John Travolta celebrated his 72nd birthday this Wednesday by joyfully announcing that he has acquired yet another pilot's license.
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Travolta - who reportedly owns at least seven airplanes - got his first jet license at the age of 22 and has accumulated seven more since.
He also has a mansion at Florida's Jumbolair Aviation Estates, a 550-acre gated community with the largest licensed private runway in America. Travolta's home there, which he bought in 2001, has its own separate stretch of tarmac.
Now he has posted footage of himself in the cockpit of a Bombardier Global Express jet, sharing that he had 'accomplished my license in the Global Express SIC.'
The clip then cut to Travolta on the tarmac, gesturing at the aircraft as the camera panned along its full length and saying: 'Congratulations to me.'
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In the caption, he crowed: 'It’s my birthday today! And I’m very proud to say I got my license in the Global Express! Thank you for all my birthday wishes!'
John Travolta celebrated his 72nd birthday this Wednesday by joyfully announcing that he has acquired yet another pilot's license
Now he has posted footage of himself in the cockpit of a Bombardier Global Express jet, sharing that he had 'accomplished my license in the Global Express SIC'
Less than two years ago, Travolta posted a video of himself in a flight simulator as part of the 'recurrent jet training' he has to undergo annually.
He is not a stranger to emergencies in the cockpit, having experienced what he described as 'a total electrical failure' while flying his family in 1992.
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'I knew what it felt like to absolutely think you’re going to die,' he admitted in a 2023 interview with Fox News looking back on the incident.
'I had two good jet engines but I had no instruments, no electric, nothing. And I thought it was over,' the Face/Off star shared. 'And then as if by a miracle, we descended, as per the rules to a lower altitude.'
In a stroke of luck, he caught sight of the Washington Monument and 'identified that Washington National Airport was right next to it,' so he was able to land there.
Travolta began the process of learning to fly when he was just 15, and he eventually obtained his first jet license in 1978 — the same year his iconic movie musical Grease bowed in theaters and cemented his status as a popular leading man.
His passion for flying is so renowned that he has earned a space on the Wall of Honor at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
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He has been named worldwide ambassador for Qantas and been honored by the American Institute of Aeronautical Engineers.
He filmed himself in the flight simulator cockpit, where he was about to practice what he would do in the terrifying event of losing two engines at once
He owns a mansion at Florida's Jumbolair Aviation Estates, a 550-acre gated community with the largest licensed private runway in America
He has served as worldwide ambassador for Qantas and been honored by the American Institute of Aeronautical Engineers; pictured in Brisbane, Australia, in 2005
In 2002, Travolta led a Washington, DC, extravaganza that kicked off a year of festivities to mark a century of manned flight.
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At the following year's Dayton Airshow, he flew his own Boeing 707, with John Glenn - the first American to orbit Earth - as his passenger.
On the personal front, Travolta is a single father to his children Benjamin, 15, and Ella, 25, whose mother Kelly Preston succumbed to cancer in 2020 aged 57.
Travolta and Preston were married in 1991 and had three children, Ella and Benjamin as well as Jett, who died tragically aged 16 in 2009.
Jett, who had a history of seizures, suffered one during a family vacation to the Bahamas and died after hitting his head on the bathtub.
Last April, Travolta marked what would have been his older son's 33rd birthday on Instagram, writing: 'Happy birthday Jett - I miss you so much! Love you forever!'
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The family was struck by bereavement once again when Preston died in July 2020, two years after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Travolta announced her death and thanked her medical team, writing: 'My family and I will forever be grateful to her doctors and nurses at MD Anderson Cancer Center, all the medical centers that have helped.'
In 2002, Travolta led a Washington, DC, extravaganza that kicked off a year of festivities to mark a century of manned flight; pictured that year in New York
His passion for aviation is so renowned that he has earned a space on the Wall of Honor at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum; pictured in London in 2002
The post ignited rumors that Travolta and Preston had drifted away from Scientology, whose founder, L Ron Hubbard, was against chemotherapy and radiation.
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However, the Church of Scientology's website does urge believers to 'seek conventional medical treatment for illnesses and injuries.'
Last October, on what would have been Preston's 63rd birthday, Travolta posted a photo of her with a recording of himself singing the 1940s love song Come Rain or Come Shine, which has been performed by singers including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Ray Charles and James Brown.
'I recorded this song for Kelly and I want to share it with you all on her birthday. Happy birthday Kelly, we love you. - John, Ella and Ben,' he wrote.