Top 398 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Aviators - Page 5

I was brought up in the north of Scotland, and where I lived was so lowly populated, it was used as a low-flying area by the Air Force, so lots of exciting aircraft used to fly over my village.

Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.

When I testified before Congress after the Hudson River landing, Congressman James Oberstar of Minnesota said, 'Safety begins in the boardroom.' That's as true in medicine as it is in aviation. It always boils down to leadership.

The Marine Corps is proud of the fact that it is a force of combined arms, and it jealously guards the integrity of its air-ground team.

Flying is hypnotic and all pilots are willing victims to the spell.

If anything terrifies me, I must try to conquer it.

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

Anyone can do the job when things are going right. In this business we play for keeps.

Flying is hypnotic and all pilots are victims to the spell. Their world is like a magic island in which the factors of life and death assume their proper values. Thinking becomes clear because there are no earthly foibles or embellishments to confuse it.

Most of our troubles are due to poor implementation….wrong priorities and unattainable targets

If you are in trouble anywhere in the world, an airplane can fly over and drop flowers, but a helicopter can land and save your life.

When you design it, think how you would feel if you had to fly it! Safety first!

One can become enthusiastic over anything. For a time I was delighted with bomb throwing. It gave me a tremendous pleasure to bomb those fellows from above.

I saw at once that I had only to rise in my machine, fix my eyes upon the castle, fly over it and speed directly across to the French coast. It seemed so easy that it looked like a cross-country flight. I am glad I thought so and felt so.

I honored the fallen enemy by placing a stone on his beautiful grave.

When I was released by the Americans I read historian Trevor Roper's book, 'The Last Days of Hitler'. Throughout the book like a red line, runs an eyewitness report by Hanna Reitsch about the final days in the bunker. I never said it. I never wrote it. I never signed it. It was something they invented. Hitler died with total dignity.

The aeroplane should open a fruitful occupation for women. I see no reason they cannot realize handsome incomes by carrying passengers between adjacent towns, from parcel delivery, taking photographs or conducting schools of flying.

It's almost an out of body experience to see things that First Officer Jeff Skiles and I said in the cockpit together, played by actors.

The men in this book are fictitious characters but their counterparts can be found in cockpits all over the world. Now they are flying a war. Tomorrow they will be flying a peace, for, regardless of the world's condition, flying is their life.

Good human relations not only bring great personal rewards but are essential to the success of any enterprise.

Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.

When you have a choice, choose happy!

I'd have given my right eye to be an astronaut.

Most people don't understand the Electoral College; they don't know why it exists.

Watching the Dallas Cowboys perform, it is not difficult to believe that coach Tom Landry flew fourengines bombers during World War II. He was in B17 Flying Fortresses out of England, they say. His cautious, conservative approach to every situation and the complexity of the plays he sends in do seem to reflect the philosophy of a pilot trained to doggedly press on according to plans laid down before takeoff. I sometimes wonder how the Cowboys would have fared all this years had Tom flown fighters in combat situations which dictated continuously changing tactics.

When I was 12, I saw the Apollo moon landings, and I thought that was really fantastic and exciting and thought, 'That's what I want to do.'

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings... And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high, untrespassed sanctity of space, - Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

The air is annoyingly potted with a multitude of minor vertical disturbances which sicken the passengers and keep us captives of our seat belts. We sweat in the cockpit, though much of the time we fly with the side windows open. The airplanes smell of hot oil and simmering aluminum, disinfectant, feces, leather, and puke ... the stewardesses, short-tempered and reeking of vomit, come forward as often as they can for what is a breath of comparatively fresh air.

In the heat of the Russian summer a sleeping car is the most horrible instrument of martyrdom imaginable.

But we must admit the possibility that continued investigation and experience will bring us ever nearer to that solemn moment, when the first man will rise from earth by means of wings, if only for a few seconds, and mark that historical moment which heralds the inauguration of a new era in our civilization.

I've been paying a lot of money in state income taxes, and I've been happy to do it, but when this last thing happened, this 50 percent increase in the tax rate, it was just too much.

The balloon seems to stand still in the air while the earth flies past underneath.

I have long dreaded the thought of getting to the end of life and regretting that I allowed my own timidity or other people's expectations to determine the course of my life. I had decided at a much younger age that several of my beliefs should determine the course of my life...I...believe that Waengongi, the Creator, has an epic script into which my minute presence has been written.

One of the things I teach my children is that I have always invested in myself, and I have never stopped learning, never stopped growing.

I do have a bit of a fear of heights. But I don't get scared of heights when I am flying a plane.

There is no shorter road to defeat than by entering a war with inadequate preparation.

There is no more alluring airspace in the world than the slit up a China girl's dress.

This is a Solo Flight, but I want aviation enthusiasts and adventurers everywhere to join me in the endeavour.

You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done.

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

As the years go by, he returns to this invisible world rather than to earth for peace and solace. There also he finds a profound enchantment, although he can seldom describe it. He can discuss it with others of his kind, and because they too know and feel its power they understand. But his attempts to communicate his feelings to his wife or other earthly confidants invariable end in failure.

Only air power can defeat air power. The actual elimination or even stalemating of an attacking air force can be achieved only by a superior air force.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

I have watched SS2 evolve over the years into an incredible vehicle that is going to open up space to more people than ever before.

I think it is a pity to lose the romantic side of flying and simply to accept it as a common means of transport, although that end is what we have all ostensibly been striving to attain.

Dad, I left my heart up there.

I never thought that my creation, would allow brothers to kill brothers. (after seeing his invention being used in war, The Airplane) Alberto Santos-Dumont

If I have any merit, it is getting along with individuals, according to their ways and characteristics. At times it involves suppressing yourself. It is painful, but necessary. To be a leader you have got to lead human beings with affection.

It is like a dream to feel the machine lift you gently up in the air, float smoothly over one spot.

Cleanliness is the Hallmark of perfect standards and the best quality inspector is the conscience

A lot of politicians say they want to get people out to vote; sometimes you can't totally believe they really want that.

Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart.

I've always hankered after going into space and walking on the moon and Mars. I did want to be an astronaut, and had there been a manned space flight programme in the U.K., I would have been knocking on the door.

In any aircraft you fly, you always think about what can go wrong, and you plan for it in advance. You always have back-up plans.

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

There is a decided prejudice on the part of the general public against being piloted by a woman, and as great an aversion, partially because of this, by executives of those companies whose activities require employing pilots.

It got more exciting with each war. I mean the planes were going faster than hell when I was flying a Mustang, but by the time I got to Nam, it scared the piss out of a lot of guys just to fly the damn jets at full speed. Let alone do it in combat.

Quality is first engineered; only then it is inspected

To lead men, you have to lead them with affection.

I decided blacks should not have to experience the difficulties I had faced, so I decided to open a flying school and teach other black women to fly.