Two Stories about Flying — RBSE Class 10 English (First Flight)
Two flights, two kinds of courage. In the first, a young seagull is too frightened to leave his ledge until hunger forces him into the air. In the second, an experienced pilot flies blind into a storm and is saved by a mysterious stranger. Together they ask: what makes us take the leap — and who helps us when we do?
Part I — His First Flight (Liam O'Flaherty)
Summary
A young seagull is afraid to make his first flight. His brothers and sister have already flown, but he is terrified that his wings will not support him, so he stays alone on his ledge, hungry. His family — father and mother — try to coax him; his mother even flies past him with a piece of fish in her beak.
Maddened by hunger, the young seagull dives at the fish — and in doing so, falls off the ledge into space. To save himself, he spreads his wings, and the air rushes against them: he is flying at last. His fear vanishes; he soars, swoops and is soon joined by his family, who praise him. He lands on the green sea, and the family encourages him as he completes his first flight.
Theme & lesson
The story is about overcoming fear and the push we sometimes need to discover our own ability. It teaches self-confidence and the truth that we often hold powers we don't believe we have until necessity forces us to use them. Hunger (necessity) is the catalyst; courage is the result.
Characters
- The young seagull — timid, hesitant, self-doubting — until he flies.
- His parents — encouraging but firm; they use tough love (withholding food) to make him fly.
Part II — The Black Aeroplane (Frederick Forsyth)
Summary
A pilot is flying his small Dakota aeroplane over France at night, heading home to England, dreaming of a holiday and breakfast. Suddenly, storm clouds appear. He could turn back to safety, but he flies into them. Inside the storm everything goes dark; his compass and other instruments stop working, the radio is dead, and he is hopelessly lost with little fuel left.
Then he sees another aeroplane — a black aeroplane with no lights — flying beside him. The pilot of the black plane signals him to follow. Trusting this mysterious guide, he follows it through the storm and is led safely to a runway, where he lands with almost empty tanks.
When he goes to the control tower to thank the other pilot and ask who he was, the woman there is astonished: their radar had shown no other plane in the sky that night — only his. The identity of the black aeroplane's pilot remains a mystery.
Theme & lesson
A tale of mystery, trust and gratitude. It explores the idea of an unexplained helper in a moment of danger and our instinct to trust in a crisis. It leaves the reader with a puzzle: Who helped the pilot? — a guardian, his own imagination, or something unexplained?
Character
- The narrator-pilot — adventurous (he flies into the storm rather than turn back), then frightened and helpless, finally grateful and bewildered.
Why the two stories sit together
Both stories are about flying and about facing the unknown. In the first, the young seagull conquers an inner obstacle — fear; in the second, the pilot faces an outer obstacle — a deadly storm — and is rescued by an inexplicable helper. One is resolved by self-belief, the other left as a mystery, but both show people pushed beyond their comfort and surviving.
For the RBSE board, keep the two stories distinct (authors, plots and themes), remember the seagull's catalyst (hunger) and the pilot's unresolved mystery (no other plane on radar), and be ready to compare the two kinds of courage. Mixing up the authors or merging the plots is the most common error.
