It is to laugh . . .
Fictional Top Gun graduate Tom Cruise is being recruited by Brazil’s Ministry of Defense to hock Embraer Super Tucanos on the international market.
According to the newspaper “The Day”, Nelson Jobim, Minister of Defense, called the star to fly a Tucano on a possible return to Brazil. If Cruise agrees, it will help [Embraer’s] image abroad.
According to the publication, the Brazilian government is negotiating the sale of these planes to the Americans.
Clifford Sobel, Ambassador of the United States, confirmed the interest to Tom over lunch on the island of Ivo Pintanguy in Angra dos Reis, last Sunday.
No word on whether Cruise has accepted the invitation: but do the Brazilians really want a chair-hopping, raving Scientologist flying their latest counter-insurgency aircraft? Aren’t they afraid Cruise might disappear with it, in search of any wandering space-borne DC-8’s carrying more of Xenu‘s kidnapped minions, so he can shoot them down before they land? Who knows? He might add another chapter of space opera to the cockamamie Scientology cultus! Will we have ‘Saint Maverick’ added to their pantheon one day?
Seriously, though, I can understand Embraer, the Super Tucano’s manufacturer, wanting to do all it can to improve its marketing. The worldwide market for counter-insurgency light attack aircraft is growing, with Iraq and other powers looking for such equipment, and the Super Tucano is a very good plane for that purpose. Its performance is roughly equivalent to a World War II propeller-driven fighter, with the added advantages of longer range, a greater weapon load, and jet turbine power.
The Tucano and Super Tucano are already in service with several Latin American countries, including Colombia, where one of the former shot down a drug-smuggling aircraft a few years ago. The incident was captured on video.
Still, I can’t help but wonder whether putting Tom Cruise in the cockpit is quite the way to go . . .
Peter
You know, if you took a Tucano, took all the military equipment out of it, and painted it something other than flat grey, you’d have a pretty fun weekend toy. (If one could afford it)
Jim
One of those, or a T34C, would certainly be quite a step up from the Cessna 172B that I used to own. I imagine that they would be a great aircraft to take the trip up to Oshkosh.
Me! Me! I’ll fly it! Just as crazy with none of the Scientology!!
🙂
Such a cool toy, that
They probably think his success with his US Navy recuiting film (Top Gun)might carry over to their project. Of course, that was a few cecades ago. . .
They are aware that Cruise is an ACTOR, yes?
And not an elite squid fighter jock…
Why would the U.S. buy this technology? Why not just use old “plans” for P-51 Mustang, a P-38 Lightning, or P-47 Thunderbolt and update them with modern body composites and engine components? Given our current understanding of aerodynamics and manufacturing applied to these vintage technologies we could make one heck of a turbo prop fighter.
Was this a “Baptist missionary-free” shoot down of an aircraft in S America?
The folks down there (even with our help) are none to discriminatory when it comes to using the cool hardware we help them buy:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_15_118/ai_75089670
“A pontoon-equipped single-engine Cessna carrying missionaries affiliated with the Pennsylvania-based association of Baptists for World Evangelism was forced to crash-land in the Amazon River after a Peruvian fighter jet opened fire on the plane, which it mistakenly thought was transporting illegal drugs. Missionary Veronica Bowers and her seven-month-old daughter, Charity, were killed. Pilot Kevin Donaldson underwent surgery after being seriously wounded in both legs in the incident. Reportedly, the jet strafed the survivors as they clung to the plane’s burning wreckage in the river.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/20/AR2008112002011.html?nav=rss_nation
“The controversial anti-drug program operated from 1995 to 2001 to assist Peru in stopping drug traffickers from ferrying narcotics through the country’s airspace. CIA officers in small planes would track flights by suspected drug runners before alerting Peruvian fighter pilots, who would swoop in for the kill.
The program had succeeded in bringing down numerous suspect planes when, on April 20, 2001, a Peruvian pilot mistakenly shot into a small aircraft carrying a family of Baptist missionaries from Michigan. A bullet struck and killed one of the missionaries, Veronica “Roni” Bowers, and her infant daughter, Charity. The pilot was wounded but managed to land the plane. Bowers’s husband and their 6-year-old son were not injured. “