Death Makes a Landing

as the first world war men climbed into the cockpits of their planes with a strange sense of exhilaration as though they expected some sort of mystical experience beyond the clouds and indeed there is in the official records of the British Air Force a story of two men who may well have had such an experience

though what it was no one will ever know the two men were Australians one a pilot the other an observer on a morning in the autumn of 1917 they set out in an On RE-8 on a reconnaissance flight together with a second plane, three hours passed, and then the officer heard the roar of an approaching motor.

He stepped out on the field and shading his eyes from the sun glanced upward. There was only one plane overhead. He scanned the sky anxiously but to no avail, the RE-8 was missing. The other plane circled the field, landed, and taxied up to the atro.

On the pilot's leap from the cockpit, he found the officer waiting for him. Trouble? Oh, not so bad, sir. A couple of findings intercepted us on the way back. But the other men were away.

Hang to find her, sir. When the dogfight was over, we got back on the course. We took it for granted they were right behind us. And so there were, at least for a minute or two.

And then, when they...