A veteran, full of history and amazing stories, had a love of flight before he was even a teen. Now, at 99-years-old, he's taking to the skies once again. 

  • Ed Carine, 99, a veteran and former flight instructor, to fly in a Stearman biplane
  • Carine had a love of flying before he was a teen
  • Carine joined Army Air Corps to get into flight training, but was colorblind
  • Carine eventually got pilot's license after Army

Ed Carine will be going up with Flying Adventure in a Stearman biplane from the 1940s. The plane has an open cockpit, and Ed said he is hoping to do at least light aerobatics--all to experience "that old feeling" of freedom once again. 

To this day, Ed remembers the very first time he ever flew in a plane. It was 87 years ago. 

"I was 12-years-old, and my father and I were looking into the open cockpit and my father said to me in a very low, low voice, 'Jump in before your mother says no,'" Carine recalled. 

Ed said from that moment, he knew his goal in life was to be a pilot. Ed joined the Army Air Corps in hopes of going into flight training, but Army officials told him he was colorblind, so it wasn't an option--but that didn't stop Ed. He did the next best thing and eventually ended up in Illinois assigned to a link trainer course--the very first flight simulator. 

"At one point when we were rushing to help the British as much as we could, I was teaching classes of 400 at a time," Carine said. 

Even though Ed enjoyed teaching, it just didn't give him that feeling of freedom that flying did, and after his career in the military, Ed used the GI bill to get his pilot's license. However, is first flight didn't exactly go as planned. 

"I got to sightseeing and I'm looking around and then I'm looking around and I'm lost, which way is the damn airport?" he said. 

Ed eventually found the airport, and has since spent countless hours in the air, experiencing that indescribable taste of freedom. 

"It's a freedom feeling. You know you're used to bonds of earth, you're free," Carine explained. 

Flying Adventure is also taking up a gentleman who was pilot during the Korean War, and who is also in his 90s.