Dartford daredevil Johnny Strange breaks world record after pulling aeroplane with pierced ears
Published: 13:00, 08 September 2015
Updated: 13:13, 08 September 2015
A Dartford daredevil has managed to make an extraordinary living out of pulling aeroplanes around using his ears.
Sideshow performer Johnny Strange, crowned “the man with ears of steel”, has set another Guinness World Record by dragging an aircraft using just his ear piercings.
Johnny set the record for the heaviest weight pulled by pierced ears by lugging a Cessna 172-P aircraft weighing a staggering 677.6kg for 20.4 metres.
Johnny said: “I have always been a big fan of the Guinness Book of Records. I used to read them all the time when I was growing up and I would get a copy every year for Christmas.
“I am always delighted when I get another Guinness World Record and being featured in the book never gets old for me.
"The only problem is I’m starting to run out of places to hang up my certificates now.
“I’m a believer of the impossible; I’ve always been interested in the unusual and the bizarre.
"It’s the obscure things that skew the perception of normality that really fascinate me.”
The stunt took place at North Weald Airfield, Essex. Simon Lowman, director of The North Weald Flying Group, said: “In all my years flying I have seen some extraordinary things but I have never seen an aeroplane moved like that.
“I am surprised he didn’t rip his ears off. These planes aren’t easy to move at the best of times with the engine running.
"I was fully expecting to have to get the super glue out afterwards to stick his ears back on.”
Johnny is not new to performing bizarre stunts having already earned himself a total of eight Guinness World Records, some of which are featured in the upcoming 2016 Guinness Book of Records which is released today.
In 2013, Johnny set the world record for the heaviest weight lifted by pierced ears after carrying a beer keg dangling from his ear lobes.
Others include the record for the most melons chopped on the stomach (on a bed of nails in one minute) and the most apples held in the mouth and cut in half by a chainsaw, when he managed to chainsaw 12 apples out of his assistant’s mouth in one minute.