Today marks 80 years since Antoine de Saint-Exupéry disappeared while flying reconnaissance for the Allies.
He's remembered as the author of children's classic The Little Prince, but all his other books, including Night Flight (1931), were about his life as a pilot.
After the Nazi invasion of France, he heard about a company of men using Lockheed P-38s to photograph enemy installations, and he tried to enlist. The age limit for the company was 35, and pilots had to be in top physical condition. Saint-Exupéry was 43 and in constant pain from an old injury, but he pestered, and they finally admitted him.
On the morning of his final mission, he took off at quarter to nine, and was supposed to return with an hour's worth of fuel left at 1:30. He didn't return, and by 2:30, the men on the ground knew he was gone. His plane was never found.
https://www.antoinedesaintexupery.com/les-avions/
If you click through the historical timeline on the website you get an interesting mashup of aviation and literary history