Patrick: Hi, I’m Patrick with the Autism News NetWORK. I’m here with Nick Carden and is the pilot here at Boeing. How much of an inspiration was Top Gun to you?

Nick Carden: That’s a great question. When as a kid when it first came out, I mean, who wouldn’t want to be Tom Cruise flying the planes, riding on the motorcycle, and go to play beach volleyball? What a great … He was having the time of his life. I’ll tell you as I’ve gotten older, he was in the Navy. Top Gun’s the Navy. I joined the Air Force as I applied for the Air Force, and there is a healthy rival between the Air Force and the Navy. So, as much as I love the movie, I kind of don’t like the movie because it’s Navy-based.

But I’m excited to see the next one come out. Super, super excited to see the next one come out. Because again, I got it. It’s fake, but it’s about a real thing. It’s about the Top Gun School and the mastery that those individuals have about planes and flying in tactical environments, air-to-air superiority and how that’s done through the Navy. Phenomenal pilots. That program is real. The Top Gun School is real. And that movie … Well, it’d be a movie and Hollywood based, it has inspired many kids and folks. I say kids, but kids in my generation, and I’m looking forward to the next Top Gun to inspire and even more kids to join the realm of airspace and to be a pilot.