It’s not often a star drops out of the sky to land a business some worldwide publicity, but a little aviation company in the U.K. is basking in the radiant heat of just such an encounter. Actress Sydney Sweeney and her partner Scooter Braun were looking for something different to do during their stay in the U.K. and landed on wing walking. The Euphoria star and retired music producer spent an hour lashed to the top wings of a pair of Stearmans at the Wing Walk Company at Headcorn Airport near London. She sent video of herself on the plane to her 26 million (!) Instagram followers with a personal message to actor Tom Cruise to “Watch out.” That was an apparent reference to his daring looking but carefully orchestrated time spent pretending to cling to the outside of an A400M and his midair stunts on a Stearman in recent Mission Impossible movies.
To Sweeney’s credit, there were no engineers or military support for her and Braun, just an 80-year-old tube and fabric airplane and the watchful eye of company director and pilot Michael Pickin. The company flies hundreds of people every year and Sweeney had the full experience including aileron rolls and loops and is “an adrenaline junkie at heart,” Pickin told the BBC. He said the phone has been ringing off the hook since Sweeney’s post, which also attracted the attention of Cruise’s official Instagram account, which said “Feel the need for speed.”
In the last Mission Impossible movie, Tom Cruise jumps from 1 stearman onto another. I do believe that is what Sydney Sweeney is referencing, as opposed to the A400m.
Another bad influence.
Agree. And poor regulation.
I wish they would stop calling it “wing walking.” It’s anything but walking on the wing. It’s certainly not like the old days when they did walk along the wings. Now, you’re just strapped in every which way so it’s impossible to move.
Agree. More like the “human fly” for those who remember him.
Safely done, go for it. But guaranteed not for me.
As a pilot who is afraid of heights and also has a healthy fear of what can go wrong in a single-engine aircraft, I can think of few things that would terrify me more. The fear of heights doesn’t seem to affect me while flying, but I’m sure it would be there if I were strapped to a wing. I once was forced into a balloon ride with my wife. Scared the living crap out of me! All the while, wifey is singing “Up, Up and Away in my Beautiful Balloon”
Where’s Amanda Franklin when you need her? Oh…
Too bad she couldn’t have used a camera which didn’t distort the images so much.
Both those Stearman ( Stearmen 😉 )have been fully rebuilt and are probably better than new
Certainly a better photo of Miss Sweeney could have been found.