The self-proclaimed last barnstormer in the United States

Self-proclaimed last barnstormer in the United States flies Imperial County skies

Last year I blogged about a pair of father and son pilots who had been flying around America in their 1943 Boeing Stearman biplane giving flips to old Air Forces pilots.  At the time I marvelled at the at the extent of the two fliers' travels, the adventuresome nature of their journey and the romanticism of the old barnstormers from the Twenties and Thirties.  Well, here's another magnificent man and his flying machine - and the last "full-time" barnstormer in the United States, apparently!

Unique Vintage Biplane Rides in the Desert Southwest

Whereas the Stearman chaps were on a personal journey across the country, offering flights in their newly-restored aeroplane along the way, this fellow does it for a living!  It's incredible to think that in 2012 America barnstormers still exist to offer flights to members of the public in the same aircraft that were plying the same trade 80 years ago.  Whilst we might now look upon such flights as a vintage attraction, it's worth bearing in mind that even today it will be some passengers' first flight in an aeroplane.  It is truly remarkable - and laudable - that someone is continuing the tradition, a tradition virtually unchanged from the 1920s.

A 1929 New Standard D-25, similar to the one flown by Mike Carpentiero

Once again the idea of flying where one will in a country the size of the United States is a source of wonderment to me, made all the more delightful by the time-honoured method and mode of transportation.  Distances of hundreds, or even thousands, of miles is almost inconceivable to a chap whose own country is barely 600 miles long and the huge expanse of country pilots like Mike Carpentiero fly over needs to be seen to be appreciated.  That he does it in an 82-year-old biplane, stopping at aerodromes along the way to take people up, makes it all the more nostalgic.

WWII veterans take flight in vintage biplane

WWII veterans take flight in vintage biplane 

I chanced upon this story from across the Pond last week and as well as involving a classic inter-war biplane the whole idea behind it brought such a smile to my face that I just had to share it.

The concept of ex-servicemen being taken aloft decades later in the very machines they flew during the Second World War is not unheard of - it has happened here in the UK with Battle of Britain pilots going up in 2-seat Spitfires, for example - but the instances in this case are sweetened by the wider story of the flights, not to mention the great geographical expanse of the United States which makes a countrywide "barnstorming" (!) aerial tour much more of an adventure than, say, a simple flip up to Scotland or across the Channel would here.

It's the kind of pioneering experience one would expect to have read about in the early years of flight, when barnstorming was a new, exciting way of seeing the country and there's always been a certain romantic quality about the freedom of being able to fly where you pleased and give the people on the ground a thrill as you passed through.

Father-son duo bring high flying memories back to veterans

As such it's great to see these two chaps "living the dream" in such a wonderfully old-fashioned way and, what's more, having the kindness and selflessness to recognise the debt of gratitude owed to the men who learnt to fly in the same aircraft 70 years ago and to give them the opportunity to fly again.  Well done, and here's wishing them many happy landings!