Plane Under Pontcysyllte Aqueduct?

[Flyboy]

Derek Piggot (now 94 years old) the world renowned gliding instructor and film stunt pilot flew the Fokker Triplane under the bridges in the Blue Max . He flew 15 times through the wide span and 17 times through the narrow span. There was only 4 feet to spare on either side under the narrow one. The Blue Max was released in 1966 and is an excellent film staring George Peppard.    http://www.irelandaerialphotography.com/aerial_photos/f2_3919_blue_max_bridge.html

 

Spitfire bridge at Winchester which takes the A31 over the old A33 ( now M3)  has been flown under.

https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Spitfire_Bridge

 

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by Flyboy

[Laurie Booth]

30 minutes ago, Flyboy said:

Derek Piggot (now 94 years old) the world renowned gliding instructor and film stunt pilot flew the Fokker Triplane under the bridges in the Blue Max . He flew 15 times through the wide span and 17 times through the narrow span. There was only 4 feet to spare on either side under the narrow one. The Blue Max was released in 1966 and is an excellent film staring George Peppard.    http://www.irelandaerialphotography.com/aerial_photos/f2_3919_blue_max_bridge.html

 

Spitfire bridge at Winchester which takes the A31 over the old A33 ( now M3)  has been flown under.

https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Spitfire_Bridge

 

 

Great film, Peppard did a lot of the flying himself but not the bridge scenes.

[Flyboy]

How about this then.    

 

[cheshire~rose]

18 hours ago, buccaneer66 said:

In the 80's the guys in the boatyard at Trevor told me that the AWACS from RAF Valley would sometimes fly low down the valley and over the aqueduct.

The wingspan of hawk trainers flown from valley is 9.39m.

It would have been impressive to watch

[nb Innisfree]

16 hours ago, Flyboy said:

Derek Piggot (now 94 years old) the world renowned gliding instructor and film stunt pilot flew the Fokker Triplane under the bridges in the Blue Max . He flew 15 times through the wide span and 17 times through the narrow span. There was only 4 feet to spare on either side under the narrow one. The Blue Max was released in 1966 and is an excellent film staring George Peppard.    http://www.irelandaerialphotography.com/aerial_photos/f2_3919_blue_max_bridge.html

 

Spitfire bridge at Winchester which takes the A31 over the old A33 ( now M3)  has been flown under.

https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Spitfire_Bridge

 

 

In the early 70s Derek Piggot visited our gliding club and treated us to a long talk.

For the bridge stunt he arranged a couple of painted poles in line with the centre of the bridge arch for him to align himself up on. The first time sheep ran in alarm in all directions, by the time he did the final pass the sheep had got used to it and carried on grazing! He also had the task of designing several seven eights size biplanes for the film (Blue Max) He first drew up a wingspar for the film co. to be getting on with, some hope, they were able to manufacture parts quicker than he could draw them and spent several weeks doing 12 hour shifts! 

Another stunt he performed for a film was crashing a biplane into the foot of a cliff.  He once had to do an emergency landing into a paddy field somewhere in Asia, he undershot slightly and hit the undercarriage on a bank of earth which collapsed the undercarriage and brought him to safe halt.

This gave him an idea for the stunt so he removed some undercarriage pins and drained most of the petrol and set off to attack the machine gun at the foot of the cliff, all went well with the cameraman following in a helicopter, plane finished up on its nose and Derek climbed out unarmed, a very daring and skilled stunt, but when the film was released it showed the crash from a camera at the cliff base, no sign of the cliff so it was a wasted stunt, and the equivalent of his years salary as Chief Flying Instructor at Lasham airfield paid by the film co. for the stunt. 

Remarkable man. 

ETA: The bridge stunt was performed in Ireland, not the Pontcysyllte . 

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by nb Innisfree

[AMModels]

Theres a local viaduct you might have seen in Barmouth, where in WW2 a Polish Spitfire pilot flew through the main span as a bet. In WW2 the local airfield was at Llanbedr and to the pilots the viaduct must have been a tempting sight. According to local legend he went through at full chat because 'if I dont fit I may as well not fit in style!' 

I can imagine a fighter pilot in WW2 seeing the aqueduct and thinking 'oh yes this will get me a round of drinks in the bar....' fully banked would give them a lot more room between spans, something they couldnt do under Barmouth bridge at any state of the tide.

[Giant]

On 12/11/2017 at 10:12, cheshire~rose said:

The other thought I had was, if someone had ever done it is it possible that the entire world would not know about it?

These days, the entire world probably would, because of the high chance someone nearby would have a phone handy to video it.

Longer ago, all you'd have is some bloke down the pub swearing blind that he saw a plane fly under the bridge, and his mates rolling their eyes and saying pull the other one.

Meanwhile, in a flying club bar somewhere, the truth of the tale is told in whispered tones, known to all the local hooligans but never mentioned in earshot of the CFI, passed down quietly through the years...

I know a good few such tales, and I ain't tellin'.

[thebfg]

On 13/11/2017 at 23:49, Flyboy said:

Derek Piggot (now 94 years old) the world renowned gliding instructor and film stunt pilot flew the Fokker Triplane under the bridges in the Blue Max . He flew 15 times through the wide span and 17 times through the narrow span. There was only 4 feet to spare on either side under the narrow one. The Blue Max was released in 1966 and is an excellent film staring George Peppard.    http://www.irelandaerialphotography.com/aerial_photos/f2_3919_blue_max_bridge.html

 

Spitfire bridge at Winchester which takes the A31 over the old A33 ( now M3)  has been flown under.

https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Spitfire_Bridge

 

 

The Winchester bridge was believed to be a P40. There has been some discusson that actually it was a different bridge.

 

This is a photo, there has been  some serious discussion weather it is a real photo or not.

 

But this was spitfire bridge in Winchester.

 

 

[Flyboy]

13 minutes ago, thebfg said:

The Winchester bridge was believed to be a P40. There has been some discusson that actually it was a different bridge.

 

This is a photo, there has been  some serious discussion weather it is a real photo or not.

 

But this was spitfire bridge in Winchester.

 

 

I've seen this picture before and my understanding is that it was faked. The bridge is a real picture though, taken during construction in 1940.

Edited November 20, 2017 by Flyboy

[Heartland]

The distance between piers of 45ft would have a challenge to the most acrobatic of pilots, which if it had happened would have presumably passed through on the side- that is one wing tip close to the metal trough and the other skimming the river.

However, in 2009 a light aircraft did pass over the Aqueduct