By Wayne Flury, EAA Lifetime 117059
There may not have been tuxedoes and fancy gowns on display among the crowd in attendance at the St. Michael Cinema on Thursday evening, May 22, but the family and aviation friends who gathered with Ray Johnson, EAA 232949, of Buffalo, Minnesota, and his wife, Helen, didn’t mind. And a red carpet has little attraction for a group that prefers the grass or pavement of an airport runway. They were there for a prerelease viewing and celebration party, organized and hosted by Ray’s family, for the appearance of “Ray’s Stearman” in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, the latest release in the movie series starring Tom Cruise.
For many years, residents of Buffalo, Maple Lake, and surrounding areas always knew when Ray was out enjoying a flight. His red with black trim 1943 Boeing Stearman biplane was a distinctive sight and sound whenever Ray took the aircraft out of its hangar home at the Buffalo airport. And most likely there was a grateful passenger with him in the forward cockpit. Ray rarely passed up an opportunity to give rides, and he recorded the name of hundreds of those passengers in an autograph book.
Ray purchased the Stearman in 1980. It had most recently been used as an agricultural spray airplane and, in Ray’s words, it was “dirt dirty!” The next year he began an approximately 20-year long process of rebuilding the aircraft to his exacting standards. Flying this World War II-era primary flight training aircraft was a passion for Ray, and, when he took it to fly-in events, he always strived to be parked in the front row where he could talk to everyone about this airplane. It was an award winner at AirVenture Oshkosh in 2002 and at other aviation gatherings.
In 2021, Ray made the difficult decision to pass ownership of the Stearman on to someone who could continue to showcase the airplane, and who had the resources and a commitment to care for the airplane as he had done. That’s when Paramount Productions stepped in with an offer and an idea to use the Stearman in a future movie role, a plan which Ray happily accepted and approved.
Ray and his buddies at the Buffalo airport carefully followed the next phases of the Stearman’s life as it traveled to Florida for disassembly and then to the UK for filming. Watching YouTube videos of Tom Cruise getting trained in the airplane became the next highlight activity around the airport coffee table. Cruise is well known for doing his own stunt work and is well-known as an accomplished pilot. Each new trailer for the movie was carefully examined to see if “Ray’s Stearman” was in it.
Finally on this evening, Ray Johnson, family, and friends, a little more than 200 of us, got to cheer when the Stearman made an appearance. Now, if only Paramount had been able to find a part for Ray as an extra in the movie…