Top 398 Quotes & Sayings by Famous Aviators - Page 7

Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle.

The only sure way to maturity is through pain.

Money is like manure. It stinks when you pile it; it grows when you spread it

Living in dreams of yesterday, we find ourselves still dreaming of impossible future conquests.

I headed for this white mountain, but was caught in the wind and the mist . . . I followed the cliff from north to south, but the wind, against which I was fighting, got even stronger. A break in the coast appeared to my right, just before Dover Castle. I was madly happy. I headed for it. I rushed for it. I was above ground!

The Bf 109 is, without doubt, the most satisfying and challenging aircraft that I have ever flown.

Nobody who gets too damned relaxed builds up much flying time.

The function and Navy in any future war will be to support the dominant air arm.

If we should have to fight, we should be prepared to so so from the neck up instead of from the neck down.

The air is the only place free from prejudices.

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.

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

It is the easiest thing in the world to die. The hardest is to live.

Every flyer who ventures across oceans to distant lands is a potential explorer; in his or her breast burns the same fire that urged the adventurers of old to set forth in their sailing-ships for foreign lands. Riding through the air on silver wings instead of sailing the seas with white wings, he must steer his own course, for the air is uncharted, and he must therefore explore for himself the strange eddies and currents of the ever-changing sky in its many moods.

Live Life a little dangerously

I have come to understand that life is too complex and much too short to let amateurs direct the story. I would rather let the Master Storyteller do the writing.

The essence of air transport is speed, and speed is unfortunately one of the most expensive commodities in the world, principally because of the disproportionate amount of the power required to achieve high speed and to lift loads thousands of feet into the air. This is strikingly illustrated by the fact that while an average cargo ship, freight train and transport aeroplane are each equipped with engines totalling about 2,500 H.P., the ship can carry a load of about 7,000 tons, the train 800 tons and the plane only two and a half tons.

I have seen the science I worshiped, and the aircraft I loved, destroying the civilization I expected them to serve.

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.

I think, just the exhilaration of flying. The freedom of the air. The freedom of flight. And you completely remove yourself from the world. And you can voluntarily remove yourself from all those...everything that's near and dear to you. And you voluntarily return.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done.

The quiet that envelops space makes the beauty even more powerful, and I only hope that the quiet can one day spread to my country.

Of course, with the increasing number of aeroplanes one gains increased opportunities for shooting down one's enemies, but at the same time, the possibility of being shot down one's self increases.

I was never comfortable with the risk of climbing in the Himalayas, or the amount of time in idleness that is involved in the Everest expedition.

From a very early age, I wanted to fly aeroplanes.

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

Listen, sister. I don't dance and I can't take time out now to learn.

Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important. ... It is true that attempts at gliding had been made hundreds of years before him, and that in the nineteenth century, Cayley, Spencer, Wenham, Mouillard, and many others were reported to have made feeble attempts to glide, but their failures were so complete that nothing of value resulted.

. . . It is as though horror has frozen the blood in my veins, paralyzed my arms, and torn all thought from my brain with the swipe of a paw. I sit there, flying on, and continue to stare, as though mesmerised, at the Cauldron on my left.

Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air.

In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.

That's part of being an entrepreneur - you watch your pennies.

I would rather have a million friends than a million dollars.

When I look up and see the sun shining on the patch of white clouds up in the blue, I begin to think how it would feel to be up somewhere above it winging swiftly thought the clear air, watching the earth below, and the men on it, no bigger than ants.

Pilots learn to use human skills to communicate information and make decisions collectively, which creates a shared sense of responsibility among the team for better outcomes.

Small sacrifices must be made.

Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.