Shahid Kapoor to fly F16 this month for Mausam, the first actor ever to do so

Tom Cruise flew an F15 fighter plane in Top Gun 25 years ago. Get jet set for Tom’s new avatar to cruise the skies. In Pankaj Kapoor’s Mausam, Shahid Kapoor who plays an air force pilot, will fly an F16 Super Viper. And that’s a first. Not just for an Indian actor. But for any actor in the world. Says the film’s producer, Sheetal Talwar, "No actor from any part of the world has flown an F16. When I say Shahid will be flying the F16, I mean really flying it and not just pretending to do so. He’s undergoing a month-long training in Bangalore in a flight simulator." Flight simulators, for those who hopped in late, are machines that recreate the exact replica of a cockpit for pilots to train. Shahid will be locked in a flight simulator for the next 4 weeks acclimatizing himself to the vagaries of a real fighter plane. All the necessary medical tests and doctors’ clearances to take that historic airborne spin have been undergone by Shahid. On February 19, Shahid gets into the actual F16 to fly the sophisticated fighter plane. He will be accompanied by an American air force pilot as a safety measure. Though the actor remained unavailable for comment a source says, he’s as excited as schoolboy about his brush with flying. His co-star Sonam Kapoor, we are told, won’t be flying with Shahid during the historic takeoff on the F16.