Into the blue

I've been watching elephants fly.

I worked out that this plane weighs as much as 12 fully grown African elephants. I know the science: as an ex Dakota pilot, my father taught me about lift and wing shape. But I still wonder at how it works.

I once heard a very modest pilot reluctantly and furtively describe his job as being a traveller in aluminium tubing. Looking at this sight makes me think he was right. An aluminium arrow. A very heavy, aluminium arrow.