At the beginning the movie, which racked up $1.45 billion worldwide, Maverick ejects from a hypersonic fighter plane while speeding along at Mach 10.5. He survives without injury, which is great, but it's solely due to movie magic. “At that air speed, his body would splatter like a chainmail glove swatting a worm.
Maverick Probably Couldn't Survive Ejecting At Mach 10
The relative weight and density of air outside the craft would kill the pilot instantly.
During Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise hit Mach 10 in the SR-72 Darkstar. That plane might even up being real in some format: Aviation buffs and military experts alike revere the unprecedented capabilities of an airframe produced more than forty-five years ago.
As a result, Maverick, wanting to save the program from cancellation, decides to put the aircraft to Mach 10. Although he successfully is able to reach Mach 10, he decides to push the prototype beyond limits, which causes the prototype to be destroyed.
Top Gun: Maverick repeat's the title character's trait of being unable to resist the need for speed as he pushes the Darkstar further than Mach 10 speed, reaching hypersonic speed and resulting in the aircraft being destroyed.
Dynamic pressure during the flight was 1,050 psf (0.50 bar). It reached Mach 9.68, 6,755 mph (10,870 km/h) at 109,440 ft (33,357 m), and further tested the ability of the vehicle to withstand the heat loads involved.
While supersonic means that an object is traveling faster than the speed of sound, or Mach 1, “hypersonic” refers to an aircraft going five times that speed or more. The Falcon hit Mach 20.
In the new Top Gun film, Cruise flies a hypersonic plane called the Darkstar. This fictional aircraft may have been inspired by plans for a hypersonic military plane called the SR-72, or "Son of Blackbird."
But Maverick doesn't stop at Mach-10. Like Icarus flying too close to the sun, he pushes his plane faster, faster, faster—and the jet overheats and malfunctions. We see the plane explode in a long shot, and in the next scene, we see Maverick scorched and bruised, stumbling into a small town diner. Phew!
In "Top Gun: Maverick," the Darkstar appears in the opening sequence as Tom Cruise's eponymous character takes it on an unauthorized test flight that reaches speeds of well over Mach 10, causing the craft to disintegrate.
On November 16, 2004, NASA made history by launching the X-43A, the first-ever air-breathing hypersonic vehicle, into the atmosphere, achieving Mach 10 speed.
At Mach 10, around the world in 5 hrs.
You can't eject from an aircraft at Mach 10 without first being in an aircraft that is traveling at Mach 10. A U.S. Air Force pilot is highly unlikely to find himself in such a scenario because the United States military doesn't have an aircraft capable of traveling at those speeds.
Can you survive ejecting from a plane at Mach 10? No. Not a chance. If you did make it past the fuselage of the aircraft, the air forces would rip your body apart.
Pete "Maverick" Mitchell flies the experimental Darkstar jet past Mach 10 speed in Top Gun: Maverick — but exactly how fast is that? The film starts the adrenaline kick early with former Topgun instructor Maverick piloting the Darkstar, an experimental aircraft.
Normal humans can withstand no more than 9 g's, and even that for only a few seconds. When undergoing an acceleration of 9 g's, your body feels nine times heavier than usual, blood rushes to the feet, and the heart can't pump hard enough to bring this heavier blood to the brain.
This is something Maverick confessed to Penny but not to Rooster. Of course, the spirit of Goose hangs over Maverick and Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick. In moments of uncertainty, they both say, "Talk to me Goose/dad" and evoke the dearly departed, mustachioed pilot.
A Lack Of High Octane Dogfighting
Another good reason for the F-35 not taking part would be that there would be no crazy dog fighting sequences like we saw during the pilots Top Gun training under Maverick.
Maverick famously featured an SR-72 “Darkstar.” While no such jet is known to exist, there have been hints that a follow-up aircraft to the SR-71 might be flying—or at least in the planning stages.
The F/A-18 Super Hornet Requires An Advanced Pilot
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.
Watch Tom Cruise go hypersonic in “Maverick” as director Joseph Kosinski narrates a key scene in the Oscar-nominated film.
Yes, Tom Cruise is a licensed pilot. Yes, Tom Cruise can fly and has a license to pilot several aircraft as he obtained his flying license in the year 1994. He flies fighter jets, private planes, and even commercial flights. Cruise even has a license to pilot a helicopter.
Currently, U.S. law prohibits flight in excess of Mach 1 over land unless specifically authorized by the FAA for purposes stated in the regulations. The two supersonic rulemaking activities would not rescind the prohibition of flight in excess of Mach 1 over land.
The fastest speed at which humans have travelled is 39,937.7 km/h (24,816.1 mph). The command module of Apollo 10, carrying Col. (later Lieut Gen.) Thomas Patten Stafford, USAF (b.