Dr Bradely Elliot, Senior Lecturer in Physiology in the School of Life Sciences, wrote an article for The Conversation on the portrayal of pilots in Top Gun compared to real life.
In the article, he discusses the environments that pilots need to withstand when training and practicing on fighter jet planes, as well as his own experience of high G (high-gravitational loading). He then compares this to the portrayal of aircraft forces in the film Top Gun.
Explaining his experience of high G, Dr Bradley Elliot states: “I’ve had a taste of what happens to your body when flying a jet. I was sitting in a tiny cockpit with four times normal gravity pushing down on me when another violent manoeuvre shoved me deep into my seat. Muscles fatigued beyond function, my vision began to grey out and I realised I was losing control. I was strapped onto the outside of this [human centrifuge], being tested as part of a study into the effect of high-gravitational loading (high G) on the human body.
Discussing this in comparison to Top Gun, he continues: “While it’d be reasonable to assume that Maverick wouldn’t be able to pull the same G’s as his younger self, that might be incorrect. That said, increased strength and muscle mass also seems to help with G tolerance, and we tend to lose muscle mass and strength with age. Older athletes retain more muscle mass and force with ageing than untrained older individuals, so if Maverick’s still playing plenty of volleyball on the beach and kept up his flying hours, he might just be able to outpace his younger self.”
Read the full article on The Conversation’s website.
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