'It just looks scary:' Wing walkers train to fly atop WWII biplane at Titusville airport
Gutsy training session: Adjusting her goggles, Vania Costa buckled a black safety harness around her waist before clambering atop the upper wing of a World War II-era Super Stearman biplane.
Then she strapped herself to a red-and-white-striped rack assembly resembling a barber pole bolstered by a network of steel pipes and cables.
Adjusting her stance and footwork, she waited for the vintage aircraft's propeller to start spinning — so she could practice the arcane art of wing walking.
"It's safe. It just looks scary. It looks death-defying," said Chuck Julian, founder of Wing Walking USA, standing alongside his vintage biplane at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville.
For the past three weeks, the Melbourne resident has launched formal training of wing walkers to ride atop his structurally modified Super Stearman, which formerly saw action with the Red Baron Squadron air show team.
The seasoned stunt pilot also skydives with the Air Sports Parachute Team, which supplies skydiving Santa Clauses during Cocoa Beach's annual Surfing Santas celebrations on Christmas Eve.
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Julian envisions future flights paralleling Brevard County's barrier-island shoreline, with a wing walker waving at beachgoers. And a wing walker flying near a parachutist who tows a large U.S. flag while descending into a sports stadium during the national anthem.
"We'll have a group of about five to six ladies. And you will see them around the Space Coast. You'll see them down the beach. You may see them in an air show. You'll see them over stadiums saying hi," Julian said Thursday, standing by the biplane wearing a black Hawaiian shirt and Ray Ban sunglasses.
"We'll be around the (Cocoa Beach) Pier. We'll be everywhere," he said.
Unlike the "aggressive aerobatics" Julian said he is accustomed to flying during air shows, he said his slower wing-walking maneuvers are more like "pleasurable aerobatics." Training-session speeds range from 60 to 80 mph. Eventually, he would like to fly loops with a wing walker and reach maybe 120 mph.
He estimated 10 or fewer wing-walking outfits exist across the country. So what personality traits are required to perform with Wing Walking USA?
"Adventurous. Very adventurous. And they can't be camera-shy," Julian said. "They're going to be on camera everywhere. Every time they get on this aircraft, there's camera mounts that are going to be mounted everywhere."
True death-defying daredevils a century ago, wing walkers emerged during the Roaring '20s as "the ultimate risk-takers of their day," according to the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission.
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The commission's account of pioneer Ormer Locklear, a professional barnstormer known as the "King of the Wing Walkers":
"He perfected such basic wing walking stunts as handstands and hanging postures. He also helped develop the rather standard but impressive stunt of hanging from a plane by grasping only a trapeze bar or rope ladder with his teeth."
Valiant Air Command is providing hangar space for the red-and-white Wing Walking USA biplane next to the nonprofit's Warbird Air Museum at the airport, commander Norm Daniels said.
VAC is not involved with wing-walking operations, Daniels said. Rather, Wing Walking USA will perform exhibitions during the nonprofit's events — such as "fly-in breakfasts" the second Saturday of every month from 8 to 10 a.m. — along with corporate dinners, Christmas parties and the like.
"We love it. It's something different. Something that's not been seen in many, many years. It's a treat," Daniels said, standing on the apron outside the hangar.
"I like it because it's new and novel. Where else can you go and see a wing walker?" he asked.
Costa, 32, is a native of Portugal and a longtime bartender in the Melbourne area.
“It was amazing. It was amazing. I have no other words. As you can see my smile, I can’t stop smiling — my cheeks hurt," Costa said minutes after completing her fourth wing-walking mission Thursday morning.
"He’s crazy, and he does amazing things in the air. And I want to be there for it: That’s it. It’s amazing," she said.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Women wing walkers learn to fly atop World War II biplane at Space Coast airport
