Meeting de Cambrai 2022. Wingwalker

Video from the channel duchateau hubert about Meeting des Ailes de Cambrai 2022, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 8:46. Language: French. Video type: Air show.

Recording of the wingwalking act (acrobatics on the wing) at the 2022 Meeting des Ailes de Cambrai. The event announcer can be heard in the background, commenting on the display as the aircraft performs in front of the audience.

A wingwalker is strapped to a structure above the upper wing of a biplane while the pilot runs through a series of manoeuvres. At several points she releases herself, moves along the aircraft until standing on the fuselage, and waves to the crowd. Between passes, the announcer recaps the history of the act. He talks about the flying circuses before the First World War, where pilots and acrobats would walk or dance on the wings. He recalls that Charles Lindbergh performed this kind of display before crossing the North Atlantic, and that flying circuses continued into the 1930s and the start of the Second World War, leaving a mark on literature and film.

The commentary explains that propeller torque tends to pull the aircraft to one side, which shapes the manoeuvres. It also explains that the airframe is reinforced to bear the weight of a person on the wing.