Yes, there’s volleyball – and moustaches, and lots and lots of American flags. Also motorcycles, pool tables, sunglasses, flight suits, and a synth-heavy soundtrack. In fact, if you remember it from the high-flying Tom Cruise movies, it’s more than likely also here, in Top Guns: The Next Generation. But, this time, it’s real.
The latest docuseries from National Geographic follows a class of US Navy and Marine Corps student pilots as they dive and dogfight their way through elite flight training. The six-part series marks the first time camera crews have been granted this behind-the-scenes access, and every episode gives us a better understanding of the characters in these cockpits.
As an engineering graduate, Kuch interned at Boeing before joining the Navy, and landed at Meridian for his own training a week before the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Each year, around 150 hopefuls make their way to Mississippi, determined to become the best of the best.
View oEmbed on the source websiteAnd quick reaction times alone don’t put candidates at the top of their class, Kuch reveals. “I’ve actually got incredibly slow reactions to things on the fly,” he says, “but I can always recall procedure, or a checklist. And that’s the key element at this stage of training.”
“We wanted to provide an authentic look at the training,” says Kuch. “In the Top Gun films, you see the mission, but how did that individual get there? What were the years – or, in some cases, decades – of training that went into that?
“By some accounts,” he adds, “I think Tom Cruise would pass our training in real life! He’s a pretty accomplished aviator, and the motivation he has and preparation he does means he would have no problem with our flight training. Those films really are phenomenal. They may take some liberties with how missions get planned, executed, and debriefed, but the flight scenes are real.”
“I can’t imagine understanding this story as much had we not seen it from this perspective,” he says. “It’s great being in the cockpit, seeing what the pilot is doing, but to be able to get outside and see the aircraft itself? From a storytelling perspective, that really helps.”
Yet filming at altitude can be expensive, so series director Lana Salah began by following the recruits through their ground-based training before handing over to FitzMaurice. “They did a rough edit,” he explains, “before we came in at the end and filmed what was needed to finish the story.”
LaRosa first dreamt up the Cinejet around a decade ago while working with Tom Cruise on Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. “He mentioned then that they were eventually going to make Top Gun 2 – as it was called at the time – and he didn’t realise it, but he planted a seed in my brain. It wasn’t until years later we got the call to do the movie, but during that time period, we had developed the Cinejet.”
“There was a specific sequence our director wanted,” says LaRosa, “of training bombs detaching from the jets. Her dream was for the audience to be literally right next to the bombs as they disconnected from the wings, then follow them to the ground. So we tucked the Cinejet right next to the wing, watched the bombs disconnect, then tracked those weapons down to the targets. It felt like a video game, and no other platform exists in the world that could have got that shot.”
“That’s the work of multiple outstanding individuals,” says Captain Micah Nissly, one of the pilots whose training the show follows. “Maintenance crews. Guys on the ground. Their teamwork and professionalism are just essential. I’m flying a $100 million jet, but there’s so little flight time in comparison to their work.”
“That’s an extremely humbling experience,” nods Nissly, “because you feel like you’re in top shape, and then you experience those Gs for the first time. It’s like someone sitting on your chest while you’re trying to recite your ABCs. Austin Claggett, who was also in the show with me, related it to working out. He said it’s like doing a squat but – just as you start coming back up – someone adds extra weight onto you.”
Hollywood has also glamourised pilots’ call signs. Among the real-life instructors we meet during the series, signs include “Duster”, “Ghoul” and “Bambi.” Captain Kuch’s is “Poker”, adopted after a memorable streak at a casino during early training. But Nissly, who is yet to be given his own informal moniker (the signs are not official, and are mostly used during casual communication in the aircraft), says most are considerably less cool than they are in the movies.
“‘Maverick’, for example, is an outstanding call sign,” he laughs. “We all aspire to have one that cool. However, they usually come from your worst mistake. This is an awesome career field, but one of the worries I had coming into it was the arrogance. I thought the community would be like: ‘I’m the best there is! No one can top me!’ But that’s not been what I’ve seen, and I think call signs are a good way to humble us.”
“No matter how cool of a jet you’re flying, no matter your best day, you’ve still had that rough day,” says Nissly. “You’re still human, and when you’re flying these jets, that’s important to remember.”
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