A CFIT Cocktail — The Burnt Fuselage

CFIT is an aviation acronym that stands for “controlled flight into terrain.”  It’s a benign sounding term for a catastrophic event — a type of crash.  The Burnt Fuselage is a creation from Chuck Kerwood, a fighter pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron mostly composed of American volunteers who flew for France in World War I. Kerwood survived the war, and the Burnt Fuselage lives on thanks to advocates such as cocktail historian and author David Wondrich.

The Burnt Fuselage

1 ounce cognac or brandy
1 ounce dark triple sec, preferably French
1 ounce dry vermouth, preferably French

Combine in a shaker with ice, stir with joyous relief of not being part of a burnt fuselage, and strain into a chilled glass.  Lemon peel garnish optional.

Despite its ominous name, the Burnt Fuselage is a lively drink. It shares no cocktail DNA with other aviation themed cocktails such as the Paper Plane and the Pan Am Clipper. Given the Burnt Fuselage’s history, it’s appropriate to use all French spirits. In discussing torched Dutch grapes we learned all cognac is brandy, but all brandy isn’t cognac. Definitely use a darker triple sec (blending orange liqueur with cognac) such as Grand Marnier.  Even though I’m a big fan of Cointreau, a clear triple sec I use in drinks such as the Margarita and my Orange Satchmo, my experiment using it in the Burnt Fuselage sort of went down in flames (pun intended).

If you see fit (get it? if not, say it out loud) to try a Burnt Fuselage, you’ll be a cocktail ace.