Every childhood dream meets an obstacle, and for Jonathan Spano, it arrived in the form of an eye chart. Fascinated by aircraft since boyhood, he wanted to fly for the Navy, only to discover that his eyesight would never qualify him. Rather than abandon aviation, he built a business that paid for it. That business, a traffic control company started with his brother as teenagers, spans dozens of locations and, by his account, earns more than one million dollars daily. Here is how a pilot hopeful turned ambition into a camera jet, a film credit, and a lesson in persistence.
Why a failed military pilot eyesight test led Jonathan Spano and his brother into traffic control
As a boy, Jonathan Spano built model aeroplanes and hung them from his bedroom ceiling on fishing line. After watching the original Top Gun film, he became determined to fly for the Navy and land on an aircraft carrier. Then came the discouraging discovery. Spano told Fortune that naval aviators needed vision at least as sharp as twenty-twenty, and his eyesight, which required glasses since childhood, fell short. That door closed for good. Raised in what he called a very blue-collar California family, Spano turned to work he could control. As a teenager, he and his brother Chris began placing cones and barricades for a crane company where their father worked, and in 1995 the pair turned that sideline into a business of their own.
How the family traffic control business grew nationwide and now earns over one million dollars a day
The side project did not stay small. According to Spano, the company now operates in more than fifty locations across the United States and brings in over one million dollars in revenue every day. Spano also said it is the largest privately held traffic control company in the country, while The Marque describes it as the largest privately owned minority traffic control business based in America. Services include traffic control, engineering, sign manufacturing and installation, equipment rentals, and emergency dispatch around the clock. Honours followed, according to ‘Latino Business of the Year in 2014,’ two rankings among the top minority-owned businesses in Los Angeles, and a 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
Image: The Marque
How a tax-saving idea from the finance chief put a Cessna, a private jet, and a helicopter in play
The company’s finance chief ended up reopening the cockpit door. Two decades into the business, he suggested buying a small plane, both as a tax write-off and to reach the growing list of offices faster. The idea of becoming a pilot had never occurred to him, said Spano. He bought a Cessna, learned to fly, and stopped spending hours driving across California; he credits aviation as part of how the company grew from two offices to three, then ten, then twenty in the state. Each upgrade cost a few hundred thousand dollars, ending with a private jet. Spano then chased a second passion, filmmaking, buying a helicopter for around two million dollars and partnering with Hollywood aerial coordinator Fred North to mount camera rigs on it.
How a modified Embraer Phenom 300 camera jet put Jonathan Spano into the skies of ‘Top Gun: Maverick ’
North then floated the idea that changed everything, modify Spano’s jet to carry the same cameras used on the helicopter, and fly it on the next Top Gun film. The effort took roughly eighteen months and, by his own estimate, well into seven figures to equip his Embraer Phenom 300 with two camera systems and win Federal Aviation Administration certification. Flying alongside veteran film pilot Kevin LaRosa, he flew a large share of the jet-to-jet aerial sequences in ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ including every aircraft carrier sequence. The Marque also reports that he co-founded Phenom Camera Ship in 2016 and that the work brought him a Screen Actors Guild stunt ensemble honour and the Vulture award for Best Stunt in an Action Film.
What Jonathan Spano says about bold risks, hard work, and fearless persistence for any dream career
The camera jet has since found work well beyond ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ Commercials for NetJets, Flexjet, Gulfstream, Embraer, and Delta; work for the United States Air Force; and aerial footage of the northern lights over Alaska for National Geographic’s America the Beautiful, which earned an Emmy nomination. Paramount has approved a third Top Gun film, and Spano is optimistic about taking part. His advice for dream chasers is to “be bold, take risks” and back it with relentless effort. He recalled studying at eleven at night while his family slept, then rising at six for work, with thousands of hours of training behind his flying. He credits fearless persistence and refusing to let obstacles stop him.