The Aviator (short story)

It was published by Adrienne Monnier in the eleventh issue of the short-lived French literary magazine Le Navire d'Argent (The Silver Ship),[4] after Saint-Exupéry rewrote L'Évasion de Jacques Bernis from memory, having lost his original manuscript.

The Aviator appears as the first chapter in the Saint-Exupéry anthology, Un Sens à la Vie (A Sense of Life).

The story recounts various episodes in the life of the fictional French flyer, Jacques Bernis, from his early experiences as an aviator to his work as a flying instructor, to his last flight when the wing of his monoplane shatters during an aerobatic maneuver.

In his short work the author uses picturesque metaphors, for example comparing the propeller wash flowing backwards like a river in his description of the movements of the grass behind an airplane: "Battue par le vent de l'hélice, l'herbe jusqu'à vingt mètres en arrière semble couler".

In a short foreword to the story, Jean Prévost wrote: "I met [Saint-Exupéry] at the home of friends and greatly admired his vigor and finesse in describing his impressions as a pilot....