Betty, 97, becomes oldest female wingwalker after being strapped to biplane and flown upside down - 10 years after her first go

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 11:01 EDT, 6 August 2026 | Updated: 11:10 EDT, 6 August 2026 A 97-year-old woman has become the oldest female wingwalker in the world.Betty Bromage broke the Guinness World Record when she was strapped to a biplane which took off from RFC Rendcomb Airfield, in Gloucestershire.Her hobby, which means she stands or walks on a plane with two sets of wings while in flight, began ten years ago. After the death of her husband of 51 years, she tried to look after her cottage where she lived for 45 years but found work increasingly hard and moved into a care home. But she quickly found out that the well-intentioned staff take care of her every need including cooking, and she asked herself what she could do to keep active. The retired nurse from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, said: 'I'd just get bored of life otherwise. I can't drive, I can't see very well and I get a bit frustrated. 'The last thing on earth I want to do is lie in bed and have people run around after me. So, I want to do the things I can do.'Betty, who had a stroke last year and lives at Pegasus Homes’ Latheram House, uses her trips into the sky to raise money for Cheltenham General Hospital which treated her. Betty Bromage on the biplane as it gets ready to take to the skies at RFC Rendcomb AirfieldAfter her flight on August 4 she described dangling upside down from a biplane as a 'doddle'. Though Betty may seem dauntless she added that the 'fairground is a lot worse'. 'The only problem is getting up on the wing because I'm quite short. Once you're up there, it is no problem.'They [the hospital] treated me so well. It affects my words but the rest of me is fine,' Betty added of her health.Four years ago when Betty was 93, she set the world record as the oldest woman to wingwalk, but decided to break her own record again after being inspired by words she read on a hospital wall where she had once worked.She recalled: 'It said "we pass through this world but once, any good we can do, any kindness we can show, do it now, do not defer or neglect, you will not pass this way again."' Betty also said she became interested in wingwalking in 1991 when she saw a woman on a plane in a chocolate bar advert. She added: 'I remember, donkeys years ago, seeing a Crunchie bar advert, and there was a lady stood on the top of a plane.' High in the sky: Betty says she won't stop and has something 'special' planned for her 100th The 97-year-old former nurse broke her own World Record and champions her local hospitalImogen Sims from Cheltenham and Gloucester Hospitals charity said Betty is an 'amazing' woman whose 'daring challenge to support our team...will make a difference for patients and staff'. Though Betty is fast approaching the big 100, there are no signs of her slowing down.She said: 'I'll have to think of something when I'm 100 - something special.'Pegasus Homes’ chief executive Steve Bangs said: 'Betty is a truly inspirational individual and living proof that later life should be about new experiences, with age being no barrier to adventure. '