Flying for Us Trivia Quiz

Answer:

John Denver (1943 - 1997) was a famous American singer songwriter throughout the 1970s until his death, recording approximately 300 songs of which he wrote roughly 200. Coming in a close second to his music was his love of flying - he even bought a Learjet in 1974 to fly himself to his concerts. This song tied his two loves together.

In the early 1980s Denver worked with NASA to campaign for the "Citizens in Space" program and even earned the NASA Public Service Medal for this work.

Once the program was approved he applied to actually be the first civilian in space. He passed the rigorous mental and physical exams and made it as far as the shortlist but the decision was made to have an educator go on the mission and teach some classes from space so the place went to 37 year old New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe.

This mission became known as the Challenger Disaster when the rocket exploded 1 minute and 13 seconds after blast off on 28 January 1986 killing all 7 people aboard. The tragedy was caught on camera and Denver was sitting watching the news coverage of the disaster with his guitar that evening. He says he started "playing kind of a meditation as I watched what was going on." What emerged from it was this beautiful tribute to those on board - particularly McAuliffe who was both literally and figuratively flying for him.

This did not put Denver off the idea though; he entered into serious discussions with the Soviet Space Program about buying a flight on one of their rockets. Rumors abound that this was set at roughly $20 million and the flight never took place.

Denver was a keen collector of planes; besides the Learjet he had an aerobatic plane, 2 Cessnas and numerous vintage biplanes. In 1997 he purchased a kit-made Long-EZ aircraft. While flying it on the afternoon of 12 October he crashed it into Monterey Bay, California and died from the blunt force trauma injuries he sustained.

Much controversy surrounded the crash as Denver was not legally allowed to fly at the time; he had had his medical certification revoked the year before after several alcohol related incidents, but the autopsy proved that there was no sign of any alcohol or medications in his system.