WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Oh boy.

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Back in the dawn of
aviation, in the 1920s,

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wing-walking was an
incredibly dangerous stunt.

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Daredevils would get out
of the seat in their plane

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and just clamber around the wings

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with nothing but their own strength.

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Maybe there'd be a pole at the top

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they could attach to
once they were up there,

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but mostly it was just
them and their strength

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against 100mph wind.

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Now there are still a very small number
of folks in the world

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who do wing-walking that way,

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but in the 21st century,

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wing-walking is a little bit different.

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Hahaha!

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Oh, yes!

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Oh, wow.

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- We go at roughly from 80 to 160mph.
Various, in between that.

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And we'll pull up to 4g,
so it's a huge strain on our bodies

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and we're doing manoeuvres,
so we'll lift our legs up,

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we can do handstands and
we'll also move around.

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It's like resistance training,
it's really hard work.

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In the loop, we'll get
to about 4g at the bottom

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and then as soon as we
go over the top

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we start waving, cause that's
the nice weightless bit,

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so it's easier to start then, than start
when you're going really quickly.

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You have about a month
of intense training.

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You practise everything
on the ground first

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and then you just go up in the air
and do it repetitively.

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You fly everyday, all day,
so it's absolutely knackering.

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- At Eastbourne Airshow, we take off

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from an airfield near Brighton
and we fly along the coast

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for 20 minutes and then they climb up onto the wing,

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so they climb up in flight.

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On the transit flight, the procedure for them to climb onto the wing

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is for them to unstrap their
main seat harness, but at all times

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they have a carabiner which
slides up and down the wire.

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Their cable is about 60cm long,

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so they can never be more than 60cm away
from the centre line of the aircraft.

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Once they get up onto the wing,

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the carabiner is then behind them,
still attached,

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and then they strap themselves
into the five point harness,

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which is on the swivel rig on the wing

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and at that point, of course, then they have
two methods of attachment.

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That's totally different to the 1920s!

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Woo-hoo!

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Woo-hoo-hoo!

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- The main difference when
having someone on the wing

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is that there is a significant amount
of drag from that person.

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It's a bit like flying an aircraft
with your gear and flaps down.

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You'll need more power to fly
and you need to check the trim as well,

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because the people on the wing
provide a forward centre of gravity.

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- So at the end of the show,
we'll chat to everyone

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and they'll tell us what they enjoyed.

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Usually, it's when we do the rolls
and we go upside down

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because they can't quite
believe that we're strapped on.

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From the air, you can't see our wire.

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It's all a bit of an illusion, so it looks
like we're not attached,

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and they're like, "Oh my gosh!"

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So it's a bit of a daredevil thing
they think is going on as well.

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- Kids come up to us all the time,

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especially young girls that are doing
gymnastics and think,

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'oh my gosh, that's incredible',

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so it's really nice to feel like you're
a bit of a role model for people.

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- That is exhausting.

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That is one of the most
physically strenuous things

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I think I've ever done.

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Whoo!

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Hahaha!