The Burning Piano
Piano Burning has been time honoured tradition carried on by pilots for as long as anyone could remember. It’s origins still remain a bit of a mystery, but legend has it that it all began in the British Royal Air Force sometime during the first world war.
As more pilots completed their flight training and flew to the front lines, it soon became clear that although well-trained and proficient in the art of piloting an aircraft, they were lacking in certain "je ne sais quoi" in socially acceptable qualities. In hopes of adding a bit of culture and civility to the growing group of fearless yet under-groomed aviators…pianos were ordered to be brought onto multiple air bases, and displeased pilots were forced to attend piano lessons as part of their training.
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 ever 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.
John Gillespie Magee, Jr
.
Just for info, the RAF was not formed until 1st April 1918.
at our flying club we skip the middle man and just burn trees.. I’m sure there was once a piano but the possibility of finding evidence of that is difficult given all the other stuff we’ve burned over the years like old camping trailers, couches, chairs, avgas. Our last bonfire was most definitely visible from the ISS.
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