Mayday, mayday.

[man] What is it?

[bullets fire]

Okay buddy what's on your mind?

Let's go somewhere I can't fly.

Hi, I'm Christine Mau.

[bell dings] Christine served

in the United States Air Force for 20 years.

She was the first woman to fly the F-35.

Christine's now an F-35 flight instructor

at Lockheed Martin.

Today I'll be breaking down clips from movies

and TV about fighter pilots.

Flares, Behind Enemy Lines.

[intense music]

[device beeps] [hinge opens]

[plane engine roars]

[Copilot] What is it?

Holy [beep] we're being painted!

We're being painted means that there is a SAM site

on the ground that is seeing you on their radar.

SAM is a surface to air missile.

[missile fires] [air whooshes]

[Pilot] Single missile's tracking on us.

What they're depicting here is kind of

a mix between a radar guided missile

and an infrared guided missile.

[air whooshes] [missile beeps]

We need a bigger heat decoy.

In the fighter community we don't say

heat decoys we say flares.

[air whooshes]

Break a left.

[jet roars]

Infrared guided missiles are typically

short range missiles and they cannot fly out this long.

A missile will typically burn in this booster phase

[missile roars]

and once that booster phase is burnt out, then that's it.

If you have a rapidly reacting target

that missile won't be able to continue

to turn left, turn right, turn left, go up, go down.

There's just no possible way that

this missile could continue to fly the way that it does.

[intense music]

[Copilot] What is it?

Most aircraft have a master caution light

and that's just letting you know

there's something wrong with your aircraft.

I don't know of any aircraft that would give you

a master caution light if you were being spiked

by an enemy radar so that doesn't make sense

for this scene at all.

[plane roars] [missile beeps]

Ah Christ!

This airplane climbed straight up

which is the opposite thing from what you wanna do.

Oh absolutely.

If you've got an infrared guided missile tracking on you

the number one thing you need to do is to maneuver

your aircraft and put out flares.

They hardly put out any flares at all.

[Pilot] Put out decoy flares!

Copy!

[flares eject]

Now climbing up high is giving

this infrared guided missile a nice blue

uncluttered background for it to be able

to track on you since the heat seeking missile.

What they should've done is stayed down low

and continue to fly within these canyons

because they're hiding closer to the ground

so there's an a lot of infrared clutter.

[missile roars]

So the missile never locks on them to begin with

and has never launched

Aren't you gonna miss all this excitement?

Outrunning an F-22, Iron Man.

[rock music] Hit it.

[engine accelerates]

[Pilot] Whoa he just went supersonic.

Tony Stark in his Iron Man suit outruns

these F-22s initially at least

by his acceleration to supersonic.

The F-22 is one of the fastest fighters

that we have out there.

Supersonic is just going faster than the speed of sound.

Back in the day when we first broke the sound barrier,

it was a bit of a violent event.

Today you'll end up goin' supersonic

multiple times during your flight and not even notice it.

No way that's a UAV.

What is it?

I can't see anything!

Whatever it was it just bought the farm.

I think bogey has been handled, sir.

Typically you're engaging another aircraft

in order to say that it has been handled

you would wanna verify that has splashed

i.e. has exploded and that it is no longer flying.

They're talking about a superhero in a suit.

I think all things are acceptable in this case.

Funny how that works, huh?

Disobeying orders, Red Tails.

Everybody form up, we're going home.

Easy I see something, it's a train! 11:00.

It looks like they're moving livestock to me.

You're always gonna wear your mask.

Your mask is not only giving you oxygen to be able

to breathe but also your microphones is located in your mask.

So if you have your mask drop and you're just talkin'

no one can hear you because there's too much ambient noise

in the cockpit that no one can hear you over the radio

and it happens in almost every fighter pilot movie

where they're dropping their masks

to talk to each other to say something

but it is not realistic at all.

Let's go get it.

[upbeat music] [plane engines roar]

Where's Lightning?

Where the hell are you Lightning?

Taking the train from the front

like you shoulda done.

It's my decision Lightning, stay in formation.

In most cases following your flight lead is

the right answer because they are typically

more experienced than you and better

than you in the airplane.

[guns fire]

Stay in front of it!

In this situation the flight lead made

a very poor tactical decision.

His wingman decided not to follow his direction.

Easy, Easy we got to take it head on.

He ended up killing the train

so he's gonna be praised but likely he will be debriefed

for not following instructions.

Just trying to keep you boys inspired.

Glare, Dunkirk.

Down here we're sittin' ducks.

[intense music]

Keep 'em peeled they'll come out of the sun.

[plane engines rattle]

In our helmets there's a visor

that you put down in front of your eyes

that's tinted, which will help combat glare.

I'm on the bomber.

Of course that doesn't get rid

of the glare that shines off of the canopy

or different things in the cockpit.

That makes it difficult to see.

You guys know if it's bright out you wear your sunglasses

and you're able to see a little bit better.

Bandit 11:00.

[plane engine roars] Break!

They are trying to cross the channel

looking for enemy fighters.

If I was enemy fighter I would definitely be flying high

and try to keep the sun behind me

so that I prevent anybody from seeing me.

Yeah he's down for the count.

[plane fires]

You can also do this in the middle of a fight.

You can pull up into the sun which will hopefully cause

a momentary blindness and give you advantage

albeit momentarily because you can't stay

in front of the sun forever.

Playing chicken, Pearl Harbor.

Okay we're goin' left, right?

[Rafe] Right, right?

Right like we're goin' right

or right like we're going left?

Well now you got me all mixed up.

I don't know, make up your mind!

Ah!

The biggest training rule that they're violating

is the bubble which is how close you're allowed

to get to another airplane.

In the air force in training at least

the closest that you can be to another airplane

while fighting them is a thousand feet.

Once you're done with training that will

typically be shrunk down to 500 feet.

Those are some smooth aces.

You could definitely get kicked out for a stunt like this.

Not only are they putting themselves in danger

but they're also risking a total loss

of two very expensive P 40 aircraft.

Stuff like this doesn't fly.

Those farm boys are grounded!

Pilot language, The Incredibles.

Indian golf niner niner transmitting in the blind guard.

Disengage.

There is a frequency called guard frequency

that aircraft can use to transmit emergencies.

Transmitting in the blind garden.

Transmitting in the blind on guard was

a very accurate statement for her to make.

Indian golf niner niner.

So that is her call sign.

In civil aviation your call sign is your tail number.

So November indicates that it's a civil aircraft.

In the military we typically fly around

with call signs that are assigned to each squadron.

So you would hear Kong for example Kong one one

and those are associated with military aircraft.

Mayday, mayday India golf niner niner is buddy-spiked!

Abort abort there are children aboard!

When you say buddy spiked you are getting

radar warning indications from a friendly aircraft.

You would say buddy spiked to let them know

that they have locked you up for a couple reasons

the most common being hey man,

don't shoot me because I'm a good guy too.

There's a few things with her airplane

that makes it a bit unusual.

She does have some sort of a radar warning receiver

[plane beeps] [Mrs. Incredible gasps]

and or an I-R warning receiver letting her know

that somebody has shot at her.

[plane beeps] [air whooshes]

She's able to maneuver this airplane

like no commercial jet that I've ever seen.

Disengage! [jet engine roars]

She does have afterburners on these engines

[plane beeps] [engines power up]

and it gives you quite a bit of extra thrust

which is not something you would see in a civilian jet.

She's doing a fantastic job at being very descriptive

with what she's doing with her aircraft and where she is.

I got to give her mad props for that.

Say no more.

Teamwork, Top Gun.

[adventurous music] [jet engine roars]

We got a thousand knot closure, Mav.

It's coming right at us. [radar beeps]

Okay, buddy what's on your mind?

I love the movie Top gun.

It came out I think I was in fourth grade,

fifth grade maybe.

It inspired me to want to become a fighter pilot

albeit in the air force and not the navy

but it is just a classic.

[engine roars]

Air speed 300, go get him Mav!

I'm going for missile lock.

The term missile lock may be a bit

of a misnomer in this case.

Great.

Typically a fighter pilot will lock up

an enemy aircraft with their radar.

That aircraft would have a radar warning receiver

that would let them know that they're being locked up.

That's step one.

Come on lock up, baby.

[radar beeps]

I got him locked bingo!

They already probably had a radar lock in real life

If this were real life.

Okay, buddy.

So not much would change.

The bandit aircraft would feel a little bit more threatened

and hopefully leave which he does bug out.

[Mav] Your tail is clear big ones bugged out.

We employ as two ships and four ships

in order to provide mutual support

and the core element is a two ship.

You provide mutual support to each other

so that if you do intercept a bandit

that both of you are together controlling the bandit,

checking your six for any other bandits

and ensuring you get the mission done. Very common.

[engines roar]

Great!

No that is not typical to roll unburdened above an F-5

and communicate via giving them the bird.

But it does make for a funny story and a great movie poster.

Yes, ma'am.

Maneuvering, Return to Base.

[air whooshes] [upbeat music]

So typically we fly low levels around 500 feet

and roughly about 500 knots.

You can certainly fly lower than that,

but if you're talkin' 500 knots at 200 feet

your margin for error is very, very small.

In fact your time to die is so low

that any one little mistake

and you're gonna impact the ground.

Time to die is a concept where

if you are flying level flight at low altitude

your time to die is the time it takes

for you to impact the ground.

If you're in a slight decent and you're 50 feet

off the ground going supersonic

your time to die is about a half a second

but to fly underneath a bridge,

to try to gun somebody low altitutde

[plane fires]

to be going almost supersonic at 50 feet off the ground?

That is very unrealistic.

[intense music] [plane engines roar]

[plane fires]

The part where they show a strike eagle

getting gunned I don't like that.

I used to fly strike eagles

and so that made me a little sad.

[intense music] [air whooshes]

[woman screams]

The turn radius of a fighter aircraft

we'll call it is about a half a mile.

They're low altitude so their turn radius will be

a little bit smaller 'cause the air is thicker.

However these guys are turning

around skyscrapers very tightly.

[intense music] [jet engines roar]

Between other skyscrapers

[intense music] [jet engines roar]

which would to me indicate a turn radius

of I would call it 500 feet or less

which is not something that's accurate at all.

[intense music] [jet engines roar]

So kind of silly, but very exciting.

Signals, Sky fighters.

[speaks foreign language]

In this clip two French mirages are chasing

a pilot who's stolen Mirage.

There are international signals that you can use

when you're intercepting another aircraft.

The intercepting fighters should pull up

to the left wing of the intercepted fighter

and rock their wings to let that intercepted fighter know

that he is being intercepted

[speaks foreign language]

and then what you would do is fly slightly in front of

and turn your nose across that aircraft

to lead them to where you want them to go.

[pilot raises hand]

Obviously, the black Mirage

in this case was non-cooperative.

[speaks foreign language]

When the president travels we are airborne

in a combat air patrol looking for anybody

who might be up to no good so we train

in how to intercept usually very slow moving aircraft

that don't know where they are.

[upbeat music] [jet engines roar]

[speaks foreign language]

The control zone is an area behind your airplane.

You can kind of think of it like a banner

that you're towing behind you at all times.

Closest to your airplane is defined as a reaction limit

so you don't want to be too close to a fighter

that you cannot react in time to maintain

the offensive or to avoid hitting that airplane.

The two mirages that intercept the black Mirage,

those guys are flying awfully close to this other Mirage

that they have no idea what this person's intentions are.

So I would not have flown as close

as they were depicting there.

Dogfight, Sky Crawlers.

[plane engine roars]

I

You see this maneuver a lot.

Hit the brakes, he'll fly right by.

In flight school we learned the term go up blow up

because it's not that effective.

[plane engines roar]

So if you've got the airspeed to go vertical

and you are a defensive fighter then you certainly could.

But when you do so you are opening up your turn circle

because G is pulling you down

and you're going straight up so you're very predictable

and you open up your turn circle

so it's potentially a lot easier

for the offender to just continue

to pull a little bit harder and gun you

in the process and so you end up dying.

So I would say it is not very common in real life.

For an anime film they accurately depicted

the dynamic environment of fighting another airplane

but I don't necessarily think that the moves

that they use were the most accurate.

Coffin corner, Green Lantern.

[jet engines roar] [upbeat music]

God damn it, Tom, what the hell you feed those things?

F-35s what else?

The times that I have shot missiles

in training, I shot them against drones.

[radar beeps] [missile fires]

Given the nature of warfare and where we're headed

I think that it's pretty accurate that we'll be fighting

against drones a whole lot more.

Let's go somewhere I can't fly.

[air whooshes]

[radar beeps]

What the hell is he up to?

Coffin corner.

They are referencing what I imagine

the ceiling of the aircraft

Um, no.

where the drones can no longer operate

because of whatever limitation that they have.

The coffin corner as they reference it in this movie

I have absolutely no idea.

That's great. [laughs]

We do use the term aircraft ceiling

and the ceiling of an aircraft

which is also the maximum altitude

that it can be flown at, could be driven

by physiological restrictions

or it could be driven by engine restrictions.

R-O-E rules of engagement set ceiling at 50,000 feet.

R-O-E or rules of engagement

or simply just the rules that you have to abide by

As you were out there fighting.

[intense music]

Compressor stall.

Now his engine, it said compressor stall,

which by the way is not

what the F-35 will tell you but that's okay.

So the engine said compressor stall,

and yet it still continued to burn.

It sort of looked like it coughed a little bit

[electricity crackles]

but then as he went downhill, it clearly recovered itself.

[intense music]

Yes!

Fuel calculation, Dunkirk.

Check fuel, Fortis 1 and 2.

70 gallons.

68 gallons Fortis leader.

They are referencing gallons in this clip,

which is how all of these fighters measured

their fuel back in the day.

Modern fighters today don't measure their fuel in gallons.

They measure them in thousands of pounds

and you have to check your fuel regularly.

Fortis 2 what' your fuel?

You wanna make sure it's feeding accurately.

[Radio] Should you turn back?

No, no, fairly confident it's just the gauge.

That there's no trapped gas and make sure

that you're checking it

so that you don't overfly your bingo fuel.

Bingo fuel means you have to stop what you're doing

and head homee now, or else you won't have enough

gas to make it.

Understood.

[bell chimes] Conclusion.

I enjoyed watching all of the clips.

They were very entertaining and humorous

in how inaccurate they are in a lot of ways.

But as far as talking about fighter pilot stuff

I could do that all day long.

If you're interested in becoming a fighter pilot,

I would absolutely encourage you to do that.

It is an outstanding career, very rewarding,

very challenging, very fun. [relaxing music]