Top Gun: Maverick has been in the theatres for a week now and if you still haven't managed to get your tickets to a screen, you must do it at least this weekend. Luckily, this article has no spoilers, so you can just read on and find out more about theThe Tom Cruise-starring sequel opened to rave reviews last week, and who does not want to watch the best airplanes from close-up. Most of the fighter planes are aircraft that you know and have read about.
Defense manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, whose F-35C Joint Strike Fighter also finds some footage in the movie, has a special division called Skunk Works that usually takes up the challenge of conceptualizing the next to the impossible plane. The Skunk Works team went from conceptualizing the aircraft to making a realistic model with a working cockpit and keeping it structurally sound throughout the filming. As always, the job is easier said than done, and the team went through multiple design iterations before the world saw Darkstar on their screens. Without delving into the movie plot, one can say that even though the plane of the screen isn't real, the capabilities it showcases aren't completely fictional either.