Lee Clayton - Old Number Nine lyrics

At nine hundred miles an hour Running far behind Please don't let me get careless And to heaven before my time. I wrote this song about my airplane They called her the old widow maker A 3 million dollar jet engine scream 8 miles high in 90 seconds flat 40 thousand pounds of gasoline She once held the world speed record Mach two made her kinda strange She'd swap ends twice in a second Then turn around and give you little change There must have been at least a hundred gauges Staring as the crew chief strapped you in It took thirty minutes just set the Knobs and dials To get to where You could go again I never felt the moan of those engines Stirring as she came to life Without thinking that the whine of a turbine Cut to my soul like a knife I never said goodbye without thinking About the odds of getting back again Many a good pilot has gone and bought The farm Many a good woman has lost a friend But they'd finally say “cleared for take off” And I knew for sure I was really gonna fly I'd go to afterburner and gears and flaps And I'd pull her back and head for the sky (Rpt Chorus)