50 Best Rock Songs About Airplanes

Rock Songs That Describe Airplanes

There’s a certain buzz that comes with flying, and not the glamorous kind. Airports smell like coffee and recycled air, the line at security moves at a crawl, and then you’re stuck staring out a scratched window at planes that look too thin to carry anyone. Somewhere in that mood, the right song cuts in. Not every track spells out aviation word for word, but they capture that restless energy of moving through the clouds, leaving behind one thing while heading toward something you have not figured out yet. Rock bands love that tension, the way flight feels equal parts escape and claustrophobia.

Nobody boards a plane feeling like a music video hero. It’s usually cramped seats, someone snoring two rows back, turbulence that makes your soda spill. Still, music can twist those annoyances into something cinematic for a moment. Some songs flat out name the runway and the sky. Others only hint at it, but still live in the same headspace. They’re tied together by the way a riff can mimic the surge of takeoff or the crash of distortion that mirrors landing gear slamming down. Pop, rock, country, and R&B songs have all circled around this space, but rock carries a grit that makes the turbulence feel earned.

Flights rarely feel smooth, and these tracks lean into that. The guitars scrape, the vocals climb like engines straining, and even when the lyrics drift into metaphor, they keep that airborne tension alive. You can play them in your headphones mid-flight or post them over shaky clips of runways lighting up at night. Some cuts are obvious choices, others sneak in sideways but still belong. Here are the best rock songs for airplanes.

1. 'Jet Airliner' by Steve Miller Band

2. 'Learning to Fly' by Pink Floyd

3. 'Back in the U.S.S.R.' by The Beatles

4. 'Eight Miles High' by The Byrds

5. 'Danger Zone' by Kenny Loggins

6. 'Learning to Fly' by Tom Petty

7. 'Fly Away' by Lenny Kravitz

8. 'Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time)' by Elton John

9. 'Aeroplane' by Red Hot Chili Peppers

10. 'Given to Fly' by Pearl Jam

11. 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' by John Denver

12. 'Free Bird' by Lynyrd Skynyrd

13. 'Take Me to the Pilot' by Elton John

14. 'Time for Me to Fly' by REO Speedwagon

15. 'The Zephyr Song' by Red Hot Chili Peppers

16. 'Flying High Again' by Ozzy Osbourne

17. 'Jet Boy' by New York Dolls

18. '747 (Strangers in the Night)' by Saxon

19. 'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron' by The Royal Guardsmen

20. 'Paper Plane' by Status Quo

21. 'Flying' by The Beatles

22. 'Flying on the Ground Is Wrong' by Neil Young

23. 'Jet' by Wings

24. 'Johnson's Aeroplane' by Paul Kelly

25. 'Night Flight' by Led Zeppelin

26. 'Flight of Icarus' by Iron Maiden

27. 'Flight 505' by The Rolling Stones

28. 'Come Josephine in My Flying Machine' by The Lovin' Spoonful

29. 'High Flying Bird' by Jefferson Airplane

30. 'Who's Driving Your Plane?' by The Rolling Stones

31. 'The Last Plane Out of Saigon' by The Blues Band

32. 'Jet Lag' by Simple Plan

33. 'Autopilot' by Queens of the Stone Age

34. 'The Passenger' by Iggy Pop

35. 'Aeroplane Flies High' by The Smashing Pumpkins

36. 'The Final Frontier' by Iron Maiden

37. 'Jet Pack Blues' by Fall Out Boy

38. 'Flying Sorcery' by Al Stewart

39. 'Orly' by The Alan Parsons Project

40. 'I'm Mandy Fly Me' by 10cc

41. 'Stukas Over Disneyland' by The Dickies

42. 'Going to California' by Led Zeppelin

43. 'Takeoff' by Joe Satriani

44. 'Coming in for a Landing' by The Pointer Sisters

45. 'Airplanes' by Plain White T's

46. 'Flying Without Wings' by Westlife

47. 'Up, Up, and Away' by The Fifth Dimension

48. 'Come Fly With Me' by Frank Sinatra

49. 'Empire of the Clouds' by Iron Maiden

50. 'I'll Fly Away' by The Staple Singers