I saw so much overlap with my dad’s experience in the Navy,” Dillard said in a recent interview with National Public Radio. He said he spoke at length with his father while working on Devotion. “The fruits of those conversations were ultimately way more important for what the film ended up being.”

Jet Age on the rise: By the beginning of the Korean war, the world’s air forces were transitioning to jet-powered aircraft and fighters like the Vought F4U Corsairs that Brown and Hudner flew, which had been among the best just a few years earlier during World War II, were suddenly speeding toward obsolescence. A trailer for the film shows a Russian-designed MiG-15 jet chasing a pair of Corsairs, its cannons blazing. One can imagine the shock pilots must have felt when facing an enemy with such advanced machinery.

The Corsair was a bear: Brown and Hudner’s squadron, VF-32, operated from the aircraft carrier Leyte, and while it was an outstanding fighter aircraft, the Corsair had a bad reputation on carriers because it was difficult to land. Earlier models had a violent stalling tendency that tended to catch inexperienced pilots off-guard and send them crashing into the deck or overboard. Even after aerodynamic modifications alleviated that problem, the airplane’s long nose blocked the pilot’s forward visibility during landings. Carrier squadrons using the Corsair during World War II often switched to the Grumman F6F Hellcat which, while not as fast, was easier to land and more forgiving of green pilots. Keep an eye on deck operations during the film.

The post Fighter Pilot Film <i>Devotion</i> Opens This Week: 4 Things To Know appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

When it comes to filming on location, it seems Hollywood executives will consider going to the moon for a movie. Or, in the case of Tom Cruise, to the International Space Station (ISS).

Cruise, one of Hollywood’s most famous pilots—on screen and off—could possibly be on his way to becoming the first civilian to conduct a space walk on the International Space Station, if executives at Universal Pictures have their way.

“I think Tom Cruise is taking us to space. He’s taking the world to space,” Universal Filmed Entertainment Group Chairman Donna Langley told BBC in a recent interview. “That’s the plan. We have a great project in development with Tom that does contemplate him doing just that, taking a rocket up to the space station and shooting, and hopefully being the first civilian to do a space walk outside of the space station.”

Cruise proposed the idea to the studio during the pandemic, Langley said.

“The majority of the story actually takes place on Earth, and then the character needs to go up to space to save the day,” she said.

• READ MORE: Actor Tom Cruise Headed for Outer Space

Rumblings of the actor blasting off into space aren’t exactly new. In the spring of  2020, Deadline reported that the Top Gun: Maverick actor was collaborating with NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX to film an action-adventure movie.

It’s a collaboration that NASA officials support, according to then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

“We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make NASA’s ambitious plans a reality. NASA is excited to work with Tom Cruise on a film aboard the Space Station.” Bridentine said, according to the Deadline report, “There has never been a leading man… who puts himself at risk as often as does Cruise, in the name of the most realistic action sequences possible. If he is successful shooting a project in Musk’s space ship, he will be alone in the Hollywood record books.”

The ISS, which is about the length of an American football field, orbits 227 nm above Earth, according to Kennedy Space Center.

Last year, the actor interviewed NASA astronaut Victor Glover about his ISS mission.

• READ MORE: Pilots Will Love Top Gun: Maverick—It’s a Lot More Real

Cruise, who has been a pilot since 1994, flew in many of the scenes in the Top Gun: Maverick. 

“The Navy wouldn’t let him fly an F-18,” the film’s producer, Jerry Bruckheimer said, according to USA Today. “But he flies a P-51 in the movie and he flies helicopters.”

• READ MORE: Tom Cruise Takes James Corden on ‘Top Gun’ Flight

The post Tom Cruise On Course For First Civilian ISS Space Walk appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

When World War II broke out, everyone in America did their part for the war effort—including Walt Disney. 

You can see it for yourself at the Museum of Flight (MOF) in Seattle in the new exhibit The Walt Disney Studios and World War II. The exhibit is made possible through a partnership with the MOF and The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. 

Housed in the Red Barn, the exhibit walks visitors through time, telling the story of Walt Disney Studios and its extensive contributions to the Allies’ war effort.

The exhibit includes 550 examples of rare historical objects and film clips. Exhibit curator Kent Ramsey—a self-described aviation and Disney enthusiast—describes the exhibit as a labor of love, one that he has a very personal connection with because his uncle, Captain John G. Austin, was part of an aviation reconnaissance group during World War II.

“Disney’s insignia design team created two clever insignias for my uncle’s photo reconnaissance group,” Ramsey explains. “Unfortunately, my uncle was shot down and killed one month before the war ended in Europe, and for me, the exhibition serves as a salute to his supreme sacrifice.”

How Disney Supported the War Effort

The war in Europe began in September 1939. Although the U.d S. did not officially enter World War II until 1941, the Disney company was already feeling the impact of the conflict as early as 1940. That year, the studio released Fantasia and Pinocchio, two full-length features. Both movies proved to be financial flops. 

Walt Disney, like so many other Americans, was at home on Sunday morning, December 7, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into the conflict. Within hours of the attack, an anti-aircraft gun was placed in the parking lot of the Disney Studio in Southern California to protect the Lockheed aircraft factory next door. 

Disney, born in 1901, was too old to be drafted. He was, however, eager to serve his country. During World War I, he dropped out of school at the age of 16 and tried to enlist, but he was rejected for being too young. He was able to find work as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross and would spend a year in France, but by the time he arrived there, the war had ended. 

When World War II began, Disney pledged the studio would focus 90 percent of its wartime output to the war effort and this work would be done not for profit.

Cartoons with a Message

As most people associate Disney with fun and games, the cartoons with a message shown in the MOF exhibit are very much an eye-opener. The Disney Studios produced cartoon films that taught technical skills such as welding and riveting, vital skills for the ship-building and aircraft-manufacturing industries. With a cartoon, images could be rotated for a three-dimensional X-ray view. For the armed forces, Disney produced training films on everything from how to navigate a ship, basic aerodynamics, and the dangers of airframe icing. 

For the home front, Disney produced comic strips and cartoons to explain what was happening in Europe, and lots of propaganda and morale posters, covering everything from nutrition (the importance of eating a balanced diet so you would have stamina to do your war work) to the civic duty of paying your taxes.

Disney also used cartoons to foster good relations with South America, which was ostensibly neutral during the war. A whole slew of geographically appropriate anamorphic animal characters were also created.

Cartoon Characters Become Unit Mascots

Disney’s anamorphic animal characters went from entertaining to inspirational, as they became insignia patches for various military units. The patches were created on request. Disney had a special squad who would field the letters sent from various military outfits asking for a custom patch. A pencil drawing would be created, often using existing Disney characters, then colors would be added to create the insignia. The finished work was sent back to the unit, and kept as a template. The most skilled artist in the outfit would then paint the design on aircraft, buildings, jackets, water towers—you name it.

The Disney insignia squad turned out more than 1,300 unit patches—and a great many of them have been recreated and are on display as part of the exhibit. 

Disney did a lot of art for aviation—as noted in a 1940s issue of FLYING, which is a part of the exhibit as it carries a story about the unit insignia that graced airplanes as nose art. There is also a model of the B-17 Wabash Cannonball sporting an image of Disney’s Goofy character.

One of the most famous designs in the exhibit is Fifinella, the shapely she-gremlin in aviation gear that is the mascot of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Fifi, as she is known to her friends, was created at the request of WASP founder Jacqueline Cochran. At the time, Disney was exploring the idea of turning Gremlins, a children’s book by Royal Air Force pilot-turned author Roald Dahl, into a movie. Gremlins were mythical creatures blamed for aircraft mishaps. Fifi was created from one of the gremlin sketches. A superstition held that when a WASP flew with Fifi on her wings, she was protected.

Although today Mickey Mouse is the most popular Disney character, Donald Duck was the most-often used character in World War II insignia. He appeared in no fewer than 146 designs. The Duck, who even in peace time was usually depicted wearing a sailor’s blouse and cap, was a natural for the armed forces because of his reputation for patriotism—not to mention his willingness to fight. He also starred in a number of morale and training films, such as Commando Duck.

Disney Loses Animators to the War

The war cost Disney some animators. Most of its artists were men who were either drafted or enlisted. In addition, those of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated to internment camps by Executive Order 9066, which removed the Japanese from the West Coast. 

The exhibit notes that there were few women in the animation department when the war began, and like they did in so many other industries, women were called upon to fill these non-combatant jobs. At the end of the war, Disney offered the now-skilled women animators and artists the option to stay.

The exhibit opens at the MOF on July 9 and will remain until February.

The post When Walt Disney Was a War Hero appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Like most passionate pilots, I’m all for great aerial photography. Aerial photography requires a professional skill set and an innate sense of just how to film a high-speed airplane in-flight. The latest Tom Cruise movie, Top Gun: Maverick, certainly surpasses prior aviation films in that department.  

Unfortunately, the film fails miserably in other departments, as did the original in 1986. Sorry, but I’m going to shoot it down. (Yes, pun intended.) If you haven’t already bought your over-priced bucket of buttered popcorn and contributed to the almost $1 billion dollars of revenue, consider this a spoiler alert. I’ll spare everyone my opinion on the movie storyline itself.  Far be it from me to declare a predictable plot, or to point out an apparent underlying script theme—if it worked then, it will work now.

For those not familiar, the Top Gun school at the Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego moved. As part of a base consolidation effort in 1996, the former version of the Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor Program is now at Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada. So, strike one that the movie attempts to resurrect a location that no longer exists for Top Gun pilots.

The not-so-underlying inference for both Top Gun movies is that the school is an elite assignment only for the best pilots, when in fact, the primary objective upon its creation in 1969—after the Navy suffered unacceptable losses during a portion of the Vietnam war—was to train instructors using the latest tactical strategies so they could pass these skills on to other fighter pilots. So, strike two, Top Gun wasn’t a training ground for clandestine suicide missions.

Kudos to Lockheed Martin for designing the fictional, hypersonic, “Darkstar”  SR-71/F-35-looking test airplane. But a sophisticated aircraft with one oversized, red, Mach LED display like my alarm clock? And then once Mach 10 is exceeded, the airplane falls apart? 

The film would have us believe that an ejection at that speed is a non-issue. Maverick destroys a multi-million-dollar airplane while demonstrating his endearing quality of insubordination. The redeeming end to this particular scene is the best one-liner of the movie, uttered by a young boy reacting to Maverick’s bruised, battered, and staggered entry into a local diner: “Where am I?” asks Maverick. “Earth,” replies the surprised kid.

Full disclosure, I have no military background other than spending two weeks in Air Force ROTC, but the sortie to destroy a nuclear site buried in mountainous terrain seemed a wee bit implausible despite the impressive performance of an F-18, notwithstanding the political implications of an unprovoked attack. Wouldn’t the G-forces involved be unsustainable? And wouldn’t the capabilities of UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) technology be a more suitable option?

• READ MORE: FLYING’s Top Gun: Maverick Music Playlist

One of my biggest issues is the portrayal of Navy pilots as cocky, arrogant, and competitively obsessive. Having flown with many at the airline, I found almost all of them to be humble, competent, and self-effacing despite the fact they had logged a few hours landing on a rolling postage stamp in the middle of the ocean. Unlike other branches of service, Navy pilots have additional duties while on board the ship, which probably enhanced their leadership skills and easy-going demeanor.

The real Top Gun school promotes camaraderie and support. The training goal certainly isn’t to create rivalry or to reward insubordination, which both movies seem to suggest. Nor was the goal to glorify reckless behavior in a combat environment. My understanding is that an unwritten rule was decreed after the 1986 film that requires Navy pilots to pay a $5 fine for uttering a line from Top Gun.  Based on the current line of “Don’t think—just do,” I’m in favor of increasing the fine to $100.

Moving on to the actual mission, which did include incredible, state-of-the-art aerial scenes, Maverick is shot down. He ejects successfully but is pursued by a menacing, monster helicopter. Just before Maverick’s imminent demise, he is predictably rescued by a missile shot fired by Goose’s son, who is now demonstrating a predisposition for insubordination. My jaw went slack shortly after Goose’s son was shot down, because he is somehow able to eject within meters of Maverick’s touchdown.  

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy, Air Force Banking On Top Gun: Maverick Recruitment Boost

Shortly thereafter, the dynamic duo manages a short trek through the forest in knee-deep snow to the destroyed enemy Air Force Base. A rough calculation of the distance covered by an F-18 using afterburners would seem that such a trek might take slightly longer than a few minutes.

Certainly, most aviators predicted that Maverick would somehow drop himself into an F-14 cockpit again. Fortunately, the old fighter jet was still conveniently plugged into external air despite the US Navy’s attack on the base. Enemy airplanes were incapable of departing the obliterated runway, but despite that minor detail Maverick was able to access a debris-filled taxiway utilizing short-field departure techniques, with the only damage being loss of the nosewheel. Ahhemm…  Gotta admit that the arrival back on the aircraft carrier with an engine failure and missing nose gear was spectacular.

The end of the movie includes the obligatory motorcycle ride down an active taxiway, chasing a departing fighter jet. In my old airline world that performance would be an unauthorized incursion. Just sayin.

Maverick gets the quintessential girl and resumes his love for the P-51. Okay, most of us are aware…and potentially a bit envious…that Tom Cruise flies his own P-51 Mustang. He successfully incorporates the airplane into the script. But wait, how many fighter pilots who have only achieved the rank of Captain can afford a P-51?

• READ MORE: Review: How Does Top Gun: Maverick Stack Up?

I have no reason to believe that Tom Cruise isn’t a competent pilot. It’s obvious that the actor has a passion for airplanes. But knowing that he also has a passion for performing his own stunts, I was hoping that he would have attempted to achieve more realism rather than going Hollywood on the storyline. At the end of the day, it’s about entertainment and generating revenue. I get it.

Some of you might be shaking your heads, resentful that a crotchety, old airline guy that flew wallowing cruise ships with wings has the right to weigh in on an iconic movie sequel. Maybe I have fighter pilot envy. I don’t. But I admire and respect their specialized service to our country. Aerobatics and the need for speed were never my thing. Sorry, but I’ve always been critical of any aviation-related movie that stepped out of bounds. Ask my wife; she finds it painful sitting beside me in a movie theater if an airplane is involved…as she did for this film.

For my entertainment dollars, I’d rather see a sequel to “The Great Waldo Pepper.” Any takers? Mr. Redford?

The post <i>FLYING</i> Contributor: Shoot <i>Top Gun: Maverick</i> Down With Missiles appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“He’s the fastest man alive,” 

This line is uttered in Top Gun Maverick when Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell achieves Mach 10 in the Darkstar—a  reusable hypersonic, piloted aircraft that is ostensibly a creation of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works—note the Lockheed Martin logo of the Skunk on the tail of the aircraft in the movie.  

I felt a surge of pride when I saw the familiar logo—my father worked at Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Projects—known as Skunk Works—for more than 30 years. Dad never told us what he did. He couldn’t. He would go on work trips to “someplace in the desert.” Us kids were taught to say, “Daddy builds rockets,” when someone asked what our father did for work. 

Skunk Works Goes Hollywood

Skunk Works—which got its name because the plant produced a strong unpleasant odor, especially on warm days—by definition is a place of secrecy. 

The skunk is the mascot of “Skunk Works,” a term for Lockheed Martin Advanced Development that goes back to 1943, when engineer Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson led a team in Southern California tasked with designing a jet for the military. Because manufacturing space was impossible to find because of the war, the team worked out of a rented circus tent set up next to a plastics manufacturing plant.

• READ MORE: Pilots Will Love Top Gun: Maverick—It’s a Lot More Real

According to a spokesperson from Lockheed Martin,  Paramount Pictures approached the aerospace company in 2017 with a request for technical expertise in the production of Top Gun: Maverick.  

“Lockheed Martin Skunk Works designed and produced a conceptual reusable, piloted hypersonic aircraft, referred to as Darkstar in the film.” she said. 

The fictional Darkstar’s lines evoke two other Lockheed Martin aircraft: the SR-71 Blackbird—SR stands for Strategic Reconnaissance—the now retired, super fast design; and the Lockheed Martin F-35, also known as “the world’s most advanced fighter jet.” 

• LISTEN: FLYING’s Top Gun: Maverick Music Playlist

FLYING was told not to confuse Darkstar with the SR-72, a concept referred to as the “Son of Blackbird,”which is a construct ostensibly suggested by the media in 2013, but never confirmed as a concept by Skunk Works.  

Darkstar is movie fiction, the spokesperson explained, saying, “Darkstar is a hyper-realistic aircraft concept designed specifically for Top Gun: Maverick. Hypersonic technology is progressing and the work being done across Lockheed Martin today is laying the foundation for a Reusable Hypersonic Vehicle, such as Darkstar, to one day be possible.”

• REVIEW: How Does Top Gun: Maverick Stack Up?

The fictional aircraft was five years in the making. The development team took it seriously, keeping in mind “the shaping, materials, and components that must withstand heat and environmental stressors caused by high-speed flight.” 

In addition, Lockheed Martin “helped design realistic flight gear, shared artifacts for the set, and arranged site tours and demonstrations to support the effort. The team provided insights to drive realism into the storyline, serving as consultants throughout filming,” the company’s spokesperson said.

Proud of Their Part in the Movie

Lockheed Martin has a webpage dedicated to information about Top Gun Maverick. There you will find more information about the project and a few of the Lockheed Martin designers who worked on it, identified only by their first names: Jim, Jason, Lucio, and Becky.

Jim is credited with the conceptual design. Jason and Lucio handled the task of turning the conceptual designs into a realistic aircraft model with a working cockpit. Becky, a mechanical engineer, worked with the movie team to build the Darkstar vehicle, including the functional cockpit. Throughout the filming process, her job was to keep the model structurally sound.

Jeremy Hindle, the movie’s production designer from Paramount, described Darkstar’s design as “angry, mean, and insanely fast.” 

In the movie, the Darkstar mission is never openly discussed. However, we are told that the government wants to pull the funding on the project because it hasn’t yet reached Mach 10. It is intimated that the test flight protocols—which set specific targets to reach and to go no farther than Mach 10—are short of Mach 9.

Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell bends the rules a bit to get “one last test flight.” Test flights involve a protocol where a target is set and achieved, but do not involve pushing the envelope. Maverick is cautioned not to make the flight—Mach 9 is 6,905.42 mph.

The closest a piloted aircraft has come to that speed in reality is the SR-71 Blackbird, which reached Mach 3.3 or 2,193 mph.

There is a dramatic sequence as Maverick dons his high-altitude flight suit and helmet as he prepares for the before-sunrise launch. The tension mounts as the aircraft climbs into the dawn sky, and the cockpit’s Mach number readout heads toward the targeted value. 

Is it possible to fly an aircraft as fast as Mach 9?

“Operating in the hypersonic flight realm is difficult,” the Lockheed Martin spokesperson said. “The film depicts both a notional aircraft and a notional flight test scenario. The pathfinding work being done today is vitally important. The notional scenario in the film does not represent today’s work.”

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy, Air Force Banking On Top Gun: Maverick Recruitment Boost

This wasn’t the first time Locheed Martin created a Darkstar. In the 1990s Lockheed Martin created the RQ-3 Darkstar, a high altitude, unmanned aerial vehicle designed for endurance, not for speed. The UAV did its first flight in March 1996. The project was terminated in 1999 because the aircraft did not meet expectations. 

Three remaining Darkstar UAVs are in museums—one is at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, one is at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and the third is at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington.

Perhaps…someday. Just as the flying scenes in the original Top Gun inspired generations to become military aviators, this movie will also inspire future generations of engineers.

The post That Darkstar in <i>Top Gun: Maverick</i>—Was it Real? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

For pilots, aviation fans, and those who love them, the summer of 2022 will likely go down as the season of Top Gun: Maverick.

Top Gun: Maverick opened nationwide May 27, delivering up epic flight scenes. The butt-puckering flight sequences included in the sequel to Top Gun, more than three decades in the making, were made possible because of the creation of the Cinejet, a specially designed aerial camera platform based upon an Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros, as well as the Embraer Phenom 300 and Airbus AStar used as aerial photo platforms.

• READ MORE: Pilots Will Love Top Gun: Maverick—It’s a Lot More Real

Less than a month after it was released, the movie has raked in $402 million and counting, earning it the distinction as the highest grossing movie of the year, according to Deadline, a Hollywood breaking news site.

The financial success, it seems, is that for most viewers, the movie script has a bit of everything: love, loss, regret, reflection, conflict, plus airplanes, aileron rolls, and afterburners.

For one movie goer, however, Top Gun: Maverick was a “two-hour monstrosity.”

• READ MORE: Review: How Does Top Gun: Maverick Stack Up?

In a nearly 750-word review on the social network Letterboxd,  reviewer “Brett” gave the movie half a star out of five stars. According to the site profile, Brett has watched 1,565 films, at least 26 of which he has reviewed so far this year. The film chapped his derrière so much that he said it rated lower than the 1.5 stars he bestowed upon the 2019 Hollywood production of Cats (which, OK, fair enough) and with the same rating contempt as the all-around horribly racist 1915 film, The Birth of a Nation.

• READ MORE: ICYMI: Tom Cruise Takes James Corden on ‘Top Gun’ Flight

“Even if one can ignore the rabidly bloodthirsty nature of this movie, it is still absolute garbage,” Brett said of Maverick. “The morals of this story are, and I am not exaggerating in the slightest: soldiers should ignore orders to stand down, and you should take actions without thinking about them. Our heroes follow these lessons throughout the story and are constantly rewarded for it. It is a child’s understanding of bravery and honor, coated in thick layers of some of the most painfully sentimental slime that Hollywood has ever produced.”

Brett took issue with his interpretation of the plot: “a bombing run over an Iranian nuclear facility near completion.” It was a story that stood in contrast with reality, Brett said, and would have set Tom Cruise and company up for what he deemed an “illegal and unconstitutional act of war.”

The politics of the film should not be ignored, Brett added.

“It is not a fun blockbuster nor an escapist fantasy, but a clear and unequivocal celebration of U.S. militarism,” he said. 

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy, Air Force Banking On Top Gun: Maverick Recruitment Boost

“Top Gun: Maverick is a 131-minute long advertisement for death,” Brett concluded. “Aggressively unoriginal, wildly irresponsible with its messaging, historically revisionist…This is a masterwork of propaganda in defense of some of our nation’s worst traits, and it’s an enormous success,” Brett said. “I left the theater depressed and forlorn.”

In the barrage of criticism, however, one aspect of the movie was spared Brett’s barbs: the soundtrack. 

The 1986 Top Gun soundtrack, which featured generational hits by Berlin and Kenny Loggins, continues to evoke emotion among the pilot set. (FLYING curated a list of special songs from the soundtracks of Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick, as well as music that celebrates the unique aircraft and characters in both films.)

• READ MORE: FLYING’s Top Gun: Maverick Music Playlist

Are Brett’s criticisms warranted? We want to hear from you.

The post Meet Someone Who Really Didn’t Like <i>Top Gun: Maverick</i> appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

What might have happened during the Cold War Space Race if the Soviets walked on the moon first? The ripple effects across technology and space exploration might have significantly impacted the world as we know it.  

That’s the premise behind Apple TV+’s alternate reality space drama For All Mankind.

For two seasons we’ve seen supersonic flying, spacewalking, moonwalking, mining on the moon, guns on the moon, and The Bob Newhart Show on the moon. And as the third season premieres Friday, it’s time to ask the question: Why isn’t everyone who’s interested in NASA, Roskosmos, the Russian space agency, and companies like SpaceX watching this show?

This series takes us to an imaginary world where Apollo funding never dried up, the Soviet Union never broke up, and national interest in space exploration never wavered.  

The new season carries the U.S-Soviet space rivalry forward to the ’90s. The musical backdrop for the trailer is Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” as the U.S. and Moscow compete for a new frontier: Mars.

Also different this season is the introduction of a third rival: commercial space. A multi-billionaire CEO of a private  company called Helios Aerospace is determined to land on the Red Planet. (Now does this scenario sound familiar?)

• READ MORE: Billionaire Space Race: Does it Matter?

Many characters in For All Mankind are imaginary—but the show also features actors playing real people instrumental in the exploration of space, like John Glenn, Wernher von Braun, Gene Kranz, Deke Slayton, Sally Ride, Charlie Duke, Pete Conrad, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong.

In the first season, GA pilots will appreciate a humorous “meet cute” when two future moonwalkers enjoy a pseudo flying lesson in a beautiful 1951 single engine Cessna 195. 

To borrow a word from Star Trek’s Mr. Spock: This show is “fascinating.”  

• READ MORE: The Aviation Roots of Star Trek

The brains behind For All Mankind include Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi, and Ronald D. Moore— a former Star Trek writer/producer and award-winning re-imaginer of the Battlestar Galactica series. 

What Ifs

Among its chief attributes, the series presents these thought-provoking, “what if” developments and possible consequences:

• What if the Soviets walked on the moon first? In the show, this intensifies and lengthens the competition between NASA and Moscow in the race to dominate space exploration.
• What if the Space Race continued through the 1970s? The series imagines both nations with permanent space stations on the lunar surface.
• What if the Soviets landed a woman on the moon? For All Mankind envisions that this prompts the U.S. to bring women into NASA’s astronaut program in the 1970s. The best women pilots are recruited and trained. By the dates of the Apollo 15 mission in this alternate timeline, the first American woman walks on the moon. The series envisions a diverse astronaut corps, beginning in the 1970s. But race, gender, and sexual orientation continue to be issues as the space program develops.
• What if new consumer technology resulted from the continued Space Race? In the alternative 1980s, video-phones and electric cars are part of daily life.
• What if new space technology was developed? The series features a space shuttle that can fly to the moon. We see an enormous reusable rocket called Sea Dragon (which was an actual NASA proposal) that dramatically lifts off from under the ocean surface.

The history of human space exploration is relatively short, but already filled with truly amazing stories—some of which have achieved an almost mythical status. The show’s talented storytellers combine some of these actual events in space history with thrilling and entirely credible fictional scenarios—many that are genuinely unforgettable. 

With the focus now on Mars instead of the moon, For All Mankind will likely start to feel more like science fiction and less like alternate reality. 

Nonetheless, as real-world NASA makes plans to return to the moon and eventually Mars under the Artemis Program, it will be interesting to see where the imaginative minds behind For All Mankind take us next. 

The post What If the Soviets Had Walked on the Moon First? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

In October 2021, actor William Shatner, then 90, became the oldest person to travel to space, breaking the previous record held by famed pilot Wally Fuk. Now you can get a behind-the-scenes look at the journey with the release of Shatner in Space, a documentary produced by Amazon Prime that’s now available on its streaming service. 

The actual flight lasted 10 minutes, 17 seconds. The video runs 46:16 and begins years before the flight, with how Shatner came to be one of four astronauts aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard, named for astronaut Alan Shepard. 

The documentary includes video clips from Shatner’s early career in black-and-white science fiction television anthologies combined with scenes from his time as Captain Kirk on Star Trek and highlights his astronaut training.

In the new film, Amazon founder and Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos, 58, says he was inspired by Captain Kirk so much that he invited Shatner to visit Blue Origin headquarters in Kent, Washington, in 2019. 

Bezos escorts Shatner on the tour, explaining how they are building New Shepard, a reusable space tourism vehicle, with the idea of enabling persons to travel to space. It’s fun to watch Bezos, a self-described Trek fan, share his story with Shatner, who realizes that a great many of the people who are working at Blue Origin were, in some fashion, inspired by Captain Kirk. During the tour, Bezos asks Shatner if he would like to be one of the space tourists and Shatner says, “Yes.”

The video takes viewers through Shatner’s decision to take up Bezos’ offer to travel to space. There’s an awkward scene where he tells his family about his decision. The rest of the video documents the preparation of the astronauts on the mission. 

The purpose of these space tourism flights, says Bezos, is to show people how fragile the Earth is, and perhaps, once that is realized, people will work to protect the environment.

“I think it’s essential,” he says. “That’s what needs to happen. That’s what Blue Origin is working on, that will change everything. You have to be stubborn on the vision and flexible on the details. That’s how you build a road to space.”

Shatner, clad in the blue-and-black Blue Origin astronaut flight suit and wearing two pilot watches on his left wrist, appears to be enjoying the astronaut classes.

The New Shepard is an autonomous vehicle—the astronauts/tourists do not have to do anything, no button pushing, lever flipping, no flying—they are strapped into astronaut couches for launch and recovery. Approximately 20 seconds after launch, New Shepard released from the rocket, and there was a period of weightlessness as it continued its climb to approximately 300,000 feet, to the so-called Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. The astronauts float around for a bit then are given a one-minute warning when it is time to strap back in for the return to earth. The capsule lands with the help of drag chutes on the desert floor in Texas.

Shatner was joined on his flight by Audrey Powers, a Blue Origin vice president who oversees New Shepard operations, and two paying customers—Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of the Earth-observation company Planet Labs, and Glen de Vries, a co-founder of a company that builds software. 

There are interviews with each of the other participants. Powers, Boshuizen, and de Vries describe how traveling to space has been a desire since childhood. Powers also talks about her career at NASA and Boshuizen shows a Lego spaceman from his childhood he intends to carry with him on the trip. Watching de Vries talk is bittersweet, as he died about a month after the flight in a small airplane crash.

There is a poignant moment when Bezos asks Shatner to carry a paper tricorder and communicator Bezos made as a child with him into space.

The video follows the Blue Origin astronauts through their few days of training from their ground school to a tour of the New Shepard capsule where they are assigned seats. Shatner pointedly remarks that he is trying not to have any expectations about the flight as he doesn’t really know what to expect.

The combination of the video, the music, and the expressions of joy on the faces of the launch team, the crowd in attendance and the astronauts during the launch sequence will give you chills.

Shatner, upon landing is emotional and visibly moved, and thanks Bezos for giving the life-changing opportunity, saying the view of the Earth showed its fragility and he drives home the point that it must be protected and healed from pollution.

Bezos, in the after-flight commentary sums it up. 

“Bill Shatner is not Captain Kirk. Captain Kirk is this amazing fictional character that inspired  millions of people. It turns out that Captain Kirk is an incredible character. Bill Shatner is an incredible man. He became one of my heroes all over again, but this time as the real man.”

The post William Shatner’s Space Trip Now the Subject of a Documentary appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

I long ago stopped counting how many times I have seen the 1986 naval aviation drama Top Gun. But after watching the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, on Friday, I felt compelled to see the original yet again, this time with my wife and two teenage sons, so I could more thoroughly compare the films. That was Sunday.

On Monday, I took my family to see Maverick because I figured they would enjoy it and I wanted to hear their impressions of the film and their opinions on whether the decades-spanning story holds together. I also simply wanted to see it again.

Our outing plus my repeat views contributed to the movie’s reported box office tally of $156 million, a record for a Memorial Day weekend release.

It is no surprise that the film is popular. It has the elements of success: love, loss, regret, reflection, conflict, denouement. Add airplanes, aileron rolls, and afterburners to the mix, with a lot of exhaust nozzles flaring and tensing, and you have a good case for the perfect cinematic product. Indeed, both my flight instructor and my favorite middle-school English teacher should love this film.

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy, Air Force Banking On Top Gun: Maverick Recruitment Boost

Circumstances also helped propel Maverick. Pent-up, pandemic-era demand for big-screen entertainment in general, and the public’s enthusiasm sometimes bordering on obsession over Top Gun in particular promised a big audience. The film was supposed to debut in 2020 but COVID-19 thwarted that plan. It was a temporary obstacle, though, and after more than 30 years of waiting, another two seemed only to enhance the excitement. Let’s just say it was easily worth the wait.

• ICYMI: Tom Cruise Takes James Corden on ‘Top Gun’ Flight

This is especially so for pilots, who have been among Top Gun’s biggest fans and harshest critics. Anyone who knows anything about modern air combat will tell you that for decades fighter weapons technology has allowed aircraft to engage enemies from ever-greater ranges, often beyond the horizon. So why, back in 1986, were F-14s mixing it up with “bogeys” at distances less than a city block? Was this a World War I dawn patrol?

• READ MORE: Pilots Will Love Top Gun: Maverick—It’s a Lot More Real

Realistically, we have to admit that downing enemies more than 100 miles away with Phoenix missiles would make for one seriously boring movie. I recall listening to an interview with retired Rear Admiral Pete Pettigrew, a well-known adviser on the original film, who talked about how combat aircraft actually fight versus the way they battled on screen. Eventually, he came to terms with the directorial license needed to make the flight sequences appeal to a general audience. Airplane movies cry out for close-ups.

Pettigrew also joked that he felt the film would be fine as long as it didn’t somehow morph into a musical. I suspect the admiral knows that Top Gun arguably is a bit of a musical. Its aerial combat scenes always made me think of the Sharks and Jets of West Side Story dancing with switchblades, perfectly choreographed. Realistic? Not exactly, but exceedingly entertaining.

• Listen: FLYING’s Top Gun: Maverick Music Playlist

While Maverick excels as a sequel, gracefully bringing the story, characters, situations, and dialog out of the 1980s and into the modern age while adding realism to flight sequences and personal interactions, it is still enough of a music video, dance show, and tearjerker to appeal to an audience well beyond aviation enthusiasts.

The post Review: How Does <i>Top Gun: Maverick</i> Stack Up? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Friday’s release of Top Gun: Maverick got us thinking about mood music for pilots and others who enjoy listening to a few tunes while aviating—what a great opportunity to curate a special music playlist. 

Naturally, our FLYING Top Gun playlist includes music from the original Top Gun movie soundtrack as well as songs from the new film. For fun, we’ve also added music that references actors, characters, aircraft, and situations from the franchise. 

• READ MORE: Pilots Will Love Top Gun: Maverick—It’s a Lot More Real

While the 1986 soundtrack featured Berlin and Kenny Loggins, the sequel updates the tone with 21st century superstars.

“This album continues the musical legacy that the original Top Gun ignited back in 1986,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer said in a news release. “We are so thrilled to have Lady Gaga and OneRepublic lend their artistry towards putting a modern spin on the already iconic and beloved soundtrack.”

In the new film, Tom Cruise reprises his original role as U.S. Navy fighter pilot Pete Mitchell—call sign Maverick. Decades after he attended the Navy’s elite fighter jet training school nicknamed “TOPGUN,” Maverick finds himself training a detachment of “TOPGUN” graduates for a specialized mission. 

• ICYMI: Tom Cruise Takes James Corden on ‘Top Gun’ Flight

Maverick also encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (call sign Rooster), played by Miles Teller. Rooster is the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka Goose. 

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy, Air Force Banking On Top Gun: Maverick Recruitment Boost

Just like the original, which featured characters with call signs like Iceman, Jester, Viper, and Hollywood, the new film includes characters nicknamed Phoenix, Cyclone, Warlock, Payback, Fanboy, and Coyote. Our playlist reflects some of these characters—and yes, there actually is a song titled Kelly McGillis.

Enjoy!

The post <i>FLYING’s Top Gun: Maverick</i> Music Playlist appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Actor—and arguably the most popular pilot in the U.S. this week—Tom Cruise recently treated comedian James Corden to a “Top Gun Day” of flight, subjecting the flight-adverse entertainer to a day he won’t forget anytime soon.

Cruise’s latest blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick, opens nationwide Friday, May 27. For pilots, the scenes promise to be epic, thanks to a purpose-built L-39 Cinejet outfitted for filming the adrenaline-inducing sequences.

• READ MORE: Pilots Will Love Top Gun: Maverick—It’s a Lot More Real

Standing under a light in the predawn hours alongside the darkened runway at Bob Hope Hollywood-Burbank Airport (KBUR), the British comedian summed up what was to come next: “I’m here because Tom Cruise has asked me to meet him here at 5 a.m. When Tom Cruise calls, you sort of have to say yes.”

The pair boarded a Honda HA-420 business jet, which Cruise flew to a remote desert landing strip to rendezvous with his own vintage warbird, a P-51 Mustang. Up in the air in the World War II-era fighter, Cruise showed off his aviator chops by performing a series of maneuvers that included threading a gap in a ridgeline.

• READ MORE: Before Top Gun, Other Aviation Movies Inspired Us

“Tom, you’re a madman. You’re insane,” Corden said, coming up for air.

But there would be more. Flying an Aero L-39 Albatros fighter jet trainer, Cruise demonstrated tactical maneuvers, including loops and inverted flight.

Cruise, who has been a pilot since 1994, flew in many of the scenes in the Top Gun: Maverick. 

“The Navy wouldn’t let him fly an F-18,” the film’s producer, Jerry Bruckheimer said, according to USA Today. “But he flies a P-51 in the movie and he flies helicopters. He can do just about anything in an airplane.”

It wasn’t Corden’s first aviation rodeo with Cruise. In 2018, and while promoting Mission Impossible: Fallout, Cruise talked Corden into going skydiving.

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy, Air Force Banking On Top Gun: Maverick Recruitment Boost

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For a movie as iconic as Top Gun, the sequel has been a long time coming. Normally, the ink is barely dry on the celluloid of version 1.0 before the next installment goes into production, ready to ride the wave of popularity and interest of that first smash hit.

But this aviation-fueled audience has waited since 1986—and there’s good reason for that. FLYING learned the secrets during an interview with top Hollywood aerial coordinator Kevin “K2” LaRosa II. He’s vice president of aerial film production for Helinet Aviation Services, and he produced the dynamic and compelling aerial ballet that comprises the heart and soul of Top Gun: Maverick.

The Backstory

LaRosa learned the art of aerial movie coordination and the professional craft of being a stunt pilot from watching and working with his father, Kevin LaRosa, Sr. K2’s a third-generation pilot, in fact. “My grandfather flew in the New Jersey National Guard,” he said. “He flew C-97s, he flew P-51 Mustangs, among other aircraft—and that is what sparked my dad’s interest in flying.”

Kevin LaRosa, Sr., ended up becoming a highly successful motion picture and television stunt pilot and aerial coordinator, and he worked on hundreds of motion pictures and TV shows. “One thing about my father that I truly love and idolize is that he flies multiple platforms, P-51 Mustangs, T-28s, T-6s, into jets and helicopters. He just was this very well-rounded aviator. I feel fortunate that I was able to be exposed to so many things at a young age.”

“I knew from when I was a little boy exactly what I wanted to do.”

But LaRosa, Sr., didn’t give his son an immediate leg up into the industry. 

“You can’t just become an aerial coordinator by being somebody’s son,” said K2. “Nobody will ever trust you. When I was a young teenager, I was already working in the film business with my dad, not in a pilot capacity, but in a supporting role.” And his father delivered some rock solid advice: “I needed to leave the industry that I truly loved, and go become my own aviator. Go become my own pilot and my own person.” It was also the hardest advice he ever had to receive.

K2’s had other aviation heroes, including Chuck Yeager and Bob Hoover, “mainly because of their true airmanship, and because of being just aviators to the core, and I always loved and was interested in how many different platforms they could fly…get out of one aircraft and hop in a jet, or get out of a jet and hop in this airplane. And that aircraft was literally an extension of their body.”

One pilot in particular served as a mentor to K2, and that’s Thomas C. McMurtry, who passed away January 2015. “That gentleman is an American hero,” said LaRosa. “ He was a mechanical engineer, he was a naval aviator, he was a test pilot for NASA’s flight research center, and he was a consultant for Lockheed Corporation.

“When I first started flying camera jets at the young age of 21, Tom took me under his wing flying a Lear 25 camera jet, which was from a company called Wolf Air Aviation, and taught me everything about military-style flying. So, as a civilian I ended up with this background and knowledge base about the military, how to fly with the military, how to brief with the military, formation techniques, dogfighting techniques—every kind of formation you could think of, with dissimilar platforms. Night formation, IMC formation—stuff that civilians typically are not introduced to.” 

That skill set that McMurtry gave to K2 is irreplaceable for the professionals who fly photo missions—particularly the flying of dissimilar aircraft in photo work, which is arguably the most objectively hazardous thing civilian pilots will do. Add in the high speed of dissimilar jets, and the hazard factor multiplies.

To do this well, a pilot must be an aviator, according to LaRosa. An aviator doesn’t just have natural talent, or is someone who knows every rivet by the book—but someone who feels the aircraft, who straps it on. “I was taught from a young age to listen to the aircraft,” he said. “It talks to you, and you can feel things that it likes and doesn’t like. And that goes from a C-130 to a Cessna 150.”

The Secret? The L-39 Cinejet

The filming for the sequel to Top Gun had to represent the height of the craft. The Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros formed an excellent airframe to build upon in order for LaRosa to create the Cinejet—an optimized aerial camera platform with a camera mounted on its nose. But this is no GoPro Hero hanging out in the breeze. “We spent a great deal of time and energy developing the jet…making it what it needed to be for Top Gun: Maverick.” 

• READ MORE: U.S. Navy, Air Force Banking On Top Gun: Maverick Recruitment Boost

“Early in 2016, I knew we needed a jet-based platform to fly the newest technology to meet the demands of helping to tell this great story. At that time, the technology did not exist, or had not been applied, so I designed and helped develop the L-39 Cinejet.” LaRosa partnered with the Patriot Jet Aerobatic Team as well as Helinet Aviation and Shotover to create the Cinejet. 

The Cinejet gives the team the ability to maneuver the camera in ways they had never done before. “The older technology, including the technology used on the original 1986 film required the camera pilots to essentially fly very smoothly, because those systems were only partially stabilized.”

“When we watch footage from past movies that showed aerials, we would typically see some instability come through. Furthermore, we would see lack of clarity or sort of a diminished image. What we needed for Top Gun: Maverick was the clearest, sharpest, best technology and best camera payload possible.” 

So What’s on Board? 

The Cinejet carries a Shotover F1 Rush, which is a six-axis stabilized mounting system, and for Top Gun: Maverick it housed a Sony Venice camera with Fujinon lenses. “It allowed me to maneuver that aircraft through canyons at high rates of speed pulling up to 3Gs, without making our image shaky or unstable,” said LaRosa.

“In the back of the L-39 [in an ejection seat] is an aerial director of photography, we had two of them on the movie, David Nowell and Michael FitzMaurice. These gentlemen are in charge of framing and composing the shots that we see.”

All of the helicopter and jet aerials were shot by Nowell and FitzMaurice, flown in the Cinejet, an Embraer Phenom 300 camera jet, or an Airbus AStar/H125 helicopter. “It’s my job to put the camera in the right spot, and it’s their job to compose the shot,” said LaRosa. 

“The L-39 allowed us that flexibility, agility, and maneuverability to really get into the fight and give the audience a bit of a thrill ride. That wasn’t possible before this time.”

The L-39’s long nose and strong airframe allowed LaRosa to mount the camera a great distance forward of the wings. “This gives the L-39 a really good field of view. We can look beneath our jet, behind, above our wing, and behind us, before we see our own aircraft in the shot. This is something different and new that wasn’t possible before.” The team also cleaned up the airframe even further, moving comm and GPS antennas, wiring, and other elements.

• READ MORE: Before Top Gun, Other Aviation Movies Inspired Us

A new piece of technology entered service in the midst of filming for Top Gun: Maverick: the Phenom 300 camera jet. It can carry two F1 Rushes, one mounted on the nose and the other on the tail. “This aircraft was used in the movie whenever I wanted to go long distance out over the water,” said K2. “It gave us two-engine reliability and safety. And it also gave us longer sortie times. The Phenom carried more fuel and was able to stay on station longer. The back of the aircraft was configured with two operating stations, at which both [Michael and David] operated from.” Each camera was fitted with a different lens, one wide angle and one very long lens.

It was not the platform for dog-fighting or canyon sequences, however. That other platform? The Airbus H125 AStar (formerly Eurocopter AS 350), which carries a Airfilm AF200 bracket holding a Shotover K1 camera gimbal capable of holding a larger camera body or a long lens. It conveys a sense of speed and agility, showing jets ripping past the lens.

A Special Moment On Set

It turns out that K2 isn’t the only one who knows the Cinejet made the high degree of realism possible in Top Gun: Maverick—actor Tom Cruise made this known from the beginning.

“When we started filming Top Gun: Maverick, there was a meeting that took place, in which Tom Cruise did an exceptional job setting the scene and helping the crew understand the monumental task ahead of us,” LaRosa remembered. 

“What he told us was, we’re almost at a disadvantage. We’re making a sequel to a very iconic movie. And we needed to wait this long so there was a story worth being told. And we needed to wait this long so there was technology available to help us tell the story. And he knew, and inspired everybody who was going to work on this movie that the movie needed to obtain a level of perfection that had not been seen.

“What [Cruise] did for me on that day was truly inspire me to set the bar higher than it had ever been set in regards to aerial cinematography.”

One of the most special days on set for LaRosa was a normal day, on a Navy base: “Briefing’s complete, and we’re standing on the ramp next to an F-18 and here comes Tom out of the PR shop, which is the room where they get outfitted with their helmets and their parachutes. And as he’s walking past me and out to this F-18, he’s in his full wardrobe and naval aviator get-up, and I thought, ‘That’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, literally walking by me.’ That’s where it became very real…an instant goosebump moment.”

What Does It Take?

Getting to those moments takes a lot of effort, skill, and dedication to achieve, as LaRosa knows well.

“I put a big emphasis on training,” he said. “I personally try to fly every aircraft that I fly at least every 12 months. That goes for the large jets, and the small airplanes, and the helicopters. When I’m hired by the studios as an aerial coordinator, my job is not necessarily to always be the pilot on camera. My job is to put the best person, most experienced person, and the safest person in the right seat.”

He went on to emphasize the point. “My job is first and foremost to ensure that everyone is safe. Second, I want the aircraft to return to service, and third is that we make incredible, dynamic, amazing pictures that meet or exceed the requests of our customers.”

The job responsibilities of an aerial coordinator run the full gamut, and include: 

• Scripting
• Set construction and breakdown
• Budgets
• Preplanning with ATC and FAA
• Briefing
• Actual flight sorties
• Debriefing
• Finalizing the mission

“My true passion is being behind the controls and flying,” said LaRosa, “but sometimes I am best served sitting next to the director and holding an air-to-ground radio and helping him to direct the aerial sequences and watching the shot.”

“You’re 50 percent pilot and 50 percent filmmaker.” A person needs a good understanding of lighting, composition, plus cameras, lenses, and their movement, and the tools of the cinematographer’s trade—along with a deep skill set as a pilot on a variety of aircraft.

K2 took on all kinds of aviation jobs to build his resume, from Cessna 172s flying traffic to flying as a corporate pilot and flying helicopters—and that’s what he recommends to those who would want to pursue this career. “You need to have a very strong background in aviation to do this job.” While you’re moving in that direction, study cinematography and how movies are made. That’s the 50/50 split that a person needs to master to join this rewarding and unique industry.

The post Pilots Will Love <i>Top Gun: Maverick</i>—It’s a Lot More Real appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

In the world of aviation, it’s not a stretch to say we probably all remember where we were when we first saw Top Gun the first time, and that flutter of raw adrenaline sparked by watching the acrobatic dogfight between the F-14 Tomcat and the fictional MiG-28 fighter jet.

The movie was the biggest to land on theater screens in 1986, becoming a one-hour, 40-minute recruitment ad for the U.S. Navy and military aviation.

According to one U.S. Air Force official who saw it the year he graduated flight training, “it left a mark.”

“It was probably the most realistic flying movie that I’d seen, and it just left a mark on me,” Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Brown said in August during an event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.  “I was out of pilot training, and I was already going to fighters, so it was one of those where you kind of go ‘that’s pretty realistic.’”

• READ MORE: Before Top Gun, Other Aviation Movies Inspired Us

Nearly four decades later, the long-anticipated sequel Top Gun: Maverick is primed to do it all over again. The movie is again expected to lead box office hauls, raking in up to an anticipated $395 million in the U.S. alone, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

And much like 36 years ago, the military is also banking on the Hollywood blockbuster inspiring a new generation of recruitment.

“Our FY22 recruiting goals are to bring more than 40,000 enlisted and more than 3,800 officers into our active and reserve components,” U.S. Navy Commander Dave Benham, Navy spokesperson, told FLYING. “Our recruiters nationwide are working tirelessly to meet those goals and to meet the manpower needs of our fleets. We think Top Gun: Maverick will certainly raise awareness and should positively contribute to individual decisions to serve in the Navy.”   

Just how powerful was the original movie when it came to fighter pilot recruitment?

According to Military History Now, interest in U.S. Navy flight training rose 500 percent in 1986, the year Top Gun was released.

A similar claim was made about interest in fighter pilot training in the U.S. Air Force, according to Leslie Brown, spokesperson for Air Force Recruiting Services (AFRS). However, neither service has data to validate the claims.

“We can’t find in the Air Force where that’s true,” Brown told FLYING.

There is some anecdotal evidence, however, that indicates there was a needed boost in recruitment. In 1979 and the early 1980s, USAF missed recruitment goals, however, “1986 wasn’t as tough,” Brown said.

The service is hoping to once again tap into the movie magic.

“This is a year that we’re struggling,” she said.

It couldn’t come at a more critical time for the service, which earlier this year said it was ramping up strategies to accelerate training and improve retention as it faces a shortage of more than 1,600 pilots. 

• READ MORE: Air Force Strategies Chipping Away at Pilot Shortfall

The Air Force is hoping to harness some of its own Top Gun energy with a new “Own The Sky” commercial set to run before the movie in theaters. The slick minute-long ad features Air Force pilots pulling Gs while flying high-speed maneuvers in F-35 Lightning IIs and F-22 Raptors.

“The intensity of this spot is stunning, so hold on to your popcorn because we are bringing the Air Force to your seat,” Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas, AFRS commander, said in a statement. “There are more than 130 career options an Airman can take on their full or part-time journey to defend our skies. The air superiority in this video just gives you a glimpse of a small percentage of what is possible when you join us.” 

Even though Top Gun: Maverick is Navy-centric, all branches of the military will likely see a lift from the film in what is the toughest recruiting market in more than 20 years, Thomas added.

“It’s a math problem,” Thomas said. “The national labor shortage is driving millions of unfilled jobs. The nation is bigger. The military is smaller. Few people today know someone who has served. Eligibility to serve has dropped to just 23 percent due to obesity, medical, or other issues, and less people are generally knowledgeable enough about the military to know what a great way of life serving in the military can be.” 

• READ MORE: To Become a Better Pilot, Master the Top Gun Debrief

The post U.S. Navy, Air Force Banking On <i>Top Gun: Maverick</i> Recruitment Boost appeared first on FLYING Magazine.