Lincoln Beachey

The silent reaper of souls and I shook hands that day. Thousands of times, we've engaged in a race among the clouds, plunging headlong into breathless flight, diving and circling with awful speed through ethereal space. And many times when the dazzling sunlight has blinded my eyes and sudden darkness has numbed all my senses I have imagined him close at my heels. On such occasions I have defied him, but, in so doing have experienced fright which I cannot explain. Today, the old fellow and I are pals.

Lincoln Beachey

I spent the weekend at home in the haze of a nasty cold. On Saturday evening I listened to the latest short from Radiolab, about the early 20th century daredevil pilot, Lincoln Beachey. As fascinated by the history of human flight as I've always been, I found it hard to believe that I hadn't heard of him before, but there you go. The story has stuck with me in many ways. It's most definitely worth a listen.