Aviation Quotes - Page 35

• Airplanes are like women - pick what you like and try to get it away from the guy who has it, then dress it out to the limit of your wallet and taste.

  Stephen Coonts

  Airplane, Guy, Trying

  Stephen Coonts (2010). “The Cannibal Queen: A Flight Into the Heart of America”, p.13, Open Road Media

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• The helicopter appeared so reluctant to fly forward that we even considered turning the pilot's seat around and letting it fly backward.

  Igor Sikorsky

  Pilots, Flight, Helicopters

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• I flew in combat in Vietnam. I got shot at, I shot back, I got shot down. Compared to this flight, I felt a lot safer in combat.

  Dick Rutan

  Vietnam, Flight, Flew

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• But you the pathways of the sky Found first, and tasted heavenly springs, Unfettered as the lark that sings, And knew strange raptures, - though we sigh, "Poor Iccarus!"

  Florence Earle Coates

  Spring, Sky, Larks

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• The fortress inspired a tremendous confidence. It was the only propeller driven aircraft I have flown that was completely viceless; there were no undesirable flight characteristics. The directional stability was excellent and, properly trimmed, the B-17 could be taken off, landed and banked without change of trim.

  James Weldon Johnson

  Taken, Flight, Inspired

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• I put the sweat of my life into this project, and if it's a failure, I'll leave the country and never come back.

  Howard Hughes

  Country, Sweat, Flight

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• To propel a dirigible balloon through the air is like pushing a candle through a brick wall.

  Alberto Santos-Dumont

  Wall, Air, Pushing

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• Can build plane... Delivery about three months.

  Donald Hall

  Three, Months, Flight

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• The important thing in aeroplanes is that they shall be speedy.

  Manfred von Richthofen

  Important, Flight, Aeroplanes

  Manfred Von Richthofen, Norman Franks, N. H. Hauprich (1991). “The Red Air Fighter”, Presidio Pr

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• "The birds can fly, an' why can't I? Must we give in," says he, with a grin, "'T the blackbird an' phoebe are smarter 'n we be? Jest fold our hands, an' see the swaller An' blackbird an' catbird beat us holler? ... Jest show me that! er prove 't that bat Hez got more brains thans's in my hat, An' I'll back down, an' not till then!"

  John Townsend Trowbridge

  Hands, Giving, Bird

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• Setting off unknown to face the unknown, against parental opposition, with no money, friends, or influence, ran it a close second. Clichés like "blazing trails," flying over "shark-infected seas," "battling with monsoons," and "forced landings amongst savage tribes" became familiar diet for breakfast. Unknown names became household words, whilst others, those of the failures, were forgotten utterly except by kith and kin.

  Amy Johnson

  Sharks, Sea, Names

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• That's what we're trained to do.

  Chesley Sullenberger

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• Hours and hours passed, with nothing to do but keep the compass on its course and the plane on a level keel. This sounds easy enough, but its very simplicity becomes a danger when your head keeps nodding with weariness and utter boredom and your eyes everlastingly try to shut out the confusing rows of figures in front of you, which will insist on getting jumbled together.

  Amy Johnson

  Eye, Boredom, Simplicity

  Amy Johnson (1939). “Sky Roads of the World”

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• Never fly straight and level for more than 30 seconds in the combat area.

  Adolph Malan

  Levels, Combat, Areas

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• When diving to attack always leave a proportion of your formation above to act as top guard.

  Adolph Malan

  Diving, Proportion, Combat

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• Buttons ... check. Dials ... check. Switches ... check. Little colored lights ... check.

  Bill Watterson

  Funny, Light, Buttons

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• Leader, bandits at 2 o'clock! Roger; it's only 1:30 now-what'll I do 'til then?

  Bill Watterson

  Funny, Leader, Roger

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• Muhammad Ali: Superman Don't need no seat belt. Flight Attendant: Superman Don't need no airplane, either.

  Clifton Fadiman

  Funny, Airplane, Needs

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• This is an especially good time for you vacationers who plan to fly, because the Reagan administration, as part of the same policy under which it recently sold Yellowstone National Park to Wayne Newton, has "deregulated" the airline industry. What this means for you, the consumer, is that the airlines are no longer required to follow any rules whatsoever. They can show snuff movies. They can charge for oxygen. They can hire pilots right out of Vending Machine Refill Person School.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, School, Mean

  "Dave Barry's Greatest Hits". Book by Dave Barry, 1988.

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• As you know, birds do not have sexual organs because they would interfere with flight.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Bird, Flight

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• It is not necessarily impossible for human beings to fly, but it so happens that God did not give them the knowledge of how to do it. It follows, therefore, that anyone who claims that he can fly must have sought the aid of the devil. To attempt to fly is therefore sinful.

  Roger Bacon

  Giving, Devil, Impossible

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• This book is dedicated to all those who fell by the airside, for nothing is wasted, and every apparent failure is but a challenge to others.

  Amy Johnson

  Book, Challenges, Flight

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• I have been luckier than the law of averages should allow. I could never be so lucky again.

  Jimmy Doolittle

  Average, Law, Lucky

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• My mansion is, where those immortal shapes Of bright aerial spirits live insphered In regions mild of calm and serene air, Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot Which men call Earth.

  John Milton

  Men, Air, Earth

  1634 Comus, A Mask, opening lines.

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• What of the Wright boys in Dayton? Just around the corner they had a shop and did a bicycle business-and they wanted to fly for the sake of flying. They were Man the Seeker, Man on a Quest. Money was their last thought, their final absent-minded idea. They threw out a lot of old mistaken measurements and figured new ones that stood up when they took off and held the air and steered a course. They proved that "the faster you go the less power you need."

  Carl Sandburg

  Boys, Men, Ideas

  Carl Sandburg (2003). “The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg”, p.582, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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