By Tomas Kellner
Sean D. Tucker may not be a household name, but within the aviation community he could well be Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk with his red airplane.
Tucker is a member of the Living Legends of Flight, an elite group of aviators and astronauts that includes Jimmy Doolittle, “Chuck” Yeager, and John Glenn.
On Tuesday he performed in Oshkosh a stunning 11-minute routine that would send Albert Einstein back to his desk to re-check his gravity equations.
Above: Tucker executes one of the tightest backflips, basically falling on top of himself. Top: The smoke from the flare going straight up indicates that Tucker is in a stall and almost no air is flowing over the wings. Image and GIF credits: Adam Senatori/GE Reports
Barnstormers and aerobats are a big draw at the EAA AirVenture fly-in here and Tucker draws more people than most. According to Tucker’s website, more than half of his maneuvers have never been duplicated by another aerobatic pilot. Several times during Tuesday’s performance he seemed to be suspended in the air, before flying his biplane backwards at more than 100 mph.
Tucker is also the only pilot to perform the triple ribbon cut. During this maneuver, he slices through the ribbons, which are just 25 feet off the ground, at 220 mph in right knife-edge for the first ribbon, then left knife-edge, and finally inverted.
Above: Tucker is slicing through the second ribbon. Image credit: Adam Senatori/GE Reports
Tucker flies a fire engine-red Challenger III biplane that can reportedly produce 400 horsepower but weighs just 1,200 pounds.
Photographer Adam Senatori captured some of the best moments from Tucker’s flight. Take a look.
All image and GIF credits Adam Senatori/GE Reports