Quotes About Aviation

children not allocated their own seat do not appear in listed victim numbers in airline crash statistics.

Because aircraft spares are incredibly expensive, and in the case of older aircraft hard to source, the black-market in aviation spares is highly profitable. One head of a counterfeit parts ring said she had moved on from distributing drugs to aircraft parts, simply because it was much more lucrative.

the last decade can be regarded as "the lost decade" because no improvements in flight safety matters have been made in that period.

each and all of our lives are put at increasing risk daily when we fly and for one reason only. The aggressive pursuit of profit—and the erosion of safety standards caused by that same relentless pursuit.

there are pilots flying in the US whose salaries are so low they qualify for food stamps; they live in crash pads, time-sharing bunks with other crews because they cannot afford a place of their own.

I learned that the first stewardesses had been registered nurses hired to make passengers feel safe at a time when flying was new, airsickness was frequent, and passengers were fearful.

Squeej? What kind of name was that for a pilot?

We all know now that the 747 became the flagship jumbo jet of the airline industry, but the decision looks much different from the perspective of the late 1960s. Yet—and this is the key point—Boeing was willing to make the bold move in the face of the risks. As in Boeing's case, the risks do not always come without pain.

Inbound now at twenty thousand feet, moving swifly toward the island, came a wave of twin-engine Betty bombers and thirty Zeros, fuel burning fast on half-empty tanks.

Travelers are always discoverers, especially those who travel by air. There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.

There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.

My mother was killed in a plane crash, so I hate travelling in planes. Death is so unexpected. I would actually rather stay at home and not go anywhere.

The first plane ride was in a homemade glider my buddy and I built. Unfortunately we didn't get more than four feet off the ground, because it crashed.

There were sometimes from forty to sixty English machines, but unfortunately the Germans were often in the minority. With them quality was more important than quantity.

If a woman wants to fly, first of all she must, of course, abandon skirts and don a knickerbocker uniform.

Each test pilot I know considers him, or herself, now that there are women, to be the very best. It's very demeaning to step down the ladder once in a while

Had I been a man I might have explored the Poles or climbed Mount Everest, but as it was my spirit found outlet in the air. . . .

There is no reason why the aeroplane should not open up a fruitful occupation for women.

The air is the only place free from prejudices.

I can cure your men of walking off the [flight] program. Let's put on the girls.

Other women who flew were women of independent means. But I had to do something with it.

Flying does not rely so much on strength, as on physical and mental co-ordination.

Fighting in the air is not a sport. It is scientific murder.

My grandfather was a Tuskegee Airman. He flew with the 100th Fighter Squadron.