Here’s a plane of a set that should be familiar to anyone who’s been to any UK airshow: a Boeing Stearman Model 75 biplane of the AeroSuperBatics group, formally known as the Breitling Wingwalkers. They got that latter name because of their contract with Breitling – which has now ended – and because…well…they’re wingwalkers! Alright, so they don’t actually walk on the wings, but then we also don’t want people to fall hundreds of feet to an almost certain demise.

I feel a particular affiliation with the Boeing Stearman, namely because it was the first plane I ever flew. On a visit to the US in 2008, my dad booked a flying experience for me with Fantasy of Flight in Florida, and I was sat upfront in a PT-17 for the best part of an hour, cruising low and slow over the the Everglades. That more than anything is what convinced me I wanted to be a pilot. The Boeing Stearman was produced between 1934 and 1944 as a military trainer for the United States military and Royal Canadian Air Force, and after the Second World War they were auctioned off in their thousands to private collectors. Many of them ended up as crop-dusters, but some, like the four of the AeroSuperBatics group, became host to acrobats who would walk their wings in flight. Well, so long as you don’t end up wing-dusting or crop-walking, all is well, right? :D

Hope you enjoy!