9 Celebrities Who Also Happen To Be Helicopter Pilots

Celebrities do a lot of things in their free time. Most of it is pretty normal stuff. For instance, Mila Kunis and Snoop Dogg play video games, and Keanu Reeves collects and rides motorcycles. Others engage in more unusual pursuits, like Tom Hanks' collection of over 300 antique typewriters, and others have owned some bizarre vehicles. Many celebrities also know how to fly aircraft, which makes a weird sort of sense since they often fly all over the place for roles, events, and other things, so it's often a mix of business and pleasure. 

Some of the stories are pretty awesome too. For example, Morgan Freeman picked up his pilot's license at age 65, nearly 40 years after his service in the Air Force. He now owns one of the most expensive jets of any celebrity, which he purchased after he turned 80.

If you know which celebrities fly themselves, you can track them on sites like Celebplanes, which is fun to do in moderation. While researching this article, I spotted Harrison Ford flying into California, though it was unclear whether he was a passenger or a pilot.

Some celebrities go the extra mile and get their helicopter licenses, too. This is a much smaller, more exclusive list that includes actors, actresses, comedians, and even one of the most successful supermodels in history. So, if you're curious about who has their rotorcraft-helicopter rating, the list is below. We verified each one on the FAA's website where possible because pilots' licenses are public and searchable by anyone. 

Harrison Ford is a man who needs no introduction. The legendary actor is best known for his work in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, and even his abilities as a pilot are well documented in the public space. Ford started his pilot training in the 1960s but didn't complete it until 1996 at the age of 53. His piloting skills were on full display after he crashed a two-seater plane onto a golf course in 2015 after an engine failure, surviving the crash with relatively minor injuries despite being in his early 70s. 

His helicopter skills are also well known. Ford has assisted in search-and-rescue operations from his helicopter. One such rescue was of a 13-year-old boy who had been lost for 18 hours in the Wyoming wilderness and had spent the night in a cave. He's also reportedly helped a hiker suffering from dehydration and altitude sickness on another occasion. 

Ford's exploits also include a helicopter crash in 1999. His chopper of choice is a Bell 407GX, which he reportedly bought for around $3 million in 2013. It was most likely made at the company's Fort Worth headquarters in Texas. Ford still flies occasionally but told reporters in May 2026 that he does so less often, swapping out his flying adventures for mountain biking around his Wyoming home.

Clint Eastwood often plays a tough guy in his movies, and it turns out he's one in real life as well. The actor once famously survived a military plane crash in 1951 caused by harsh weather. It dumped him in the Pacific Ocean near Point Reyes, California. Eastwood swam approximately two to three miles to shore in stormy conditions. He later went on to get his pilot's license nearly four decades later in 1989. He would later star in an FAA training video called "The Vertical Dimension," where Eastwood walks pilots in training through various scenarios that can cause helicopter crashes.

His exploits in the air aren't quite as well-known as Harrison Ford's, and by all accounts, appear to be fairly typical. There are some videos on YouTube of him flying, including making a dramatic exit from a party via helicopter. He reportedly owns a Eurocopter AS350, which he's used to fly himself around to functions and events. It's a single-engine light helicopter made by the company that would eventually become Airbus. It's a vintage model these days, and there's no information on Eastwood's configuration. 

Pilot licenses do not expire, but you do have to be periodically medically cleared to fly. The man was born in 1930, so we're going to go out on a limb and guess that advanced age is probably why he doesn't fly anymore. 

It turns out that being married to Tom Brady is only the third most interesting thing about Gisele Bündchen. Professionally, she's known as one of the most successful supermodels in the history of the fashion industry, building a billion-dollar empire over the course of her career that includes several product launches and sponsorships. It turns out the second coolest thing about Bündchen is that she can fly a helicopter. She's had her pilot's license since 2009, an achievement she famously completed while seven months pregnant with her first baby with Tom Brady. 

According to Bündchen, she learned how to fly in the event that a helicopter pilot becomes incapacitated. "Usually when I take [a] helicopter, there is only one pilot, and I always wonder, like, what happens if something happens to the pilot." (via Yahoo Entertainment). Interestingly, she started her flying career by nearly hitting a goose. The helicopter went momentarily awry before it was brought back under control. Neither Bündchen nor the goose was harmed in the incident. 

Bündchen's helicopter for learning was the Robinson R44. It's a light civilian helicopter with a two-blade setup for simplicity. It's often praised for its multi-purpose capabilities and is relatively easy to operate, reducing pilot fatigue over longer flights. She still flies today, most recently spotted as a passenger in a chopper for a professional modeling engagement from the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Any fans and longtime watchers of the TV shows "Top Gear" or "The Grand Tour" probably already knew that show host Richard Hammond flew a helicopter. That's because he's physically flown one during filming one of his and co-host Jeremy Clarkson's many antics. The helicopter from the segment was a 1977 Westland Gazelle, a chopper designed for transport, training, and light attack duties. Hammond's frequent collaborator James May carries a fixed-wing pilot's license for airplanes, meaning Clarkson is the only one of the famous trio who can't legally fly an aircraft of some sort. 

Hammond got his pilot's license in 2012. He outlined some of the process in a 2010 article on TopGear's website describing how difficult the process is, including the medical screening, various tests, and Hammond's own silliness getting in the way of progress. He said that the biggest part of the experience was a newfound patience for "learner drivers on the road." According to Hammond, the struggles he went through helped him better understand how people struggle to learn other things, like driving. 

Hammond's helicopter is reportedly a Robinson R44 Raven II. The price isn't disclosed, but models go on the used market for under $250,000 to more than $750,000. You can find some helicopters for even less, brand new, but it's still a respectable helicopter at a reasonable price if Hammond paid that much. 

Lauren Sánchez Bezos apparently can't stay out of the sky. Before getting married to Jeff Bezos in 2025, Sánchez was best known as a journalist and TV news anchor, for which she won an Emmy Award. Learning to fly is a later-in-life pursuit for Sánchez. She got her pilot's license in 2016 at the age of 40. She told PEOPLE that "growing up, women don't see a lot of female aviators," but that she had grown up around it since her parents owned a flight school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In fact, her dad is the person who taught her how to fly at that very same flight school. 

Sánchez apparently took to flying like a duck to water, posting selfies online while flying. She's also coaching her two children, Evan and Nikko, in the art of flying, with both boys working to get their pilot's licenses as well. Sánchez has also taken high school students on random helicopter rides. Arguably, her two biggest accomplishments in flight include being part of an all-woman crew to go to space via Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket and being the founder of BlackOps Aviation, an aerial filming company. Her helicopter is an Airbus H145, a civilian-oriented helicopter that can cost upwards of around $9.7 million as of 2025. 

The first two experiences I had with Angelina Jolie growing up was in her 1995 movie "Hackers" and then the 2001 hit "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider." So, learning that Jolie also had a helicopter license wasn't the most surprising thing in the world. She was bitten by the aviation bug early. Her father, legendary actor Jon Voight, also holds a pilot's license and used to take Jolie flying when she was a child. Jolie followed in her father's footsteps and obtained her own pilot's license in 2004. Fun fact, that is right around the time she started dating actor Brad Pitt, who also has a pilot's license and flies primarily vintage aircraft. 

Jolie flies quite a lot. She's been known to use her personal aircraft to fly to remote areas for her humanitarian efforts, to various press events, and even once flew all six of her kids to New York to celebrate her 46th birthday. Jolie told PEOPLE that she started flying because her son Maddox, who was three years old at the time, thought aircrafts were cool. She got her license and then bought a Cirrus SR22-G2 airplane, which came equipped with a parachute to safely land the plane in case of an emergency. 

Jolie is one of few celebrities who own multiple helicopters. Her collection includes the aforementioned Robinson R44 as well as a Bell 206 JetRanger, both of which are smaller helicopters best known for their simplicity, safety, easy maintenance, and low operating costs. 

Few people have ever gotten their pilot's license later in life than Morgan Freeman. As the story goes, Freeman got interested in flying after a business partner asked him to fly the plane so he could get some pictures out of the window. Freeman decided that was pretty easy and went on to get his pilot license in 2002. This wasn't Freeman's first experience with aviation. He served as a radar repair technician in the Air Force from 1955 to 1959 and had long said he always wanted to fly a fighter jet. 

He did eventually achieve his dream when he flew an Aero L-39 Albatross. He also owns a regular jet. He most often used his license to fly himself to events, opting to do it himself over taking commercial airliners. 

While Morgan Freeman's pilot's license is still active, the actor doesn't fly solo anymore due to a car accident in 2008, which left Freeman with nerve damage. It's unlikely that the actor still flies at all, especially given his advanced age.

One of Bill Burr's most famous stand-up comedy routines is his helicopter story, and based on that, it actually is a little bit of a surprise that Bill Burr has a pilot's license. The comedian got his license in 2015, and he calls it his proudest accomplishment. He doesn't talk about it terribly often unless you follow his podcast, but he has done interviews about being a helicopter pilot and some of the hijinks he's gotten into with it, including sightseeing over L.A. and seeing some famous sights from the sky. 

Arguably his funniest story came during the Los Angeles wildfires. Burr told Jimmy Kimmel that he'd bought a helicopter to evacuate the city in case something went awry, which it did with the wildfires. However, Bill Burr is married with two kids, and he only owns a two-seater helicopter. So, despite having the tools necessary to evacuate the city by air, his helicopter did not have the space, so he had to pile the family into the SUV to leave the city, leaving his helicopter behind. 

Among the helicopters Burr had flown in before with other people is the Cagri G2. It's a light passenger helicopter with about 4.5 hours of flight range and some neat little features. It's certainly one of the smallest helicopters on the list. It's also one of the least expensive, with prices starting around $270,000.

Ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham first got interested in aviation in the 1980s and has been a helicopter pilot for 45 years now. He flew his first RotorWay helicopter in 1986 and has since built a couple of them using the company's builder kits. That's right, this man can fly helicopters and has also built them. He seems to be pretty good with his hands, which is a good thing because his day job is controlling puppets on stage. 

Jokes aside, Dunham has been flying for a long time and has given multiple, long interviews about his various adventures. However, the big deal is that he builds and flies his own stuff, and no other celebrity does that. He details the process of assembling one of these kits in a Redback Aviation article, including the tools and paperwork required. 

As stated, Dunham's choppers of choice are his RotorWay helicopters that he built himself, including the Exec 90 model and the Exec and Exec 162F. He mentioned in an interview with Howie Mandel four years ago that he was also working on a fourth. It's probably finished by now, which would give Dunham a total of four homemade helicopters.