Tom Cruise is back in the cockpit

TOP Gun fans the world over are celebrating as the Tom Cruise-starring sequel took one step closer to taking off.

Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer

TOP Gun fans the world over celebrated as the Tom Cruise-starring sequel took one step closer to taking off.

The hotly-anticipated movie was confirmed last year, but little more was known about actual plans and which names would be attached, leaving some doubting it would ever happen.

But in a gutsy move that is sure to have film fans flying high, movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer tweeted a picture with Cruise, 53, captioned: “Just got back from a weekend in New Orleans to see my old friend @TomCruise and discuss a little Top Gun 2.”

Just got back from a weekend in New Orleans to see my old friend @TomCruise and discuss a little Top Gun 2. pic.twitter.com/vA2xK7S7JS

— JERRY BRUCKHEIMER (@BRUCKHEIMERJB) January 26, 2016

The 1986 film about fighter pilots at America’s combat flying school in Miramar saw Cruise playing cocky airman Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

It was the role which catapulted him to A-list stardom and inspired a whole generation with quotes like: “I feel the need ... the need for speed.”

“Maverick” ... Tom Cruise in an original scene from the film Top Gun. Picture: Supplied.

A spokesman at Skydance Productions, the firm behind the new film, said: “There is an amazing role for Maverick in the movie ... there is no Top Gun without Maverick.”

It’s not yet known whether Kelly McGillis, who played Maverick’s love interest Charlie Blackwood in the original, will return.

Top Gun 2 ... Will Maverick and Charlie get together again?

Maverick’s nemesis — Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky — is played by Val Kilmer, who is also expected to reprise his role.

As yet no director has been announced. Tony Scott, who helmed the original, tragically died in 2012.