High Flight: Spitfire solo

A young RAF pilot enjoying a new-found fast freedom of the air in his first flight in a Supermarine Spitfire. Practising going into a half roll prior to diving, to ensure the fuel supply in his Mark Ia does not cut out.

The famous poem is by Pilot Officer John G. Magee Jr., RCAF, who was killed in December 1941.

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 wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even 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.”