Quotes About Aviation

There's a saying in aviation that the airplane of the future will no longer have two humans in the cockpit. Instead, there will be a pilot and a dog. The pilot will be there to keep the dog company. The dog will be there to bite the pilot if he tries to touch the controls.

inside of three months had made his way from humble circumstances to the very front rank of American airmen.

He's got one passenger aboard–a girl." "A girl?" repeated Dave, staring somewhat mystified at the approaching vehicle. "Yes." "That's queerer still," remarked the young aviator.

Several of them set the Ariel a pace, but all but two of them soon fell behind. One of these, a full type Curtiss, held a fair follow-up at a distance.

To use a fighter as a fighter-bomber when the strength of the fighter arm is inadequate to achieve air superiority is putting the cart before the horse.

Man studied birds for centuries, trying to learn how to make a machine to fly like them. He never did do the trick; his final success came when he broke away entirely and tried new methods.

They say he "hit a square" while flying his small aircraft; a situation in which it is impossible to tell up from down or earth from sky and that he lost his way.

He rises a copy of a poster. On the left is a quote from The New York Times dated October 9, 1903. It says,'The flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians in from one million to ten million years'. On the right is a quote from Orville Wright's diary, dated October 9, 1903. 'We started assembly today' it says.

I don't agree with everything he did in his life, but we're dealing with this Howard Hughes, at this point. And also ultimately the flaw in Howard Hughes, the curse so to speak.

I've never felt scared of flight, ever. It's really weird. I don't know. They stick a gin and tonic in your hands and I just think, "Life is good!"

I decided that if I could fly for ten years before I was killed in a crash, it would be a worthwhile trade for an ordinary life time.

With the stick in my right hand, the throttle in my left, and the rudder beneath my feet, I can savor that essence from which life is made.

The best of life is the exercise of ingenuity-in design, in finance, in flying, in business.

The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sound of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition.

If I didn't fly, I wouldn't be killed or wounded or captured. I would be alive, but I would be in that netherworld of failures and cowards. I would be disgraced without family or friends or profession. It would be a lonely world, inhabited only by that loathsome individual looking back each morning from the mirror.

It's the only way to fly.

Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of carelessness, incapacity, or neglect.

The British Airways Airbus

they would have learned that this plane belonged to a photographic company based in Jamaica

The British were keen for 30 caliber guns, did not believe in daylight bombing. American experts said 30 caliber was not enough; we had to have 50 caliber, also said daylight bombing was right provided the planes attacked in formation, with 50 caliber guns.

If you go back to the early days of aviation, the guys designing it built it, and then they got in it and flew it. I mean, who does that anymore?

I don't know of any issues associated with alcohol before flight.

As a child, I had the opportunity to meet the captain onboard a British Airways flight. It was so exciting to see the cockpit and controls. I was in awe of the captain, and he stamped my log book, which I still have to this day.

There's something just magical about flight. Period.