Plan the Day

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

E. B. White

When you fly one of the fastest planes ever built, the SR-71 reconnaissance military plane, thinking about how to spend one’s day is probably pretty focused. Especially when your primary defense against missiles is to just fly faster than them . Thankfully, the pilots are happy to share their experience. One of the most popular and often shared stories about this now-retired aircraft is known as the “speed check story .” It’s short, about ten paragraphs. And it’s an amusing snapshot of what was on the mind of the two-man crew during a brief moment over the western United States. (Yes, the line between fact and lore in this story about a pilot and his backseat copilot is blurry).

About the author

Elwyn Brooks White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985) was an American writer. He was the author of several highly popular books for children, including Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte’s Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). In a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, Charlotte’s Web came in first in their poll of the top one hundred children’s novels. In addition, he was a writer and contributing editor to The New Yorker magazine, and also a co-author of the English-language style guide The Elements of Style.