8 ms·

(Spoilers?) I thought the Darkstar plane (or a copy, since it disintegrates in flight) would return at the end of the movie to save the day or as a surprise, b

(Spoilers?) I thought the Darkstar plane (or a copy, since it disintegrates in flight) would return at the end of the movie to save the day or as a surprise, but it didn't.

MarkMarine 4y ago
Spoilers: Maverick died during that crash and the whole movie is just his last DMT hit before brain death. (Not my theory, lifted from the internets)
- tfigment 4y ago
  That theory actually makes it a better movie for me
edrxty 4y ago
I got the feeling they recut a lot of the first act in post. A lot of effort was put into the darkstar both in production and in marketing and it was turned into a throwaway
- dotancohen 4y ago
  I got the feeling that the whole Darkstar scene, and the entire movie after the helicopter gunship missed with his cannon, were added just to padded the trailer with nice footage. I absolutely loved seeing the (virtual) F-14 fly, I think that I've seen all publicly available F-14 footage on Youtube a dozen times. But the actual story was bookmarked between Maverick getting sent to Mirimar (or North Shore, whatever) and looking down the barrels of the Mil MI.
narrator 4y ago
(Spoilers?) I don't think disintegrating at mach 10 would be survivable. You're basically a meteorite at that point burning up in the atmosphere, not to mention the speed at which you'll hit the ground even with a parachute if the parachute could even stay intact at that speed.
- twh270 4y ago
  Yeah that scene completely ruined my suspension of disbelief (which was already set to 7/10 because Top Gun is pure entertainment anyway). I guess you could theorize a 'capsule' consisting of some part of the cockpit that would last long enough to decelerate the pilot to a "more survivable" speed, no idea what the engineering tradeoffs are there though.
  - dghlsakjg 4y ago
    There is a small, but not insignificant number of aircraft that ejected capsules or protected environments for high mach ejections. The B-58 hustler is one, and the F-111 was capable of separating the entire cockpit from the airframe. Kelly Johnson even claimed that a mach 3 ejection from the A-12/YF-12/SR-71 was survivable in just the pressure suit... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule
    - raxxorraxor 4y ago
      Is there a large difference between being ejected at mach 3 or mach 10? The heat is probably unpleasant after a while but wouldn't be the strongest drag force be felt around mach 1? Different mechanism but imagining a kung-fu master breaking a steel bar with his pinky right now...
      - zardo 4y ago
        Pretty sure drag keeps going up the faster you go. Naively 3X speed should equate to 9X drag force and 9X heat generation.
        raxxorraxor 4y ago
        I think the drag coefficient as a derivation of drag peaks around supersonic speed but I am not sure about it. https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/79732/why-does-drag-coefficient-decrease-with-mach-number-in-the-supersonic-regime https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/79732/why-does-... Not sure what zero lift means in this context, perhaps the drag induced by lift is neglected. It is still > 0 so drag does still increase...
mrguyorama 4y ago
I could have literally been thrown together for marketing reasons. It was turned into a nice promotional event in both microsoft flight simulator and Ace Combat 7

(Spoilers?) I thought the Darkstar plane (or a copy, since it disintegrates in flight) would return at the end of the movie to save the day or as a surprise, but it didn't.

MarkMarine 4y ago

Spoilers: Maverick died during that crash and the whole movie is just his last DMT hit before brain death. (Not my theory, lifted from the internets)

tfigment 4y ago
That theory actually makes it a better movie for me

edrxty 4y ago

I got the feeling they recut a lot of the first act in post. A lot of effort was put into the darkstar both in production and in marketing and it was turned into a throwaway

dotancohen 4y ago
I got the feeling that the whole Darkstar scene, and the entire movie after the helicopter gunship missed with his cannon, were added just to padded the trailer with nice footage. I absolutely loved seeing the (virtual) F-14 fly, I think that I've seen all publicly available F-14 footage on Youtube a dozen times. But the actual story was bookmarked between Maverick getting sent to Mirimar (or North Shore, whatever) and looking down the barrels of the Mil MI.

narrator 4y ago

(Spoilers?) I don't think disintegrating at mach 10 would be survivable. You're basically a meteorite at that point burning up in the atmosphere, not to mention the speed at which you'll hit the ground even with a parachute if the parachute could even stay intact at that speed.

twh270 4y ago
Yeah that scene completely ruined my suspension of disbelief (which was already set to 7/10 because Top Gun is pure entertainment anyway). I guess you could theorize a 'capsule' consisting of some part of the cockpit that would last long enough to decelerate the pilot to a "more survivable" speed, no idea what the engineering tradeoffs are there though.
- dghlsakjg 4y ago
  There is a small, but not insignificant number of aircraft that ejected capsules or protected environments for high mach ejections. The B-58 hustler is one, and the F-111 was capable of separating the entire cockpit from the airframe. Kelly Johnson even claimed that a mach 3 ejection from the A-12/YF-12/SR-71 was survivable in just the pressure suit... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_crew_capsule
  - raxxorraxor 4y ago
    Is there a large difference between being ejected at mach 3 or mach 10? The heat is probably unpleasant after a while but wouldn't be the strongest drag force be felt around mach 1? Different mechanism but imagining a kung-fu master breaking a steel bar with his pinky right now...
    - zardo 4y ago
      Pretty sure drag keeps going up the faster you go. Naively 3X speed should equate to 9X drag force and 9X heat generation.
      - raxxorraxor 4y ago
        I think the drag coefficient as a derivation of drag peaks around supersonic speed but I am not sure about it. https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/79732/why-does-drag-coefficient-decrease-with-mach-number-in-the-supersonic-regime https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/79732/why-does-... Not sure what zero lift means in this context, perhaps the drag induced by lift is neglected. It is still > 0 so drag does still increase...

mrguyorama 4y ago

I could have literally been thrown together for marketing reasons. It was turned into a nice promotional event in both microsoft flight simulator and Ace Combat 7