After an 81-minute-long record-setting wing walking flight, nonagenarian Tom Lackey said he was glad to be down but also that the “very, very cold and very noisy” ride had been “rather refreshing,” according to the Telegraph.co.uk. Lackey set a record for the flight and in the process broke his own, which he previously set in 2005 at the age of 85, the last time he became the world’s oldest wing walker. However, the 2005 flight included a loop. Lackey flew strapped to a mast atop a 1943 Boeing Stearman biplane and says he made the trip in honor of his late wife.
The flight maintained an altitude of about 1,000 feet, flying from Scotland to Londonderry, taking him across the Irish Sea. And throughout the experience, Lackey carried a picture of his late wife, Isobel, who served in the Royal Air Force. “I mainly think of her and what she would think of me. I do think she would have been very proud. I’ve been doing all these stunts to keep her memory alive. She was a wonderful person.” Lackey is an experienced wing walker but conceded that his latest flight was his most challenging. “It was scary at times,” he told the Telegraph, “but it’s over with now and I have broken my own record.”
