How Fast Is The Mach 10 Speed In Top Gun Maverick (2024)

Top Gun: Maverick was one of the most successful movies of last year. The sequel to the 36-year-old Top Gun broke several records and became Tom Cruise's first movie to gross over $1 billion, a feat quite difficult to achieve in an era dominated by superhero movies. Top Gun: Maverick is regarded as one of the best aviation movies of all time, jam-packed with action and high-speed aircraft.

In the movie, Captain Pete Mitchell breaks the Mach 10 speed barrier which in reality speed might actually be impossible to achieve for a human body since it cant withstand immense pressure, but regardless of that Maverick breaks the barrier even going a bit past that, and in doing so, becoming the fastest man alive on the planet. But just how fast is Mach 10?

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What Is Top Gun: Maverick About?

Top Gun: Maverick follows Tom Cruise reprising his role as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell from 1986's Top Gun. The film opens on Maverick's efforts to protect his prototype program, Darkstar, from being discontinued after the Air Force decides to invest in unmanned drones. Desperate to save the program, Maverick goes rogue and attempts to break the speed limit, resulting in the destruction of the plane.

Fortunately, Maverick's old friend, Tom Kazansky, who now commands the US Pacific fleets, intervenes and saves Maverick from termination. As a consequence, Maverick is assigned a new task that seems nearly impossible: to train a group of young and elite soldiers tasked with destroying an unsanctioned uranium plant.

Throughout the training process, Maverick encounters ghosts of his past, especially when he meets Bradley Bradshaw, the son of his late friend, Nick "Goose" Bradshaw. Despite Maverick's attempts to dissuade Bradley from joining the newly graduated team of Top Guns, Bradley insists on participating.

When Does Maverick Go Mach 10?

Maverick is shown flying past Mach 10 in his prototype jet called Darkstar. While Darkstar doesn't actually exist in real life, it's meant to be a codename for SR-72, which is a follow-up to SR-71, both being reconnaissance aircraft developed by Skunk Works, an aircraft manufacturer located in the middle of the Mojave desert, where most of the movie takes place. The Darkstar in the movie is also developed by Skunkworks. While Darkstar might not be officially real, the aircraft might actually exist in a prototype version, although that's just mere speculation. In terms of appearance, The SR-72, better known as Darkstar, has a sleek and stealthy design, bearing a strong resemblance to the concept SR-72 render released in 2017.

At the beginning of the movie, Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell goes rogue by stealing the prototype jet DarkStar to prove to the navy that he's faster than any robot jet, as they were planning to shut down his prototype jet to favor all the funding to drones. Since Darkstar is a fast jet, Maverick undergoes intense training before pushing the jet to its limits. Maverick's attempt to control the aircraft isn't a solo effort, as he is assisted by the rest of his team who also attempt to keep the program alive. Maverick is shown to fly over Admiral Chester Cain, a senior in the Navy, and despite Chester's attempts to stop him, Maverick ignores the order and acts as if comms were breaking up.

While Maverick is shown to fly at Mach 8 easily, the aircraft then struggles to gain more speed but does gradually. At high speeds like Mach 9 and above, the aircraft's surface temperature also increases drastically due to high velocity. Despite this challenge, Maverick breaks the Mach 10 barrier, and the captain attempts to go even further, reaching a speed of Mach 10.3 before the aircraft's engine is destroyed, forcing him to eject and essentially destroy the aircraft.

How Fast Is Mach 10?

Mach is a unit commonly used in aviation to describe an object's speed relative to sound. Mach 10 is a feat that has been previously accomplished by a manless aircraft called X-43A, developed by NASA as an experimental aircraft to test hypersonic speeds. Mach 10 is approximately a speed of 3.43 kilometers per second or 12,348 kilometers per hour, which translates to 7,680 miles per hour.

Practically achieving Mach 10 speed for humans is impossible due to the sheer amount of G-force involved. G-force is a term used in aviation to describe the stress experienced by pilots. On average, a human being can only withstand 4 to 6 G-force for a brief amount of time before experiencing adverse effects. However, pilots undergo vigorous training to withstand a higher number of G-forces. On average, trained pilots can endure up to 9 G-force for a short amount of time. Anything higher or sustained for a longer period can affect internal organs or even cause a person to go unconscious.

The speed at which Maverick flies the Darkstar in Top Gun: Maverick is Mach 10, which would subject him to approximately 34 G-force, rendering it practically impossible for a human to survive such forces as it would severely damage their body from the inside. Furthermore, it was also shown that Maverick ejects from the Darkstar going at the speed of Mach 10.3, and in a real-life scenario, that would result in immediate death due to the air density outside.

The real-life SR-72 is currently under development and is expected to fly sometime in 2023, but the aircraft wouldn't be able to match the Mach 10 speed, not even close. The SR-71 had a top speed of Mach 3.3, and its successor could reach the speed of Mach 6.

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