Watch Jay Leno Hang Out of a Moving Plane in Epic Mid-Air Stunt: 'Just Being Stupid,' He Jokes

Spike Feresten/instagram Jay Leno

Jay Leno is taking his act to new heights.

The former Tonight Show host, 71, fearlessly climbed out of a moving plane as part of a mid-air stunt in a video shared to screenwriter and podcaster Spike Feresten's Instagram on Wednesday.

In the footage, Leno popped out of the nose of a Grumman HU-16 Albatross airplane as it flew over the Pacific Ocean. While hanging out of the aircraft at 147 mph, the TV personality — wearing his signature denim shirt — gave the pilot in the cockpit a thumbs up through the windshield before jokingly pretending to claw at the hood of the plane.

As the passengers laughed, Leno safely lowered himself back into the plane.

Spike Feresten/instagram Jay Leno

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Leno spoke to Feresten, 56, about the feat on Wednesday's episode of Spike's Car Radio podcast, sharing that "it's a real airplane."

"The nose opens from the inside, so I climbed out ... in the air," the comedian said, explaining that he had been flying by Santa Catalina Island off the coast of California when he decided to surprise his friends with the stunt.

"They didn't know the front of the plane opens, so I went up to the front and then climbed up on the windshield," he said, adding that he wasn't tethered to the plane at all during the experience.

When he was asked why he would do such a thing, Leno joked, "Just being stupid."

"You're actually okay," he noted. "It's not that bad."

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While Leno is a known car enthusiast, his passion for vehicles extends out to those that fly in the sky.

In a profile with Air & Space magazine this June, the Jay Leno's Garage host shared that several of the vehicles in his massive car collection have been souped up with engines taken from aircrafts. Among them include a 1934 Rolls-Royce Merlin and a 1921 Benz-Mercedes, which he acquired in 2010 and spent a decade fixing up.

"There's no such thing as too much power or torque," Leno said.