Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Short summary

5 seconds

The author, as a pilot, recounts his life as a pilot. He recalls the adventures of his colleagues and speaks particularly warmly of Henri Guillaume, who took 5 days to reach people through the passes in the Andes.

1 minute

The author in 1926 worked for the airline Latecoeur. He was a novice, and the aces held him down. Only Henri Guillaume initiated him into the secrets of the flying profession.

This Henri was an ace. One day his plane went down somewhere in the Andes. Everyone thought he was dead, but five days later he got out by walking through the mountain passes in the freezing cold.

The author says that the profession of a pilot leaves the heart of an adult child. He sees the Earth from above in a way that businessmen and bureaucrats don’t. But it is also a very dangerous profession.

Once the author and a mechanic made a forced landing in the Sahara. They had no water, and the appearance of a Bedouin was perceived by them as an apparition of a saving god.

Those on desert watch at Fort Nouakchott perceive the appearance of the mail plane with great joy. The author recalls a sergeant who wept with delight and received the pilot as a dear guest.

It is only from the plane that one can see that Earth is a planet of people.