Synopsis

Set against performances by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in a sprawling airplane graveyard, the video follows a young man's passage through a series of formative experiences. Memories of family life, work, romance, intoxication, and youthful adventure unfold alongside stranger images, including a UFO sighting that precedes a car crash. Shot in stark black and white, the video combines the band's performance with a fragmented coming-of-age story, giving the song's idea of rising and falling a visual, dreamlike setting.

Factoids & Trivia

• The airplane graveyard footage was filmed at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base aircraft storage facility in Tucson, Arizona.

• Additional scenes were filmed at TD's East Showclub in Tucson.

• The video was released in 1991 to promote the album Into the Great Wide Open, which was also the source of the single.

• Its black-and-white presentation gives the video a documentary-like, weathered appearance that contrasts with the song's bright, melodic sound.

• The song was written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. Petty said its starting point came from hearing the idea that learning to fly is easy, while coming down is the difficult part.

• "Learning to Fly" became one of Petty's most recognizable songs, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100.