first, a quick scene, then the trailer
World War I veteran Waldo Pepper (fictitiously 1895-1931, played by Robert Redford) feels he has missed out on the glory of aerial combat after being made a flight instructor. After the war, Waldo had taken up barnstorming to make a living. He soon tangles with rival barnstormer (and fellow war veteran) Axel Olsson (Bo Svenson).
Antagonistic at first, Waldo and Axel become partners and try out various stunts. One of these stunts, a car-to-aircraft transfer, goes wrong and Waldo is nearly killed after Axel is unable to climb high enough to clear a barn, slamming Waldo into it. Waldo then goes home to Kansas to be with on-again, off-again girlfriend Maude (Kidder) and her family. Maude, however, is not happy to see Waldo at first; because every time she does, Waldo is injured in some way. Eventually, however, they make up and become lovers once again.
Meanwhile, Maude's brother Ezra (Ed Herrmann), a long-time friend of Waldo's since boyhood, promises to build Waldo a high-performance monoplane as soon as he is well enough to fly it. Waldo's goal is to become the first pilot in history to successfully perform an outside loop, and Ezra feels Waldo can do it with the monoplane.
In the meantime, Waldo rejoins Axel. The two eventually get a job flying for a traveling flying circus owned by Doc Dillhoefer (Philip Bruns). However, Dillhoefer's Flying Circus is in a slump, as there is very little attendance at the shows. So in an effort to attract bigger crowds, Dillhoefer hires Mary Beth (Susan Sarandon) to act as the show's new sexual attraction, in which she would climb out on the wing of an aircraft in flight wearing shredded clothes, thus allowing the wind to blow them off. But while performing this new stunt for the first time, Mary Beth freezes up on the wing, afraid to return to the cockpit. As Waldo (who did a "plane-to-plane transfer" in flight to climb aboard Mary Beth's aircraft) extends his hand to help Mary Beth back into the cockpit, she slips and falls off the wing to her death. As a result of Mary Beth's death, Waldo, Axel, and Dillhoefer are temporarily grounded by an inspector of the newly formed Air Commerce division of the federal government, Newt Potts (Geoffrey Lewis), a man from Waldo's war past.
Soon after, at the Muncie Fair, another tragedy occurs with the Dillhoefer Circus when Ezra (flying in place of the grounded Waldo) attempts the outside loop in the monoplane. He crashes on his third attempt, and the crowd rushes out of the stands to see the wreckage. Some of the spectators are smoking as they watch Waldo struggle to free Ezra. One of the cigarettes is flicked into gas leaking from the aircraft, igniting it. Waldo, helpless against the flames, kills Ezra with a piece of lumber. Because no one helped Waldo try to save him, Waldo goes on a rampage, jumps in one of Dillhoefer's aircraft and begins buzzing the crowd away from the wreckage and ends up crashing into a carnival area, which leads to his permanent grounding.
But that does not stop Waldo from flying for long. Waldo goes to Hollywood where Axel is working as a stuntman, and Waldo and Axel get jobs as stunt pilots in an upcoming film depicting the air battles of the Great War. Axel is cleared of his grounding and reinstated as a pilot; but being permanently grounded, Waldo has to use an alias so that he can dodge his grounding and fly in the film. Famous German air ace Ernst Kessler (Bo Brundin) has also been hired by the producers, as a consultant and to fly a Fokker Dr. I replica in the film.
During filming of a famous wartime duel; Waldo in a Sopwith Camel and Kessler in the Fokker—although their aircraft are disarmed—begin dogfighting in deadly earnest, using their aircraft as weapons, repeatedly playing chicken and colliding with each other. Eventually, Waldo damages Kessler's aircraft so bad that it's no longer airworthy, and Kessler surrenders to Waldo. Waldo and Kessler then salute each other and fly their separate ways.
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