Originally published at: Gladys Ingle changes a plane tire in mid air (1926) | Boing Boing
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And I was proud of myself for changing a flat on the roadside…
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The pilot of the plane getting a tire change must have been pretty brave as well; if she didn’t get the job done right they’d be in pretty bad shape too. Those are some people that had a lot of faith in each others’ abilities.
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Hey, that actually is terrifying, especially if it’s a driver’s side wheel.
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Jesus fucking Christ. No fucking thank you. No parachute or harness or anything!
Nitpick - just leave it silent vs a badly looped airplane engine sound.
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A very brave woman who lived longer than most, if not all, of the other Black Cats.
Especially the ones who tried changing the propeller in mid air.
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Would there happen to be video of her interaction with some misogynist trying to tell her about women staying in their place? I’d love to see that. Gladys Ingle is going in my book of heroes!
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Reminds me of a scene in The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) where Robert Redford’s character removes the fasteners that secure the wheels to a rival’s plane. Most of that movie was filmed with real planes and stunt pilots so I think they really did a gearless crash landing in the water when filming it.
Lots of other cool wing-walking stunts and whatnot in that movie too.
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Is that the one where there is a crash and the guy is pinned under his plane and some gawkers who rush up end up lighting the leaking fuel on fire with a cigarette?
If not - wonder what random movie scene I saw back in the day…
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Yeah, that was one of the less-funny scenes.
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Here’s the real incident. Black and white no sound.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i86U0_7ZocU …
Is it a real crisis though or a pre-planned stunt?
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According to Wikipedia it was a routine that they did at airshows, not a real unplanned rescue event. It would have been quite the coincidence to have a 3rd plane at the ready with a movie camera in a real emergency.
Of course, it looks like they sometimes played it off as a real emergency. I wonder if the newspaper reporters believed that or if they were just playing along.
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n 1927, after several aerial stunt and wing-walking deaths, parachutes were finally required by law.
So, how did mid-air mechanics carry the tires, if they couldn’t carry them on their backs? How many planes were lost when they could no longer get their flat tires changed in time for landing?
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How fast did one of those old planes go (ie: the planes in the video). MPH, please. Would her altitude have made the force she was fighting more or less? Was it easier than it looks (discounting the debilitating fear she’s ignoring)?
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The cruising speed of a Curtiss JN-4D (“Jenny”) was about 60 MPH, and landing speed was about 40 MPH, so somewhere in that range.
They were usually about 2000’ off the ground or often lower when doing these stunts because they wanted to be in viewing range of the airshow audience, so thin air probably wasn’t much of a factor.
That’s a subjective call that depends on just how “easy” this looks to you, so the only way to know for sure is to try it yourself. Best of luck, and let us know how it goes!
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Well thanks for letting me know. It’s one of those random clips seared into my young brain and I never knew where it was from.
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Media back then was full of click - er - turn-the-page bait.
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