quote:

Back in time, there was a definite difference between "sound" and "noise." Sound (AKA rhapsody) was a Pratt & Whitney tuning up after a 240-hour check. Just pure purr, and no clank or clink. On the flight deck the sound really was that good. Purr, roar.

It was the burp, cough, chug that gave you the pucker factor of twenty-six. For the pilot and the crew you gave a quick prayer, then held onto a wooden chock with two banks of Manilla number nine hemp, and fought your way up the flight deck alongside your aircraft. To me, the sound (not noise) was pure harmony. Overwhelming, inspiring, like "The 1812 Overture."

The audio was the ultimate end of many hours of hot, sweaty, sometimes painful labors of love-like changing the five o'clock plug on the rear bank of cylinders. All planes taxiing forward, "Foxtrot" flying, then the klaxon and "Launch aircraft!" Not Men against the Sea, but Us with the Wind, the Sea, and Nature.

It was beautiful.