'Be my wingman any time', Tom Cruise tells King at coronation concert
Tom Cruise delivered a special airborne message for the King's Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle on Sunday night, telling His Majesty he could be "his wingman".
The Hollywood actor and star of Top Gun appeared in a pre-recorded video from the cockpit of his Warbird plane during the concert for the newly crowned King and Queen.
Highlighting the fact that Charles was qualified as a helicopter pilot, he said: "Pilot to pilot, Your Majesty, you can be my wingman any time", before saluting and flying off.
Cruise was among a number of celebrities who recorded videos for the monarch to be played at the concert, revealing little-known facts about the King's passions and hobbies.
The King's lifelong connection to the skies was also marked in Bedford on Sunday with the de Havilland Chipmunk WP903 in which he learned to fly in 1969 taking part in the King and Country Air Show at Shuttleworth aerodrome.
The 70-year-old fire engine red single-engined primary trainer aircraft delighted crowds as it took to the sky alongside a host of other vintage military aeroplanes.
Built in 1952, the tandem, two-seat aircraft served with the RAF Queen’s Flight before it was used to teach the young Charles to fly at RAF Tangmere while he was a student at Cambridge University in 1969.
The future King flew solo for the first time in the plane at RAF Bassingbourn on 14 January 1969 before being awarded his private pilot's licence in March 1969 and his RAF preliminary flying badge on 2 August.
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