Video shows the first time a civilian plane was allowed to fly within 10ft of a US supercarrier for special purpose
Published on Nov 09, 2025 at 2:46 AM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Nov 06, 2025 at 4:35 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
For possibly the first time ever, a civilian plane was allowed to fly within 10 feet of the USS Abraham Lincoln, a US supercarrier.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is a large aircraft carrier that’s been in service for about 40 years and, ordinarily, no civilian plane would ever be allowed near it.
But this was an exception.
And it had to do with one of the most powerful Hollywood celebrities ever.
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The reason why this civilian plane was allowed near the US supercarrier
If any other civilian asked permission to fly near the USS Abraham Lincoln, the answer would be ‘no’ 100 times out of 100.
But in this case, Tom Cruise did the asking, and the answer was yes.
Cruise and his production team were given (nearly) full access to the US supercarrier while they were filming Top Gun: Maverick, as you can see from the video above, shared by Redditor Kooky_permission_600.
The Hollywood superstar is famously very demanding when it comes to his movies, which is why everything was done by the book on this one.
The producers actually paid the Navy over $11,000 per flight hour to have real US Navy pilots fly the jets, and even when you see shots of the actors in flight, there are actual pilots in the front seat.
Tom Cruise actually flies his own planes
Cruise, like John Travolta, is a licensed pilot and often flies his own planes.
But while Travolta is generally seen piloting relatively conventional planes like the Boeing 707 or Embraer private jets, Cruise’s taste is a little more ‘exotic’.
He has an entire fleet of aircraft he can pilot himself, including some pretty incredible stuff.
So far, we’ve seen him in command of everything you can imagine – a black Airbus helicopter? Yup.
Then there’s the iconic P-51 Mustang fighter jet he’s qualified to fly.
And this is the plane he was piloting as he accepted an award a while back.
