This aeronautically themed song is what Stewart described as "an extended metaphor." In an interview CD for the album, he explained: "It seems to be about airplanes, losing each other in a fog bank. In fact, it's about lovers who for whatever reason, part. I love the end of it: 'Call me if you ever need repairs.' That seems to say everything about relationships."
In the lyric, Stewart mentions Amy Johnson, the famed British-born aviatrix who became the first woman to fly solo to Australia. Johnson herself followed in the footsteps of Harriet Quimby, the American journalist who was both the first woman to be granted a pilot's license in the United States and the first to fly the English Channel. Both women died premature deaths. The song also contains references to the Wright brothers' experiments at Kitty Hawk, and the Flying Circus. It was not the first song to reference Amy Johnson; that honor goes to the English popular composer and Johnson contemporary Horatio Nicholls, and his song "Amy."
The original title of this song was "A Perfect Immelmann Turn," a maneuver which is named after its inventor, the World War I German fighter ace Max Immelmann. Stewart came across that phrase in a book he was reading and was intrigued by it.
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