High Flight

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A high flight in 1980

High above Toledo Metcalf Airport

Still climbing at 10,500 ft msl

Lake Erie visible on the horizon (Eric Barnum's shoulder on the left)

High above the clouds - the Maumee river visible below

"High Flight"

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 windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

- John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

In December 1941, Pilot Officer John G. Magee, a 19-year-old American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England, was killed when his Spitfire collided with another aircraft inside a cloud. Several months before his death, he composed his immortal sonnet "High Flight," a copy of which he mailed to his parents in the U.S.A.

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A high flight in 1980

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