Two stuntmen taking part in the filming of Mission Impossible took off in tandem on October 1, 2021, from Duxfield Airfield in Cambridgeshire.

They left the historic RAF Battle of Britain fighter base together with a camera crew on board a helicopter, presumably to film scenes needed for the forthcoming seventh MI adventure.

Earlier during filming on location it was Top Gun Tom Cruise who few in one of the 1930s biplane,

The craft’s full-throttle speed of 124mph must feel a bit disappointing when his F-14 Tomcat fighter can do 1,544mph.

The actor took a spin in a Boeing Stearman after landing his helicopter at Duxford Imperial War Museum on a break from filming Mission: Impossible.

Cruise, 59 – whose catchphrase was “I feel the need for speed” as pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in 1986 classic Top Gun – toured old warplanes including the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Lancaster at the Cambridgeshire site.

An onlooker said: “He was fascinated by it all and had a fly in the Stearman.

“Someone took him up, but I don’t know if they let him take the controls.”

The star would surely have loved a go – he owns a Second World War P-51 Mustang fighter as well as a Gulfstream IV G4 jet that set him back £15million.

And he is soon reprising his role as pilot Pete in Top Gun: Maverick.

The trip was the latest in a string of British days out for Cruise, after he went to Silverstone, Wimbledon and the Euros 2020 final at Wembley.