Top Gun: Maverick Starts in Theatres. It Was Filmed on Czech L-39 Albatros Aircraft!

Top Gun: Maverick, a long-awaited movie from the aviation world, has a significant Czech footprint.

Czech Aero L-39s Albatros jet trainer aircraft, produced by AERO Vodochody, were involved in the filming and training of the actors.

As a multi-purpose aircraft designed for basic, advanced, and combat flight training, the L-39 was used by the Top Gun: Maverick filmmakers to give the actors a taste of jet flying before getting into the cockpit of a F/A-18 Hornet fighter.

Most of the breathtaking flight footage was shot in Cinejet’s specially modified L-39 aircraft. The nose of this aircraft is fitted with a gyrostabilized SHOTOVER F1 RUSH camera system designed for filming aircraft at high speeds of up to 650 km/h and forces of up to 3G. It is the first aircraft of its kind in the world.

No Czech pilot was involved in the filming of Top Gun: Maverick. It was a different case during the filming of another blockbuster, the “Bond” film Tomorrow Never Dies, in 1997.

At that time, the filmmakers approached the largest Czech aircraft manufacturer with a request to provide an L-39 aircraft with a pilot to double for James Bond’s Pierce Brosnan. Ladislav Šnýdr, the Aero test pilot at the time, flew to the Pyrenees, where the peak part of the film was shot for three weeks.

The successor to the legendary L-39 Albatros is the completely redesigned L-39NG, which is a modern and efficient light jet aircraft capable of performing the role of a light fighter and complex aircraft for full training of pilots of modern air forces.

About AERO Vodochody

loading…