Don't like the adverts?  Click here to remove them

High Flight (or The Pilots Prayer)

Chas

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
17,472
Garage
Country Flag
england
To anyone who has ever flown an aircraft, this explains exactly what it feels like.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr

4 months later he died in a mid-air collision

Magee wrote the famous poem High Flight starting on August 18th, 1941, when he made a flight to 33,000 feet in a Spitfire MKI This was his seventh flight in a Spitfire.
  • Magee included High Flight in a letter dated September 3rd, 1941, to his parents. This letter is in the Library of Congress.
  • Born June 9th, 1922, in Shanghai, China.
  • Mother was British, father was American, both missionaries.
  • Was educated in China, Japan, England, the United States, and Canada.
  • Was an American serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force, rose to the rank of Pilot Officer.
  • Died on December 11th, 1941 (NOT during the Battle of Britain).
  • Perished as a result of a mid-air collision during training (NOT in combat).
  • John Magee is buried in Scopwick, England.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top