Live in fame or go down in flame

As boys during the Second World War, we sang with gusto the Army Air Corps Hymn, with words whose meaning was quite lost on us: "We'll live in fame / or go down in flame / Nothing can stop the Army Air Corps!" With 1930s engines and tanks full of 115-octane gasoline, every wartime aircraft was a fireball waiting to happen. Here's one of the grand old ladies, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, burning to cinders in a field in Illinois after a (good) emergency landing. Happily the crew and passengers all got out safely. That didn't always happen. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford