“Top Gun: Maverick” actress Monica Barbaro flew with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels as part of the celebrations for San Francisco’s Fleet Week.
Pilot Lieutenant Commander Griffin Stangel flew the plane during Barbaro’s VIP flight, which she was nominated to take part in by The Air Show Network due to her various charitable efforts involving the youth in her community.
Barbaro is active in a number of charities to benefit the youth, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), The Make-A-Wish Foundation and The Wingman Foundation, which raises money for the families who have lost loved ones in the armed forces.
The U.S. Navy Blue Angels honored Barbaro during the flight by posting not only her name, but also her character’s call sign, Phoenix, on the sides of the plane she was in.
“Top Gun: Maverick” actress Monica Barbaro flew with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels as part of San Francisco Fleet Week.
(Arturo Holmes/FilmMagic)
She told CBS SF she was thankful to have had experience flying in one of these planes in the movie, because otherwise she would have had a much different experience when she did it this time around.
“It was really fun to get to see everything they were about to do in the show, and then get to watch it with that perspective,” Barbaro told the outlet. “I’m very lucky I flew in the movie, and kind of knew what I was doing up there. I think if I were a first timer, that would’ve been pretty intense.”
The Blue Angels are the flight demonstration team that works under the United States Navy, and were formed in 1946. They are the second-oldest aerobatic team in the world and are composed of five navy pilots and one Marine Corps demonstration pilot who perform more than 60 shows a year.
The demonstration team flies Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets. The first female pilot, Lieutenant Amanda Lee, was added to the group in July 2022.
Barbaro was thankful she had previous experience in a Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets because if not she would have had a much different experience this time.
(David Livingston/Getty Images)
Barbaro is not the first member of the “Top Gun: Maverick” cast to fly with the Blue Angels, as her co-star Glen Powell flew with them earlier this year. Powell is currently working on a documentary about the Blue Angels.
The documentary will follow what it is like to live one year in the life of a Blue Angel and will be the first time the blue and yellow Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets will be featured in IMAX.
According to a press release, the film will follow “the newest class of the storied Navy and Marine Corps flight squadron through intense training and into a season of heart-stopping aerial artistry, and the veterans on the team who, this year, will take their final flights.”
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“I made two naval aviation films back-to-back,” said Powell, “lived on bases among our men and women in uniform and learned firsthand what it takes for them to be the best of the best. After flying with the Blue Angels in an air show, I saw an incredible opportunity to make a world-class documentary.”
Powell has a special connection to these pilots, as he has now played one in two different films, “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Devotion.”
Barbaro’s co-star Glen Powell also flew with the Blue Angels, as he is filming a documentary about them.
(Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
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“Top Gun: Maverick” is now available to stream on Amazon Prime and “Devotion” is set to hit theaters on Nov. 23.
