A 99-year-old British woman has claimed the Guinness World Record as the oldest wing walker after a delayed birthday stunt that also raised money for a local air ambulance.
UPI reported that Helga Duffy marked her 99th birthday by wing walking at RFC Rendcomb Airfield in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, and is described as the oldest person ever to complete the stunt.
A Guinness World Records adjudicator was on hand at the airfield to confirm the record and present Duffy with a certificate. The attempt also raised money for the Wiltshire and Bath Air Ambulance.
Duffy’s birthday fell on Sept. 23, and the wing walk was first set for that day. It was later pushed to Oct. 16.
Duffy said she took on the challenge after seeing coverage of Betty Bromage, the previous record-holder, who performed the same feat at 97.
Bromage did not treat the new mark as the end of the contest. She congratulated the incoming record-holder and made plain she still has designs on the title.
Bromage told the BBC:
"I can't wait until I'm 100 and I can do it again, I'll beat you again,"
That is the kind of open challenge that needs no spin. One woman hits 99 and straps onto a wing. Another, already famous for doing it at 97, starts counting toward 100.
The stunt was not staged only for a certificate. Duffy’s record attempt was tied to fundraising for the Wiltshire and Bath Air Ambulance, the regional service that answers emergency calls from the air.
Guinness treated the claim as official business. An adjudicator appeared at the Gloucestershire airfield, reviewed the attempt, and handed Duffy the certificate that locks in the “world’s oldest wing walker” mark under the organization’s rules.
Few other details of the flight itself were released in the initial account, no aircraft type, altitude, or duration. What was clear was the sequence: birthday, delay, airfield date, adjudicator, certificate, and a charity beneficiary on the other end of the effort.
Wing walking is an old barnstorming stunt, standing exposed on a biplane wing in open air while the pilot flies. Most people retire the idea decades earlier. Duffy did not.
Age here was not a slogan. It was the point of the record. Bromage set the bar at 97. Duffy cleared it at 99. Bromage is already talking about 100.
That is grit in plain sight: no committee, no lecture, just a British woman who saw a record and decided the calendar was not finished with her yet.
