I’m not going to ask you if you have the need for speed. You saw the title and flew into the article faster than MACH 10. Most of us grew up watching “Top Gun,” reciting every line, singing “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling,” and pretending you were in a dogfight with a MIG while you were probably sitting on the toilet.
And then we were blessed with the sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick,” which showed us that even though the planes got faster and the missions got harder, Maverick was still the apex pilot of the United States Navy.
And now, we get to see real-life pilots who, while inspired like all of us, decided actually to try to be Top Guns. National Geographic will air a first-of-its-kind series that goes behind the scenes at the elite strike fighter training school. “Top Guns: The Next Generation” follows Navy and Marine Corps pilots through six months of aerial training, physical endurance, and mental and emotional hurdles.
The six-part series goes beyond the cockpit. Yes, there will be plenty of Tom Cruise-esque POV shots as the aviators push themselves and their planes to the limit. But we will also see them off-base with family and friends, living their lives, and revealing their thoughts, motivations, fears, and dreams.
NatGeo was given unprecedented access to the Navy’s Top Gun school, which will allow audiences to be immersed in bombing drills, dogfights, and carrier approaches. It is one thing to know where the hard deck is, but landing 35,000 pounds of thrust on it is something else altogether.
There are six action-packed episodes of “Top Guns: The Next Generation,” with the first premiering on September 16th. The first episode follows students as they begin advanced phase training, including bombing drill tests. Diving at speeds they haven’t reached before, the students struggle to maintain control of a jet while still being accurate when hitting a target.
The next episode will deal with one of the scariest tasks in all of the United States’ military: landing a plane on a carrier. We watch as even the most confident aviators attempt to master the precision and skill required to land a multi-million-dollar fighter on a billion-dollar carrier.
Episode three will be centered on dogfighting. While “Viper” and “Jester” won’t be up there embarrassing students, there will be plenty of Top Gun instructors with years of experience hounding and harrying the pupils to keep them from performing a “kill shot.”
And while it’s hard enough to shoot down an experienced pilot, it might be even harder to avoid being hit by one. That will be covered in episode four, where the tables turn and the students fly for their lives to avoid being shot down by their trainers.
Episode five has the students prepping for their final tests as they go one-on-one with an instructor in a dogfight to prove they have mastered all the skills to be a Top Gun pilot. They also start to think of their next duty assignments and doing that chore everyone in the military hates, moving to a new duty station.
The last episode covers graduation week, during which students have one final chance to earn their fighter pilot wings. Some also must come to terms with their performance at Top Gun school and their future as Naval and Marine Corps Aviators.
Be sure to catch this show, which promises to be both adrenaline-pumping and informative.
“Top Guns: The Next Generation” premieres Sept. 16, 2025, at 9/8c on National Geographic and streams the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
