Ilan Kroo

I feel I should introduce the author of the poem I damaged in my recent post...
Ilan Kroo is an interesting guy. He built a bamboo and plastic hang-glider in 1974, and managed to survive, has done a lot of research work for Boeing and is now a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford. He also has a software company and he teaches pterasaurs how to fly.

And he also writes rather good songs and poetry!

I hereby award him the prestigious Last Visible Dog Award for combining science and art, head and heart, being and doing, Yin and Yang, into his lovely poetry.

And, because, of all people, he should know what he's talking about, here is the proper version of:

Sonnet #747

Pacific waters kilometers below
And waves in clouds a thousand meters high
Stretching between edges of the globe
The oceans of the sea and of the sky.

And I float freely here above it all
Part aerodynamics, part champagne
Keeping me from danger, from the fall
Here it only pours, it doesn't rain.

And when the fuel is low and glasses dry
We sink into the thicker air below
Descending through the turbulent grey sky
The seats go up; the flaps go down; we slow.

We hit the ground, and bounce, spoilers extend,
As waking shocks the dream and brings its end.