Angelina Jolie is ‘crazy happy’ that 9-year-old Knox is ‘now learning to fly’

The wedding of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews

As we discussed previously, Angelina Jolie took part in the documentary The Queen’s Green Planet. Queen Elizabeth II has started a project called The Queen’s Canopy, in which she’s encouraging people to plant more trees all around the British Commonwealth. Angelina was featured in the documentary as she began a tree nursery in Namibia, a country where Angelina has already worked for years on conservation and environmental issues. You can see a lengthy video from the documentary here, and Angelina’s part comes up around the 31-minute mark – I’m not embedding that video because I suspect it will be taken down, and because there’s nudity.

In the documentary, Angelina was seen flying one of her planes over the deserts of Namibia, then landing the plane without drama. This apparently came as a huge shock to people: people watching the documentary were like “whoa, Angelina Jolie knows how to fly planes?!?” Yes. She’s had her pilot’s license for years now. I believe she has her pilot’s license in Britain and America, and she owns several small private planes. She’s always taken her kids flying too. After the documentary aired, Angelina spoke to People Magazine about environmental issues, flying, the Queen and more. Some highlights:

How she came to The Queen’s Canopy initiative: The Namibian government asked Jolie to help developed the country’s contribution to the Queen’s project in 2016 due to her previous work as a conservationist. “I wanted to help communities,” Jolie tells PEOPLE. “Building schools and clinics means little if meanwhile the environment the community relies on is destroyed.”

The issue of deforestation: Witnessing the environmental impact of deforestation in Cambodia helped inspire Jolie to work towards preventing the same thing from happening in Namibia. “I have seen first hand the huge deforestation of the Cardamom mountains in Cambodia. Our local team is so dedicated and fighting hard to protect the area of the remaining forest that we help to look after,” Jolie explains to PEOPLE. “In Namibia the local bushmen can tell you what each plant does, what they are used for and what effects it has on their tribe when one is lost. The way they see the land is how we all need to learn to see the land.”

Flying: Now, Jolie tells PEOPLE, her son Knox is learning how to fly. “I love being up in the air,” she says. “I love the freedom. Knox is now learning to fly. It makes me crazy happy to see him discover it. He still needs help with the pedals, but won’t for long.”

[From People]

My God, Knox is already learning how to pilot a plane?!?! He’s only 9 years old! I mean… what? Maddox apparently starting taking flying lessons when he was pretty young as well, but I think they waited until his teen years for him to really try for his pilot’s license. Knox is only 9 – he has no business piloting a plane. As for the rest of it… good for her. Now that I’ve gotten to see Angelina’s part in the documentary, it was really sweet – she had all of her kids there in Namibia and they just seem so close. They seem like well-adjusted kids, honestly.

The wedding of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews

Screencaps courtesy of ITV.

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55 Responses to “Angelina Jolie is ‘crazy happy’ that 9-year-old Knox is ‘now learning to fly’”

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  1. MousyB says:

    Stories about Angelina doing amazing work >>>>>>>> Stories about Brad’s PR stunt – I mean dating life

  2. Taxi says:

    Lovely shot of the tiny white plane over the brown hills. Yes, maybe she lets Knox take over the stick & showed him how to read the instruments but a young child doesn’t have the strength needed to pilot.

    • minx says:

      I thought of Jessica Dubroff, the little girl pilot who crashed her plane.

      • FHMom says:

        Me, too. This story gives me anxiety.

      • Taxi says:

        I’d forgotten that.

      • Veronica T says:

        Of all the bone-headed things! So many things wrong with teaching a 9 year old to fly. Reminds me of that little girl, and also JFK Jr who could afford more plane with night instruments than he was qualified for.
        Those didn’t end well. Crazy.

      • citney says:

        I believe Angelina is smart enough to know Knox is too young to think of flying a plane on his own.

        Becoming interested in flying and actually flying a plane by himself are worlds apart.

        It came across as Angie being happy that Knox wants to learn to fly. I believe Angie would love for all her children to know how to fly a plane if it interests them.

        No need to get anyone’s knickers in a twist thinking Angie would even think of letting a child fly a plane. His time will come.

      • Veronica T says:

        Citney, I hope you are right, because it is scary!! And some parents are nuts and have let very young kids fly, and we have seem some very public deaths. I do think she is a good mother, and has more common sense than that.

      • citney says:

        @Veronica T

        Maddox was no older than Knox when it was made known he wanted to learn to fly a plane. We’ve never seen any sign of him flying, it doesn’t mean he hasn’t taken lessons, but the press would be all over Angie if she had allowed Maddox to fly a plane at a young age.

        Also, girls want to do everything at that age, too. I was younger than Knox when I flew with my Dad, I thought I would be flying a plane just like him in no time. Of course, my Dad was too smart to even think of letting me learn to fly at such a young a young age.

        At nine years old, boys want to fly planes, be astronauts, play football or baseball, in other words, they want to do anything and everything, just as we girls do.. lol

  3. Belle says:

    Wow, she needs to lay off the fillers or whatever she is doing to her face!

    • Rose says:

      Yup the fillers have ruined her face completely haven’t they ?

      • Pickles says:

        If you think she looks awful, I want to see what your idea of beauty is. And if gossip sites are a constant source of mean-girl realness then I need to stay off of here, I really can’t take the constant criticisms of women for their work, their looks, the way they raise their kids. This negativity is part of the problem.

      • B n A fn says:

        @pickles, there are certain women who get criticized whenever a thread of them comes up. What I do is, not read those threads. I’m a Angelina fan, she is criticized about her weight, clothing, face/Botox, children ect. Just leave a positive comment or read something else. The internet will always have fans for or against every one. I really enjoy this site, I never comment on any other site, so I learn to ignore and move along.

      • Joy says:

        That’s always so interesting to me and like you say there are certain women that always get picked apart for nothing. I think someone said it in an Amal thread , something about how some act like she ran over their puppy or something & hate on her for no good reason. It is best to keep it moving and ignore it like you say, I try ignore it for the most part, but one thing that annoys me as a fan is the misinformation. I mean we’re all entitled to our opinions , but when someone states something that is just untrue and inaccurate especially with Angelina because I actually follow her. There are so many inaccuracies out there about her from hateful people/ sites, the tabloids etc and well it’s hard not to say something then when you see it and know it for the lie it is.

      • Belle says:

        Yes, she was so beautiful before. I really wish she left her face alone, as well as her original nose.

    • tracking says:

      But wasn’t this filmed a year ago? I agree it doesn’t look good, but she looked fine at the BAFTAs this year. Maybe this was overdone botox, which wore off. Normally she focuses the ‘tox on her forehead and keeps the rest of her face more natural, which looks better.

      • Pickles says:

        Never mind that she is working with United Nations, helping the environment and raising six kids, it’s all about her face!! Stop criticizing women for their own choices.

      • Rose says:

        It’s a gossip site , lol we’re here to talk about this stuff . She looks awfully botoxed lately so people will notice .

      • tracking says:

        It’s especially sad when a strong, accomplished woman does this to her face. But even they can suffer from internalized misogyny.

      • Belle says:

        She has been looking off for a few years now IMO. She is very accomplished and was so naturally beautiful, so yeah, it is sad that even someone like that can cave.

    • Fa says:

      Where do you see fillers in her face? Documentary was film when she was doing photo shoot for Harper Bazaar in Namibia last June. The photo shoot was natural and Angie put some weights in her face since the divorce, she always has a fuller face.

    • citney says:

      Her face looks completely natural. Where are you seeing “fillers”?

  4. tracking says:

    Not a huge distinction, but technically Jolie is co-piloting the plane. She’s probably been too busy to keep up with annual checks/requisite hours flown to keep up her solo license. It’s not easy to do, since it takes a real time commitment. It’s cute that Knox wants to learn, too. What kid doesn’t think it’s cool to fly a plane? He’s probably just beginning to learn a bit about the mechanics of flying, can’t get a license until he’s 16.

    • Joy says:

      Actually that’s not her co pilot, that’s Dr Rudi van Vuuren her good friend and one of the founders of N/a’an ku se along with his wife Marlice. Angelina is instrument rated , so highly trained and when she got her license in 2004 she said it was the hardest thing she’d ever done. So while possible with her busy schedule, I don’t see her not keeping up with her skills, especially as Maddox has been taking lessons since he was at least 10. There was a story a few years back I think in 2013 about her waiting to get her paperwork renewed.

      • Rose says:

        Not a fan of hers but it’s pretty badass she can fly a plane. That’s just impressive to me .

      • tracking says:

        Pretty sure she’s sitting in the co-pilot’s seat.

      • lower-case deb says:

        it is possible to fly as PIC sitting on the right, though rarely. perhaps because she is a lefty although certainly not the norm (lefties sit on the left most usually too).

        one example=
        http://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=731515

        in addition, the filmmaker himself wrote that she was indeed the one who flew the plane although certainly we take his word or not it is up to the readers.

      • citney says:

        @Tracking

        We get it, an overhyped associate professor who seems to not have a humanitarian bone in her body is your “cup of tea”.

        To each his own. (Personally, I’d do something with that unruly hank of hair the associate professor seems so proud of)

    • Trashaddict says:

      I’m personally impressed that she can fly because it wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but can we not see this as so extraordinary? As in OMG a woman can fly a plane? It’s just buying into those constraints. Part of what is so badass about her is I think she’s learned to ignore them.

      • Norah says:

        angelina has always been different than the usual hollywood heroines, most of them have to play the hollywood game with their agents etc, angelina plays the game too but she is way smarter than most of them – her flying a plane is the type of stuff she does along with her choice of movies and her career path

  5. MostlyMegan says:

    AJ goes a bit over the top when she brags on her kids. I am sure Knox loves flying but I would believe that Knox is ACTUALLY flying a plane about as much as Viviene is speaking Arabic and Maddox is a talented executive producer. Like probably not that much, really.

  6. Justwastingtime says:

    I just took my nine year old and a group of kids to a local small airport in the LA area where we got a demo of their summer flying programs. You don’t need strengthen to fly, height is a bit of an issue. Many of the kids in the program get their pilot’s licence at 14 through Canada.

  7. roses says:

    It seems Maddox started around the same age 9 or 10 years old. Read where Pitt mentioned it when he was promoting the film Moneyball.

  8. Rumi says:

    My next goal is to learn how to fly. Its great her kids get to learn and explore freely. Angelina is doing a fine job of raising her kids.
    Conservation is super important and glad she uses her platform to advocate for key issues.

  9. Sara says:

    The MIT design lady Brad is dating may be super smart and pretty but Jolie is trying to make true change in the world for humanity and the environment. Not many can top that.

    • tracking says:

      I didn’t realize there was a competition. But since you brought it up, Oxman is working on things like ecological fabrication, which could one day offer alternatives to plastics.

      • Inas says:

        I agree with you, it’s not necessary a competition but Oxman is not the one invented that term. Ecological fabrication. There are many science before her started it and by own her words because of technologies are so developing we can now get closer . So maybe in her time or others the goal will be achieved one day. It is certainly will be great idea to develop through generations.

      • tracking says:

        I didn’t say she invented the term, merely that she’s working in that area which is an important one.

      • Rumi says:

        Both women are working for the betterment of our world – Brad is the weak link.

      • citney says:

        @tracking

        Adult underwear that parallels the human intestinal tract, that will go over great in the year 2080. lol

      • citney says:

        @tracking

        You mean Oxman and a TEAM are working on various futuristic projects. She, herself has not designed anything by herself, she always has a team she works with.

      • Fa says:

        @CITNEY @tracking is so obsessed with MIT professor, I think she buys into the overselling gushing from Pitt teams.
        Tracking belittled Angie pilot experience, Angie has been piloting for a decade since 2004.

  10. Fannie says:

    Oxman has done nothing to impact the world. She is doing designs for masks, chair(only 1 it seems); and ugly clothes. She did invent 3 d printing, she just uses it but when she talks it seems like she invented it. Good thing she is no longer papped, may they got bored with her easily or Photos dont sell as much?

    Angie has done a lot for as a humanitarian, she even done so much for the medical world, remember the Angelina Jolie effect. She is super successful, rich and have her kids. Im sure being with her kids is most important to her. So no comparison to her ex’ new girlfriend. She dumped him, they can move on with their lives.

    • All lies says:

      Hey, one woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure. Altho some ‘treasure’ may not worth the trouble. Good luck to the professor. She gonna needs it.

  11. enike says:

    Kudos for her great work.
    Just wondering, am I the only one to find a bit contradictory talking about the environment and flying a plane in one breath?

    • G says:

      @enike THANK YOU! I’m surprised you’re the only one so far to point this out. Good on her for her conservation work, but if she also owns a small fleet of private planes and flies recreationally… seems more than a touch hypocritical.