To Read the Speed

To read the speed it is the case
wee Pitot* tubes do have their place
on modern jets that fly on high
traversing Earth’s capacious sky;
jets travel to and fro with pace.

These little tubes are fair of face
yet operate in coldest space.
They feel the air come rushing by
to read the speed.

Yet if these tubes should fall from grace,
then pilots are without a trace
of data that the tubes supply
(and often pilots know not why,)
so then it’s like a tail in chase
to read the speed.


15 Lines (Rondeau)
Writer’s Cramp
1-31-15
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* Pitot \ˈpē-ˌtō-\  Modern jets have three Pitot tubes in the front that extend into the wind.
                        The pressure of the air is converted by a computer to indicate the jet’s air speed.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pitot+tube&rlz=1C1CHMO_enUS579US579&espv=2&biw=1...

Although very infrequent now, not long ago some Pitots were malfunctioning, causing readout
loss of the airspeed.  This happened on Air France 447 in June, 2009 when all three Pitots
froze, causing the jet to crash in the Atlantic. This Pitot failure caused loss of the auto-pilot,
and that led to a number of failures and confusion which led to the tragedy.
___________

(The Rondeau is composed of fifteen lines, eight to ten syllables each, divided stanzaically
into a quintet, a quatrain, and a sestet.  The refrain consists of the first few words or the entire
first line of the first stanza, and it recurs as the last line in both the second and third stanzas.
Two rhymes guide the music of the Rondeau, whose rhyme scheme is aabba aabR aabbaR)