AHEAD of next weekend’s Fly to the Past spectacular at Oxford Airport, reporter Tom Jennings finds that performing acrobatic feats on top of a bi-plane is every bit as hard as it looks.

Witha single strap across my chest, I stood on the wings of an old biplane and looked out at the grass runway ahead of me.

The propeller charged up – a whizzing blade a few metres from my body – and I began to wonder if this was a good idea.

The plane started rolling forward and I instinctively gripped the seat and tensed up. Bumpbumpbumpbumpbump. Then, suddenly, we soared into the sky.

A few weeks before this moment, the organisers of Fly to the Past, the airshow supported by the Oxford Mail, had offered me the rare opportunity.

For some reason – I am still not exactly sure what – I agreed. And before I knew it, I was at Rendcomb Airfield, near Cirencester, meeting the Breitling Wing Walkers.

The team will be performing an aerobatic and acrobatic display at the airshow.

But my first question to lead pilot David Barrell was to query his credentials.

“I have been a wing walking pilot for five years and have flown about 1,500 flights,” he said, which gave me some confidence. But then he said the plane was almost 70 years old and had once been used to train US fighter and bomber pilots during the Second World War.

He added: “We will be flying at 500ft at the highest and down to 30ft at the lowest; less than my wingspan.”

He said all of this would be happening at up to 120mph and I should expect to feel a g-force of three; the same as during a Space Shuttle launch.

Suffice to say, my fear was beginning to show. But, as the plane flew high over the Cotswolds, I began to release my grip on the seat and actually enjoy myself.

For 10 minutes, we cut through the sky, soared up and then screamed low past onlookers. I was grinning with glee the entire time.

In one manoeuvre, called “bumps”, we shot straight up, before the engine seemingly stalled, we arched over and then shot straight back to the ground.

The experience was incredible, but I could not help wondering how on earth the Breitling Wing Walkers perform acrobatics while in flight.

While I could barely lift my arms into the air, they will be dancing, doing handstands and climbing on and off wings in the air.