The Princess of Wales wore her signature high-heeled stilettos while on a visit to RAF Coningsby – and it seems the shoes didn’t stop her from pulling off an incredible move
The Princess of Wales’s on-duty uniform usually consists of a pair of killer high-heeled shoes. But it seems during her latest outing in a trip to visit military personnel at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire – she wasn’t going to let her stilettos get in the way, pulling off a tricky move while wearing them.
Kate visited the base yesterday for her first visit as its Royal Honorary Air Commodore, and was briefed about recent RAF operations, including supporting Nato in Poland. She was also shown around a fully armed Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) Typhoon, which is ready to react to any threat facing UK airspace within minutes of an alert.
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Wearing a grey checked suit over a darker grey top and Stuart Weitzman heels, the princess was given a tour of the aircraft by its pilot, Wing Commander Luke Wilkinson, climbing the steep stairs with him up to the cockpit.
After inspecting the plane, Kate then had to navigate climbing backwards down the narrow steps in her tricky footwear, which she pulled off effortlessly.
And the move didn’t go unnoticed by royal fans who took to X to say they were “in awe” of her not even hinting at stumbling. One fan wrote: “Literally in awe of this video of the Princess of Wales today walking down those stairs in heels.”
While another added: “She owned those stairs like a runway.” And one even said: “I wear high heels all the time and no I wouldn’t have done that so seamlessly and graciously.”
Elsewhere on her visit yesterday, Kate headed to the Typhoon Future Synthetic Training Facility, where instructor Geraint White invited her to step inside the futuristic simulator. “Would you like a go?” he asked, to which she replied: “Yes, I’d love to.”
Inside, she told him she had not used a simulator to fly a plane before, but had tried one used to train helicopter pilots.
But the princess seemed to take to her simulated flight with ease and appeared to enjoy her virtual climb from RAF Coningsby enough to perform the aerobatic stunt.
Speaking afterwards, Group Captain Paul O’Grady said: “She seems to be a natural pilot so we might have to get her qualified and get her flying a Typhoon, if she’s up for it.”
The princess, who wore an RAF badge on her blazer, also chatted to two trainee pilots on secondment from RAF Valley, where Prince William was stationed between 2010 and 2013.
“How are you finding Valley?” she asked Jack Hanby and Dan McPhail. They told her they had met the prince when he returned to Anglesey last year.
Meanwhile, in “The Lounge” – a communal space for those living at the station – she met Wing Commander Nick Startup, members of RAF Coningsby’s Welfare Team, and personnel, including aviators from junior ranks, to hear about their roles and experiences on site.
She was presented with three toy Typhoons and key rings for her children, saying: “They will be very upset that I’ve seen a Typhoon without them!”