Extraordinary stunt by the Human Fly atop a Douglas DC-8

Geoffrey Thomas

By Geoffrey Thomas Fri Feb 11, 2022

One of the most spectacular aircraft stunts was performed by Canadian Rick Rojatt dressed up as comic book superhero the Human Fly. In the early 1970s, Rojatt teamed with famous US pilot Clay Lacy to ride atop a four-engine Douglas DC-8. The stunt was performed several times at speeds of up to 300mph (480km/hour), mainly in California. Lacy, the number one pilot for United Airlines when he retired is the world's most experienced pilot with 50,000 hours and 300 aircraft types and flew the DC-8 as low as 200ft in a high-speed pass that thrilled crowds. Very few pictures exist of the various events and till recently no video was available. Clay Lacy Aviation is the world’s leading producer of air-to-air video and still photography with cameras specially developed by Lacy to fit into corporate jet chase planes. The stunts were not without incident. In one appearance in Dallas, Lacy flew through an unexpected rainstorm, and the rain left Rojatt badly bruised because of the speed of 200mph plus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYKtZcm6vz8 Go to www.claylacy.com for more information on Clay Lacy About Airlineratings.com Airlineratings.com was developed to provide everyone in the world a one-stop shop for everything related to airlines, formed by a team of aviation editors, who have forensically researched nearly every airline in the world. Our rating system is rated from one to seven stars on safety – with seven being the highest ranking. Within each airline, you will find the country of origin, airline code, booking URL, and seat map information. The rating system takes into account a number of different factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies, lead associations, as well as the airlines, own safety data. Every airline has a safety rating breakdown so you can see exactly how they rate. Over 230 of the airlines on the site that carry 99 percent of the world’s passengers have a product rating. Given that low cost, regional and full-service carriers are so different we have constructed a different rating system for each which can be found within each airline.

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