With time to practise getting it right he started by a dive and pass over two marks on the airfield showing the width of the bridge.

The pilot chosen to fly under the arches was Derek Piggott (who also flew the Boxkite in ‘Those Magnificent Men’). ‘The Blue Max’ was made in Ireland where the disused railway viaduct at Fermoy was available for shooting one of the highlights of the film. Most under-the–bridge flying is risky and illegal, of course, unless the film makers you’re working for get permission. The Forth Bridge has been threaded by many pilots flying from Turnhouse when it was an RAF station, the Golden Gate bridge near San Francisco has enough room for multiple loops to be performed round it and Brunel's bridge over the Clifton Gorge at Bristol has shown that failing to get the approach and clearance wrong can be fatal. And if there’s something they can fly under, or through, it’s almost irresistible. They don’t really need spectators to get a thrill from skimming the earth – in fact they seek out lonely and unregulated areas to have most fun with that extra thrilling element of risk.

Display pilots fly to show their aeroplanes to the crowd and an essential component of any display programme is the high (or low) speed pass, as low and as close to the crowd as possible. The 50th Anniversary of Human-Powered Flight The 1924 Two Seater Aeroplane Competition

Big screen commander christopher draper