There’s a new reality show about dogs flying airplanes

Today’s Crazy But True is a real doozy: Rescue dogs are being trained to fly airplanes in the U.K., because WHY NOT teach a dog to fly an airplane? What could possibly go wrong?

This isn’t a joke whatsoever. Sky 1’s brand new reality show, Dogs Might Fly says it all in the title. 12 rescue dogs were chosen — based on different factors, like all reality contestants are chosen — and according to The Telegraph were “whisked away to a Sussex mansion for ten weeks of training and problem-solving tests ahead of the flying challenge.”

At this mansion, a dog behaviorist and police dog trainer were on hand to help prepare these pups to sit behind the controls of an aircraft, where they were taught things like memory tricks and and problem solving. How exactly do you teach a dog problem solving for issues 35,000 feet in the air beats me. The dogs will also be sent to the top of a really tall building to test how they deal with heights, and then taken out on the Thames River in a speedboat, to determine how well they do with fast acceleration.

The six-part series show will narrow down the dogs to once Top Dog, who will then be strapped in so he (or she!) can take off. And yes, if you think this sounds crazy, many others agree, too.

“Given that we would not expect a human three-year-old to be able to fly a plane, I would not expect that a dog could do so either,”Stanley Coren, professor of canine psychology, explained to The Independent.

Don’t worry, these dogs aren’t being given the keys to any sort of Boeing 747. Instead, the best dog pilot will take a single-engine plane out for a spin, and obviously he’ll have a copilot —  a human. After the series is over, all of these rescue dogs will be placed in forever homes, too, so at least a happy ending is coming out of this crazy idea.