Frank Sinatra - Strangers On My Flight
Little did most people know that Frank Sinatra was an avid pilot. He wrote many many songs in reference to aviation and his love for flying found on the album Come Fly With Me. The song, “Strangers In The Night” was originally called “Strangers On My Flight”. The song is one of my personal favorites and for some reason, unknown to anybody, the original version was never released to the public until a couple of days ago. I’m so thrilled I found it. Definitely worth a listen.
By zach on Dec 3, 2007 in General Aviation, Humor
Just when I thought I knew everything about The Voice!
I don’t think he was a pilot, but he certainly did fly a lot. He had one of the early Learjets. Sadly, his mother was on that aircraft enroute to Vegas to watch him since back in the 60’s when the jet crashed into the high mountains south of Palm Springs in bad weather. Ironically, Dean Martin’s son crashed into that same mountain a decade later in his F-4 Phantom.
He was legendary for keeping a case of Jack Daniels in the cargo hold of his private jet. He also owned a Bell helicopter and the pilot ferried Sinatra from Palm Springs to his office on the Warner Bros. lot every day. As I recall, Sinatra had the pilot ready to evacuate him in the event of war during the Cuban missile crisis.
Lots of great Sinatra flying stories. He and Dean Martin once spent an afternoon flying low over the desert in Nevada shooting at cactus plants from a helicopter.
There’s no doubt about it. Sinatra did it “his way”.
Ron | Dec 11, 2007 | Reply
Very funny comment - I knew he wasn’t a pilot per se but I thought it would be a funny thing to mention to dupe people into following the link. Have you read any of his biographies? Very cool stuff.
zach | Dec 11, 2007 | Reply