How Planes Fly

Jet née Al Johnson, a commercial airline pilot who was also an early Greenpeace volunteer, once asked me if I knew how planes flew. I didn't know, but guessed it was something to do with air flow creating a vacuum over the wings, or something like that.

Jet, impatient after an interminable and pointless meeting, said I didn't understand. "The pilot's got four stripes on his sleeve, the copilot has three, the navigator has two and the girls don't have any. And that's how planes fly."

They don't make pilots like Jet any more. (Fortunately.)