Wing walking is the act of moving along the wings of an aeroplane (most commonly a biplane) during flight, sometimes transferring between planes. It originated as a daredevil stunt in the aerial barnstorming shows of the 1920s, and became the subject of several Hollywood movies. An early exponent was Ormer Locklear, who was killed performing a dive on film. Charles Lindbergh began his aviation career as a wing walker.
The earliest known instance of standing on the wing of a powered aircraft was an experimental flight in England involving a biplane built by Colonel Samuel Franklin Cody on 14 January 1911. At Laffan's Plain, Cody took his two stepsons for a flight, with them standing on the lower wing. [1] In August 1913, Commandant Felix locked the controls of his "Nieuport-Dunne" biplane over France and climbed out along the lower wing, leaving the plane to fly itself. [2]
An early wing walker who performed daring stunts was American Ormer Locklear. [3] In November 1918, Locklear performed at Barron Field, Texas, with the first public performance of his daredevil wing-walking stunts. Wing walking was seen as an extreme form of barnstorming, and wing walkers would regularly take up the challenge of outdoing one another. They admitted (or rather proclaimed proudly) that the point of their trade was to make money on the audience's prospect of possibly watching someone die. [3] [4]
Among the many aerialists to become popular were Tiny Broderick, Gladys Ingle, Eddie Angel, Virginia Angel, Mayme Carson, Clyde Pangborn, Lillian Boyer, Jack Shack, Al Wilson, Fronty Nichols, Spider Matlock, Gladys Roy, Ivan Unger, Jessie Woods, Bonnie Rowe, Charles Lindbergh, and Mabel Cody (niece of Buffalo Bill Cody, no relation to S.F. Cody).[ citation needed ]
Eight wing walkers died in a relatively short period during the infancy of wing walking.
Variations on wing walking became common, with such stunts as doing handstands, hanging by one's teeth, and transferring from one plane to another. A 1931 article on wing-walking on inverted aircraft touted the practical aspect of performing inflight landing-gear inspection or maintenance. [5] Eventually wing walkers began making transfers between a ground vehicle, such as a car, a boat, or a train, to the plane. Other variations included free-falls ending with a last-minute parachute opening.[ citation needed ]
Charles Lindbergh, whose career in flight began with wing walking, was well known for stunts involving parachutes. The first African-American woman granted an international pilot license, Bessie Coleman, also engaged in stunts using parachutes. [4] Another successful woman in this profession was Lillian Boyer, who performed hundreds of wing-walking exhibitions, automobile-to-plane changes, and parachute jumps. [6]
Eighteen year-old Elrey Borge Jeppesen, known today for having developed air navigation manuals and charts, joined Tex Rankin's Flying Circus around 1925; one of his jobs was wing walking. [7] [8]
When the stock market crash of 1929 occurred, many prominent flying circuses such as the Gates Flying Circus folded. [3]
In 1936, the practice effectively ended when the U.S. government banned wing walking below 1,500 feet (460 m). People had difficulty seeing stunts above that height. [9]
In the 1970s, stunt men and women had restrictions that included being attached to the upper wing center section. Wing walking continues to be practiced by various performers. [10] [11]
On November 14, 1981, in an event organized by Martin Caidin, nineteen skydivers set an unofficial wing-walking world record by standing on the left wing of a Junkers Ju 52 aircraft in flight.
Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in the United States during the Roaring Twenties.
Ormer Leslie "Lock" Locklear was an American daredevil stunt pilot and film actor.
Samuel Franklin Cowdery was a Wild West showman and early pioneer of manned flight.
Beverly Homer DeLay was an American aviator who pioneered many of the popular stunts used in the early barnstorming air-shows. He soon adapted them for the movies, where he appeared with top Hollywood stars. DeLay died in a plane crash that was almost certainly caused by sabotage, but no one was ever charged in connection with the death.
Clyde Edward Pangborn, nicknamed "Upside-Down Pangborn", was an American aviator and barnstormer who performed aerial stunts in the 1920s for the Gates Flying Circus. He was its half-owner, chief pilot and operating manager, working in partnership with Ivan R. Gates. In 1931, Pangborn and co-pilot Hugh Herndon Jr. flew their plane, Miss Veedol, on the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean.
Lincoln Beachey was a pioneer American aviator and barnstormer. He became famous and wealthy from flying exhibitions, staging aerial stunts, helping invent aerobatics, and setting aviation records.
The Great Waldo Pepper is a 1975 American drama film directed, produced, and co-written by George Roy Hill. Set during 1926–1931, the film stars Robert Redford as a disaffected World War I veteran pilot who missed the opportunity to fly in combat, and examines his sense of postwar dislocation in 1920s America. The cast includes Margot Kidder, Bo Svenson, Edward Herrmann and Susan Sarandon. The Great Waldo Pepper depicts barnstorming during the 1920s and the accidents that led to aviation regulations by the Air Commerce Act.
Otto William Timm was a California-based barnstormer and aircraft manufacturer of German descent. Charles Lindbergh's first flight was flown by Timm. Timm partnered at times with his brother Wally Timm who did a lot of flying for the nascent Hollywood movie industry.
Stunt flying refers to any stunts performed in an aircraft. It encompasses aerobatics, wing walking, and transferring from one airplane to another or to a moving vehicle on the ground, such as an automobile or train, and vice versa.
The British Army Aeroplane No 1 or sometimes Cody 1 was a biplane built by Samuel Franklin Cody in 1907 at the Army Balloon Factory at Farnborough. It made the first recognised powered and sustained flight in the United Kingdom on 16 October 1908.
Moye Wicks Stephens was an American aviator and businessman. He was a pioneer in aviation, circumnavigating the globe with adventure writer Richard Halliburton in 1931, and co-founding Northrop Aircraft, Inc.
Lillian Boyer was an American wing walker who performed numerous aerial stunts that included wing walking, automobile-to-airplane transfers, and parachute jumps between 1921 and 1929.
The Cody Michelin Cup Biplane was an experimental aircraft designed and built in Britain during 1910 by Samuel Franklin Cody, a prominent showman and aviation pioneer. Cody had worked with the British Army on experiments with man-lifting kites and in October 1908 had successfully built and flown the British Army Aeroplane No 1, making the first officially verified powered flight in the United Kingdom. Cody broke the existing endurance record twice in the aircraft, the second flight, made on 31 December 1910, winning him the Michelin Cup for the longest-lasting flight made over a closed circuit in the United Kingdom before the end of the year.
Charles Willis "Speed" Holman was an American stunt pilot, barnstormer, wing walker, parachutist, airmail pilot, record-holding aviator, and airline pilot. Born in Bloomington, Minnesota, in 1926 he became the first pilot hired by Northwest Airways and later its first operations manager. In 1928, Holman set a world's record of 1,433 consecutive loops in an airplane in five hours over the St. Paul Airport.
The Great Air Robbery is a six-reel silent 1919 American drama film directed by Jacques Jaccard and produced by Universal Pictures. The film stars Ormer Locklear, Allan Forrest and Ray Ripley. The Great Air Robbery is a film that showcases the talents of stunt pilot Locklear, considered the foremost "aviation stunt man in the world", and depicts pilots flying air mail, the first film to deal with the subject. There are no known archival holdings of the film, so it is presumably a lost film.
Gladys Roy was an American wing walker, barnstormer and film actress.
Marie Meyer, later Marie Meyer Fower, was an American barnstorming pilot who ran the Marie Meyer Flying Circus in the United States in the 1920s. She was a pilot, a wingwalker and a parachutist. She competed in international air races in both St. Louis and Dayton.
Gladys Ingle was an American pilot, a wing walker and a member of the aerial stunt team the 13 Black Cats.
The 13 Black Cats, also known as the 13 Flying Black Cats or simply the Black Cats, was a 1920s group of Los Angeles–based performers who would do stunts, primarily using airplanes and also including motorcycles and automobiles, for a set price. Examples included upside-down flying for $100 and blowing up an airplane in mid-air for $1500. They performed at airshows and in movies and were featured in newsreels of the era. The group's advertising used the tagline "If a Black Cat can't do it—It can't be done."
