Geoffrey Tyson repeated the feat of picking up a handkerchief with a spike on the wingtip of his Tiger Moth more than 800 times while flying with National Aviation Day Displays, 1934-36. in Great Britain

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------Forwarded message ------

A pair (if you include the photo aircraft) of Italian Savoia Marchetti SIAI SM-79s scares the ravioli out of a group of Italian airmen in North Africa in 1942

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A USAAF P-47 Thunderbolt at extreme low level. Note that the sweep of the camera's pan has bent the buildings in the background

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This P-40 pilot is risking his life only a little less than the man taking the photo of this ridiculously low level pass across the runway. He’s not much higher than he would be if he was standing on his landing gear! If you trace the invisible line of his prop arc, this skilled numbskull’s tips are only about 4 feet off the ground.

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An American P-38 Lightning pilot makes sure of his shot as he lines up a ground target in a Panamanian range during the Second World War

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A Vickers Wellington I medium bomber is about to scare the bejeesus out of this RAF photographer at RAF Bassingbourn, in 1940

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A Halifax of 77 Squadron beats up a group of appreciative ground crew at RAF Elvington in Yorkshire in 1943. The pilot of this aircraft couldn't have much more than a few hundred hours, but clearly a lot of testosterone

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An RAF Blenheim IV light bomber flies low to lay a smokescreen during a demonstration of air power in front of a gathering of Regular and Home Guard officers and NCOs in East Anglia, 29 March 1942. During the display fighter aircraft strafed ground targets, bombers carried out low-level attacks and parachute and glider forces were also deployed

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'One more beat-up, me lads.' Cobber Kain, DFC, a New Zealander and the RAF's first ace of the Second World War makes a fatal mistake. On the 6th of June 1940, Kain was informed he would be returning to England the next day. The following morning, a group of his squadron mates gathered at the airfield at Échemines , France to bid him farewell as he took off in his Hurricane to fly to Le Mans to collect his kit. Unexpectedly, Kain began a "beat- up" of the airfield, performing a series of low level in Hurricane I L1826. Commencing a series of "flick" rolls, on his third roll, the ace misjudged his altitude and hit the ground heavily in a level attitude. Kain died when he was pitched out of the cockpit, striking the ground 27 m in front of the exploding Hurricane. Kain is buried in Choloy Military Cemetery .

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Some aircraft, such as this Spitfire, reach that fine line between crashing and flying low... about 12 inches too low in the case of this 64 Squadron Spitfire with shattered wooden blades. The aircraft, no doubt shaking badly was nursed back to the safety of an Allied base.

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An Allied pilot flying a Macchi 200 buzzing Taranto , Italy . It sadly proved that these kind of stunts aren't without danger as the pilot hit a member of the ground crew and more or less decapitated him. The pilot hadn't noticed a thing and after landing was confronted with a dent in his wing's leading edge, containing skull fragments.

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Lockheed Lodestar dragging its wing in the turn out

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A P-47 of the 64th Fighter Squadron, while on a mission to Milan , struck the ground during a low level strafing run. Despite the bent props and crushed chin, the pilot nursed the Jug 150 miles home to Grosseto .

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A P-47 flown by Lt. Richard Sulzbach of the 364th Fighter Squadron, 350th Fighter Group, 12th Air Force on April 1,1945. Lt. Sulzbach had a little run-in with some trees while on a strafing run over Italy . He was able to fly the plane 120 miles back to base and land safely. It's a real testament to how tough the P-47 was.

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Thought two feathered engines on the same side was impressive for low level flight? How about three feathered and 20 feet below? This Avro Lancaster appears to be post war with the nose turret de-actvated and a dome in the dorsal position. This is a very foolish maneouvre.The aircraft can't be flown on a single engine. It's done by a dive, a high speed pass and a zoom climb at the far end of the runway with a mad scramble to unfeather. The situation gets serious if the first unfeathering knocks the generator on the good engine off line, leaving only battery power

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Testosterone fired, speed addicted, and happy-to-still-be-alive youth were the primary source of pilots of the Second World War. At 6 foot, 4 inches, I wouldn't want to be standing up on the runway for this beat-up by a Mosquito. This aircraft had the military serial number RR299 and was built as an unarmed, dual control trainer at Leavesden in 1945. It served in the Middle East until 1949, when it returned to the United Kingdom . It then served with a variety of RAF units, this service being interspersed with periods in storage. The aircraft was retired from the RAF in 1963 and was acquired by Hawker Siddeley Aviation (now British Aerospace) at Chester . The first Permit to Fly was issued on 9 September 1963. The aircraft continued to be based and maintained at Chester and typically flew around 50 hours per year. The Mosquito crashed in 1996 with the loss of the crew.

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Modern day action shot of a super low B-17 Flying Fortress performing for a film crew and followed by a P-51D Mustang and a P-47 Thunderbolt

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On a particularly hot day, a Royal Australian Air Force English Electric A84 Canberra bomber drops to within 25 feet as thrill-seeking mechanics get ready for the visceral experience of 13,000 lbs of Rolls Royce Avon power full in the face.

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A low flypast during the filming of the Steve McQueen-Richard Wagner film, The War Lover. Nothing like a good buzz job to get the juices flowing, in this case one of the War Lover ex PB- 1Ws being flown by John Crewdson for a key scene in the movie. Crewdson reportedly flew the airplane solo for the sequence

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Royal New Zealand Air Force Short Sunderland doing a touch and go at Wellington airport in 1959 - Surely no-one can go lower than that! A touch an go in a wheel-less flying boat is not recommended. You couldn't get a damn slice of pastrami between the hull and the runway. There exists a crystal-clear shot in one of the RNZAF flight-safety publications that showed the aircraft just after it had done the "touch and go" clearly showing the bilge water escaping. Spectators were treated to a shower of dirty bilge water as it climbed away.

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The legendary Don Bullock was well known for his low level flying... in particular in B-17s. Here, he beats up the field at Biggin Hill.

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Also at Biggin Hill, Don Bullock coming "out" of the valley at the 1979 Biggin Hill Air fair

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A particularly heart stopping photo of a Hawker Hunter of the Sultan of Oman 's Air Force beating up the base at Thumrait. The Sultan employed former RAF pilots to fly Hunters and Strikemasters to help put down the Dhofar rebels in the south. They clearly were bored from time to time! Kevin Turner writes: I used to work at Thumrait back in the 1980's and 90's and this was standard practice when returning from a sortie in those bad old days, most of the pilots were seconded from the RAF or contract pilots. I think the Jaguar was being flown by Dick Manning, an ex-Phantom jockey from the RAF and a regular low level "offender". He used to aim for anyone walking out on the pan! You could hear the Hunter coming as it had this low frequency howl before it arrived, but the Jag was totally silent until it arrived and your senses were shattered by the noise! We even had a Jag hit a car being driven by one of the Hunter pilots coming back from Salalah. That was Dick Manning again. The centreline pylon caved the roof in and the ventral strakes on the engine doors took the A, B and C pillars out on the car. Dick said he didn't even know he'd hit the car!!! Another Jag hit the Range Safety Officers walkway handrail with the outer section of the port wing during a beat-up. Other versions of this type of flying in Oman are on YouTube I think.

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A Hawker Hunter pilot of the Sultan of Oman 's Air Force (SOAF) shrieks across the ramp on an Omani air base.

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In the shimmering white heat of an Omani summer day, a Sepecat Jaguar adds superheated jet exhaust to the miserable mix as its pilot shows off for the ground personnel watching from the shade. In 1990, the SOAF was renamed the of Oman (RAFO). Since this photo was taken in January of 1981, this would be an SOAF Jag. The shot was taken by Bill Fletcher, a British contractor working on maintaining the Jaguars and Hunters at Thumrait. What is not clear in the photo is that behind the photographer a fuel bowser was crossing the ramp and the Jag had to do some drastic manoeuvering to avoid disaster. Tim Croton, the son-in-law of the photographer tells us the aircraft was at 10 feet of the deck – plus or minus two feet!

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An Argentinian Pucara ground attack aircraft forces mechanics to hit the tarmac in this dramatic low fly by.

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A Dutch F-16 with burner lit seems to follow the turn in the road. On the ground, Dutch airmen stuff fingers in their ears as he passes over head.

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Saab test pilot Ove Dahlen flies a mini-counter-insurgency aircraft variant of a trainer, known as the Malmo MFI-9B, between houses in Sweden . The concept of a super-light, super-cheap attack aircraft with hard points for rockets was not well received and SE-EFM was eventually sold (as all other MFI-9B trainers were) as a civilian sport/general aviation aircraft, but for a while it was a bad-ass attack aircraft clearly capable of sneaking around buildings. Though SE-EFM and the purpose-built mini-COIN concept did not take hold, 5 airframes of the MFI-9B trainer, known as the Biafra Baby, were fitted with rockets and employed in the conflict in Biafra .

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A British-based B-17 flown by Don Bullock beats up a grass field

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An RAF Phantom II in full burner passes between two hangars at RAF St Athan in South Wales . There isn't a Rhino-driver alive who didn't love dropping his locomotive-sized Phantom down to the hard deck and pushing the throttles right past the detents. Darryl Dyke, a former airman at St. Athan, writes: “ I used to work at St Athan and the incident was legendary there. There was also a story that the pilot, a Wing Commander, had something of an argument with the base commander following the incident after which the pilot, on his next flight, flew low over the base headquarters pulled the nose to vertical and pushed the throttles to afterburner. A pair of Speys with the taps open don’t half make a mess of conference room glass roof!

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Like I said before, Phantom drivers love it down low

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Flying even lower than the Greek economy is this GAF F-4 Phantom II picking its way through the bushes.

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A Panavia Tornado spews heat, gas, and vapour as she howls from the runway with her wingtip a few feet off the ground.

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A 55,000 pounds+ of Blackburn Buccaneer hovering over the runway. In the 1980s and 90s, No 208 Sqn RAF were the real experts in ultra low-level under the radar nuclear strikes. During the International Air Tattoo in 1993, to mark the squadron's 75th birthday, this Buccaneer S.2B was flown at an altitude of just 5 feet for the entire length of RAF Fairford's runway. From inside the massive strike aircraft, it must surely have felt as though they were actually in the ground. Thank God for ground effect.

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During an air show at RAF Wethersfield in 1964, Belgian Air force pilot Jo Marette in a Republic Aviation F-84-F Thunderstreak flies not only feet off the ground, but apparently just feet from the crowd. Times have changed. While perhaps not as exciting for the spectators, it is certainly safer.

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Not really low level flight, this pilot nearly buys the farm at the bottom of a loop. The tail strike occurred during at a 1990 airshow in Harrison , Arkansas . Photographer, who was a technician for the FAA and somewhat of a camera buff, was tracking with his camera, as this guy looped off the deck in a MiG-17. The pilot had just completed a loop and misjudged his pull-out. Everyone considering themselves as potential victims, took-off running in all directions. But the photographer had a non-threatening position along with a strong motivation to take the picture. So just as the MiG scraped the ground, he captured this rare image… Oh, by the way, the guy just made a wide circle, lowered his landing gear, touched down . . then taxied in showing scratched paint, but no sheet metal damage. Photo via Thomas Harnish

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Another crazy low pass by Ormand Haydon Baillie in his Black Knight T-33 Silver Star. The spectacular paint scheme is based on an RCAF design for 414 Black Knight Squadron that flew the type. Vintage Wings of Canada is proud to have been part of 414's history. The squadron was disbanded in the 1990s. However, in December of 2007, approval was received for the squadron to stand up once more, this time as 414 EWS (Electronic Warfare Support) Squadron. Belonging to 3 Wing Bagotville, the squadron is based in Ottawa and is composed of military Electronic Warfare Officers who fulfill the combat support role, flying on civilian contracted aircraft. The squadron was re-formed at the Vintage Wings hangar at the Gatineau Airport on 20 January 2009 to operate the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet provided by Top Aces Consulting.

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This Sukhoi Su-30 could be going Mach .98 or it could be hovering.

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With bomb bay doors open and beautiful filthy freedom-smoke coming from the 8 engines, this B-52 flies down the beach in its typically nose-low attitude. The white smoke trails are most likely to demonstrate wind drift to the pilot, making this an orchestrated low level flight.

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This photo and the following one are my two favourite shots of low level flying. A South African Air Force Harvard trainer rips up a beach on the Atlantic coast near Saldanha Bay with its propeller tips no more than three feet from the sandy surface. A group of Army officer candidates walking up the beach are just now realizing that their lives are in jeopardy. In the far distance you can just make out three other Harvards

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Mathematically, you can't get much lower than two inches below the hard deck. This South African Harvard aerobatic team set the bar as high (or is it low?) as is physically feasible with this wheels in the water formation flypast.

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A B-52 slides down the port side of USS Ranger (CV-61) in its typical nose down cruise attitude. Though it looks like it, this is not photoshopped. It happened in early 1990 in the Persian Gulf, while U.S. carriers and B-52s were holding joint exercises. Two B-52s called the carrier Ranger and asked if they could do a fly-by, and the carrier air controller said yes. When the B-52s reported they were 9 kilometers out, the carrier controller said he didn't see them. The B-52s told the carrier folks to look down. The paint job on the B-52 made it hard to see from above, but as it got closer, the sailors could make it out, and the water the B-52's engines were causing to spray out. It's very, very rare for a USAF aircraft to do a fly-by below the flight deck of a carrier. But B-52s had been practicing low level flights for years, to penetrate under Soviet radar. In this case, the B-52 pilots asked the carrier controller if they would like the bombers to come around again. The carrier guys said yes, and a lot more sailors had their cameras out this time. Photo was taken from the plane guard helicopter

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The legendary, extraordinary Ray Hanna makes an extreme low level pass in a Spitfire down pit lane at the Goodwood auto racing track in England in 1998. Sadly, with the death of Hanna, we will not see such feats again.

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Ray Hanna was an incredible pilot who flew in many movies including The Empire of the Sun and the TV series Piece of Cake. In this iconic image, Ray Hanna is seen flying under Winston Bridge , County Durham , for the filming of Piece of Cake.

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