Thus was invented the Cobra, Tom Cruise’s spectacular maneuver in Top Gun: Maverick.

One of the most spectacular moments in Top Shooter: Maverick it happens when Tom Cruise performs Cobra aboard his F-18. Maverick manages to get the Super Hornet upright during the fight. Did you know that this technique was invented in the sixties and later perfected by the Russians?

cobra one of the brightest acrobatic stunts and consists in braking and sharply raising the bow (nose) of the aircraft until a large angle of attack is reached. As soon as the plane passes the vertical, the pilot returns it to its normal position.

this move It is also known as Pugachev’s Cobra. in honor of the Russian pilot Viktor Pugachev, who made it in 1989 during the International Air Show in Paris. That day Pugachev was piloting Sukhoi Su-27 “Flanker”fourth-generation fighter with sophisticated avionics and high maneuverability.

To get a cobra, the Russian turned off the angle of attack limiter on his Su-27. He subsequently pulled a lever to raise the nose to a vertical position, compensating for this with engine power. As soon as it exceeded 90 degrees, Pugachev returned the plane to normal flight. All of the above without loss of height and overload of the fuselage.

The cobra was invented in Sweden to prevent the death of pilots

Although Pugachev popularized it, the swedish air force invented the cobra repair a malfunction in one of their aircraft. In the early 1960s, pilots Saab 35 Draken they dealt with the instability of the aircraft, which, being innovative for its time, the use of hang gliders caused an uncontrolled stall.

To avoid the death of pilots, instructors have developed a technique for regaining control of the aircraft angle of attack negation to counter stall. Pilots Bengt Olow and Ceylon Utterborn were the first to spot the cobra. Maneuver makes the glider act like an airbraketherefore, Draken’s pilots also used it to slow down.

Although the “cobra” was intended as a maneuver to recover the aircraft, pilots discovered that it could be used in dogfights near, nearbyair battle). The Swedes called it a “short stop” and used it in combat simulations to allow the enemy to get ahead and gain an advantage.

I’ll hit the brake, it’ll fly by

Do you remember the scene the best weapon where is maverick brakes F-14 miss the MiG? Swedish pilots did something similar decades ago in their simulators, although not to the same level as Tom Cruise did in 1986. it is unlikely that this would give the pilot an advantage to resume the attack, as Maverick did.

Cobra effectiveness in combat air battle not tested so its use is limited to aerobatic demonstrations. In flight simulations, a maneuver is a mechanism to evade pursuit or prevent an intruder from locking on to a target. The sudden decrease in speed confuses Doppler radars, so if the aircraft is in enemy line of sight, the target disintegrates.

On practice, the cobra would have left the pilot in dangerous conditions as the plane takes seconds to recover, which would be enough for the enemy to withdraw. There is a variant known as VIFFing on the Harrier that uses thrust vectoring from the engines, however there is also no evidence of its use outside some theories from the eighties.

It should be borne in mind that modeling and theories about the effectiveness of the cobra in combat were carried out before Pugachev himself demonstrated it in 1989. The maneuver was last resort in an era when short-range missiles were unreliable. The Cobra would have no advantage over today’s large caliber missiles, and according to some pilots, using it in combat would be a death sentence.

Not all aircraft are capable of performing Cobra

cobra This is not a maneuver that any fighter can perform.. In fact, some argue whether the F-18 Maverick is capable of this. AT Top: Gun MaverickTom Cruise reaches 90 degrees on his Super Hornet, which some aviation fans don’t consider a cobra.

F-18 Super Hornet are capable of developing angles of attack up to 90 degrees. at exhibitions. One of the most experienced pilots is Ricardo Traven, who for many years was the chief test pilot of the entire Hornet family. Before taking command of the 787 Dreamliner, Traven held demonstrations in the F/A-18 where these maneuvers could be seen.

Currently There are only a few aircraft capable of hitting a cobra at an angle of 120 degrees.. The list includes Mikoyan’s MiG-21, 29A, 29M OVT and MiG-35, as well as the Su-27 and its variants, as well as the Su-57, a fifth-generation stealth fighter that Tom Cruise doesn’t want to face.

One of the greatest details Top Shooter: Maverick in that saves the close combat that took our breath away in the eighties. Acrobatic maneuvers like the cobra are part of an age of experimentation, but the art of war has evolved so much that dogfights were relegated to the background.

Today, the cobra may be unusable in combat, however, at least this indicates Top Shooter: Maverick must be a realistic film.