American pilot John Gillespie Magee, serving with the Royal Air Force at the beginning of World War II, penned some words that described his experiences in the air. His poem, “High Flight,” began: “Oh ...

“Oh, I have slipped the surely bands of Earth — And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings — Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth — of sunlit clouds, — and done a hundred things ...