Eagle was a small sightseeing plane. He flew crisscross through the sky. He did somersaults, spun in all directions, and performed the best stunts. He was yellow like the sun, and he sported a beautifully painted eagle on each of his wings. That’s why everyone called him Eagle.
The airplane could fly very well, but he didn’t want to go to any inspections. He was very proud. He kept on repeating: “I’ll never malfunction. I’m the best and I’m unbeatable. I will never need to be repaired.” And that’s how it truly stayed, for a long time. Eagle the Airplane didn’t need any repairs. Until the fateful day when everything changed.
It was a sunny afternoon. Winter was slowly ending, and pleasant spring breezes started to blow. A few clouds were chasing around the sky and among them flew Eagle the Airplane. He deftly wove his way through the clouds. He glided on the wind. Then he felt like truly stretching his wings and speeding up. But he accelerated so much that it became dangerous. He was barely visible now – he left only a white blur behind.
Once the airplane had his fill of speed, he decided to slow down. Just then, something clicked inside him. The plane couldn’t use his brake to slow down. Eagle the Airplane didn’t know what to do. He tried to stop, he wanted to descend to the ground, but something had gone wrong inside. His brakes weren’t working. The control levers had gotten stuck. They wouldn’t budge. Eagle the airplane was flying in circles through the sky at a high speed and didn’t know what to do.
Soon the birds noticed. They were astonished at how fast the airplane would fly past them, not slowing down or even maneuvering a little. The airplane nearly knocked into them as he flew by. And so the birds tried to ask the airplane what it was doing. The airplane just blurted out in a rush: “I’m broken! I can’t stop!” The birds immediately thought of everything that might happen and all the places the airplane could crash into. How long would poor Eagle have to circle in the sky, until his fuel ran out? They couldn’t let it happen. They waved to him and called out: “We’ll help you, don’t worry!”
They flew over to the nearest meadow. The one with the largest open space. They looked for spiders. When the birds found them, they explained everything and asked them to please weave a web between the biggest trees which stood over the meadow. It would serve as a net. They would tell Eagle to fly into the web between the trees. It would catch the airplane and bring him to a stop. When the spiders heard it, they immediately started to work. Their legs fluttered as they worked and a beautiful, strong spiderweb soon took shape among the trees. After a while, the spiders called out: “Finished! Send Eagle here!” The birds hurried up into the sky to direct the airplane towards the web. Eagle didn’t think this would work at first. He was afraid that the spider web would break and he would crash. But he didn’t have a choice.
Finally, he changed course and flew directly between the trees and into the freshly spun spiderweb. When he crashed into it, it didn’t tear or break. It just flexed, slowing him down, until Eagle came to a full stop. The birds and spiders started shouting with joy. They were happy that their plan had worked and nothing bad happened. And Eagle the Airplane? He’d never forgotten what the animals had done for him. From then on, he stopped being proud. He knew that he wasn’t invincible and infallible. He went to all of his inspections regularly so that he could fly around with the birds and never hurt anyone. Including himself.
