Famous Pilots   

When not pretending to be somebody else, actors are among the most prolific fliers around.

Cross-windiana Jones

Hyperactive tomb-raider, Harrison Ford, is one of the most avid pilots in the non-Commercial aviation world. Since starting flying a Piper PA-22 Tri-Pacer in the 60's, he has flown many other types including the Cessna 182, Cessna 206, de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, Gulfstream II, and several helicopters.

He currently owns:

• de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver


• Aviat A-1B Husly


• Cessna Citation Sovereign


• Beechcraft Bonanza


• Cessna 208B Grand Caravan


• Waco Taperwing


• Bell 407

Grease (English Electric) Lightning

John "Summer Lovin'" Travolta is one of the more well-known fliers in the acting community. He has over 6,000 hours of flight time in various aircraft including the Boeing 747-400 "jumbo jet".

Travolta also owns an ex-QANTAS Boeing 707-138, which he uses as part of his role as Official Goodwill Ambassador for QANTAS, regularly attending PR events for the Australian airline.






Naturally, he keeps his 707 in the garage attached to his house:




Scrub the Flight Deck

Zach Braff, famous for playing "JD" in Scrubs gained his pilot's license in November 2008 and now flies his own Cirrus SR-22.




Dirty Harrycopter

The gravel-throated revolver-slinger himself has been flying helicopters since 1989.

Off topic, but Clint isn't a smoker, despite appearing to be heavy smokers in many of his film roles.


Tom Cruise Altitude

Tom Cruise, best known for going mental on Oprah Winfrey and also doing some films, owns a Gulfstream, P-51 Mustang and an ex-Navy Sea Fury.


Flyin' Maiden

Iron Maiden front-man, Bruce Dickinson, is currently flying Boeing 757s for British aircraft leasing company, Astraeus. He is also Astraeus's Marketing Director, which makes sense given his profile.

When not flying the 757 for Astraeus, he can be found flying the 757 for Iron Maiden; the band has, since 2008, gone on annual round-the-world tours to hundreds of countries (including Colombia, Transylvania, Puerto Rico, and many more). The band charters an Astraeus 757, converts it into a "combi" - half entourage, half cargo - and takes it on epic 50,000 mile journeys. All with Bruce at the helm.

Bruce is now a Captain on the 757 and has participated in flights to retreive stranded passengers when airlines and travel companies go bankrupt, and also has flown soldiers home from war zones.




The also rans flew

Other people with pilots licenses that I couldn't find much more information about (or just couldn't come up with humorous subheadings for):

• Angelina Jolie


• Morgan Freeman


• Sydney Pollack


• John Kerry


• Kris Kristofferson (since 1967!!)


• Michael Dorn


• Dennis Quaid


• Patrick Swayze


• George W. Bush


• George H. W. Bush Sr.


• Kurt Russell

And if they can do it, so, probably, can you. Many flying schools do introductory 30-minute sessions so you can sample being "at the wheel" of a light aircraft for not much money. If you're lucky like me, your local flying school might be at a fairly big airport; there's nothing more amazing than having to hold a mile away from the airport to let a Boeing 757 come into land in front of you...