Hurrah for the Bounding Air

DESCRIPTION: "An aviator bold am I, Yo ho, my lads, yo ho!" "I love the roaring of the gale and hate the gentle breeze." "Yo ho, yo ho, So let the tempest blow! ... Hurrah for the bounding air." The singer likes his crummy old plane that keeps him out of trouble
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook)
KEYWORDS: pilot storm technology cowardice
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ward-Jackson/Lucas-AirmansSongBook, pp. 29-30, "Hurrah for the Bounding Air" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hurrah for the Rolling Sea" (tune)
NOTES [205 words]: One stanza of this says, "On old B'E.s I hurl through space, And hostile aeroplanes I chase, But I know I haven't got their pace." I suspect this is a reference to the airplane known as the BE-2C (or one of its successors). These planes were indeed too slow to catch most German aircraft -- see the note to "The Pilot's Psalm," which is also about this aircraft.
The song is certainly correct in saying that the BE-2C couldn't keep up with the German Gotha bomber, which had a top speed of 87 miles per hour (about 20% faster than the British plane) and a ceiling of 6500 meters, more than twice what the BE-2C could do (according to Kenneth Munson, Bombers: Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft 1914-1919, 1968; revised edition 1976 (I use the 2004 Bounty Books reprint), pp. 26-27). But, ironically, it was a BE-2 that, in September 1917, was the first British aircraft to bring down a zeppelin (for this, see the notes to "They Were So Happy, Oh! So Happy"). This might imply that this song dates from before that famous incident. Since the first Gotha models came out in 1915, that implies a date 1915-1917. On the other hand, the earliest reference I can find to the source song "Hurrah for the Rolling Sea" is 1917.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: WJL029

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