Top Gun: Maverick wowed audiences with its daring demonstrations of real-life military hardware, and the sequel will have to go to even more unbelievable lengths to up the ante of the planes featured in the franchise. Reviving the Top Gun name after 36 years of inactivity, Top Gun: Maverick was a wildly successful sequel to the beloved 80s aviation action thriller, featuring jaw-dropping dogfights lovingly crafted without the reliance on CGI. As a third Top Gun film has been confirmed, it remains to be seen where the franchise can go in terms of introducing new planes.
Ever the exciting foray into the future of aerial supremacy, the real-life planes of Top Gun: Maverick showed off the production’s staggering budget. The film’s commitment to real footage of jaw-dropping maneuvers didn’t come cheap, demonstrating many of the United States Navy’s most cutting-edge in-service vehicles, as well as some fictional prototypes and Tom Cruise’s own personally owned WWII fighter for good measure. But the series has still only scratched the surface of the U.S. military’s arsenal of planes.
8 The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle
The skipped generation of fighter craft
In the film, Tom Cruise’s character gets to re-live his glory days piloting an F-14 Tomcat during a harrowing sequence in which he steals one of the craft alongside Rooster, the son of his fallen comrade, Goose. While the F-14 has been long retired from active service, the U.S. Air Force still deploys its close successor, the F-15 Eagle, which enjoys a suite of range and speed upgrades at the cost of some of the F-14’s signature maneuverability. Considering Top Gun: Maverick‘s prohibitive costs in flying the F-18, it may behoove the film to look to the past.
Admittedly, the pilots of Top Gun are Navy, not Air Force, who so far have been the U.S. military’s only branch with active F-15s. That being said, Top Gun: Maverick had already shown off all the active jet fighters the Navy has to offer. It’s easy to envision a world in which Maverick gets a loaner plane from the sister armed forces branch he may be more familiar with, due to some desperation or time constraint the film imparts. The F-15’s silhouette soaring across the sky would be undeniably Top Gun.
7 The Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor
The modern-day aerial superiority champion
Top Gun: Maverick had heavy themes of technological innovation, with near-retired pilots like Tom Cruise bridging the gap between the past of aviation and the cutting edge by training the prestigious flight academy’s latest crop of students. No plane would better represent this deliberate gaze into the future like the F-22, one of the U.S. Air Force’s most advanced air supremacy vehicles. With engines that produce more thrust than any other modern-day jet fighter, the F-22 would more than fulfill Maverick’s “need for speed“, though likely at a hefty price for the filmmakers.
6 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
The globe-trotting loaner jet
A maneuverable and compact multi-role fighter craft, the F-16 Falcon is a workhorse jet for the United States military. Known for its reliability, the aircraft has frequently been lent to the U.S.’ allies, making it the most common fixed-wing aircraft in military service. As the most frequently-spotted jet fighter utilized by friendly nations, the F-16 could make an appearance in Top Gun 3 should the film feature any joint exercises or missions between U.S. Navy’s pilots and their overseas allies, perhaps inciting a bit of friendly rivalry for audiences to enjoy.
5 The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider
The bomber of the future
As Tom Cruise’s character had graduated to becoming a test pilot in Top Gun: Maverick, flying the fictional “Dark Star” hypersonic jet, the series has a new excuse to explore hypothetical or near-future hardware. Few candidates would be better for this than the B-21 Raider, a planned stealth bomber meant to succeed the iconic B-2 Spirit. While still a ways out from entering production in the real world, an escort mission centered around the valuable cutting-edge plane would be an excellent stage to set for some of the series signature pulse-pounding dogfights.
4 The Chengdu J-20
A new opposing craft for the Top Gun aces to face
The bad guys of the Top Gun series have always been a deliberately vague fighting force, with Top Gun: Maverick simply referring to them as “the enemy” in order to refrain from implicating any actual country in villainous deeds. Still, when it comes to casting the opposing force’s plane arsenal, Top Gun has armed its antagonists with exotic Russian and Chinese hardware. The Chinese-built Chengdu J-20, or at least a representation of it, would make for a threatening enemy plane, with long-range stealth capabilities that could give the Top Gun protagonists a run for their money.
3 The Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk
A search-and-rescue specialist helicopter
One of the most intense scenes in Top Gun: Maverick comes about when Tom Cruise’s character, exposed in hostile territory, has to escape the gaze of a Mi-24 attack helicopter. Considering the character’s penchant for getting lost behind enemy lines, and Tom Cruise’s recent helicopter flight training for Mission: Impossible – Fallout, another helicopter-based action sequence wouldn’t be unwarranted for Top Gun 3. The HH-60 Pave Hawk would be an excellent choice — No stranger to running exfiltration missions in hostile environments, it’s impressive weaponry and durability would be perfect for bailing out Maverick once again.
2 The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper
The U.S.’ workhorse unmanned drone
In Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick sought to prove the necessity of human pilots by pushing his experimental test flight to dangerous limits, touching on the evolving nature of warfare. Constantly improving unmanned flight technology allows for human operators to run dangerous combat missions with no risk to human life, though not without drawbacks. The use of the most iconic unmanned combat drones, the MQ-9 Reaper, could feature heavily in the sequel should the filmmakers continue to explore this theme, proving or disproving Maverick’s assertion that human pilots will always need to be front and center.
1 The Boeing X-37
The absolute cutting edge of military flight
Once again, Maverick’s status as a test pilot provides some interesting avenues for the third Top Gun film to explore, including the final frontier: outer space. This experimental unmanned test program, or another vehicle heavily inspired by it, could push Maverick’s ability to keep up with the future of flight to its limites, while also providing an interesting focal point for a high-altitude dogfight. Meant to explore just how high the reach of the U.S. armed forces aircraft can go, the Boeing X-37 could bridge Top Gun: Maverick‘s gap between atmospheric flight and orbit.
