Best 283 quotes in «aviation quotes» category

The only characteristic all airliners share is that upon proper urging they are normally capable of leaving the earth's surface.

So there we were, in the middle of the night, on our hands and knees with scrub brushes, steel wool, sponges, scouring powder and buckets of water making the old shop look spic and span. We secured from the task at 0400. I should have hit the rack but instead went topside and out to the canoe, the sacred spot where Lieutenant Goldberg and I had sat together contemplating the why's of life. I was saying farewell in my own way. I wanted to experience the Oriskany for the last time on the high seas. It was still dark – the dark that comes just before dawn. The waning moon, merely a fluorescent nail clipping, hung near the horizon. The night air was crisp; the sky a deep, cold black with pinpoints of stars shimmering through the earth’s canopy. Above me was the endless universe; below me, the deep mystical sea. Large undulating swells gently rocked the ship like a babe in its mother’s arms. Mother Ocean. Father Sky. I meditated upon this new life that I am now obliged to live. I thought about youth. I thought about old age. Apparently bad memories fade away with time and only the moments of goodness and joy remain. Those who are nearing the end of their lives revel in the bliss of yesterday but we the young have this day and tomorrow to contend with. Today, we see the world naked, exposed before our eyes. We see hatred, misery and pain. We find it difficult to live for today. Only the desires for tomorrow’s better world can alleviate the suffering that is today. Only tomorrow can offer us hope that glimmering moments will again materialize. So we continue to exist for a dream, a wish that tomorrow we can say: “This is a day worth living.” Excerpted from God, Bombs & Viet Nam: Based on the Diary of...

This is our foxhole, and in foxholes, sometimes faith is all you've got.

When I worked on the 13,796 feet very high altitude summit of Mauna Kea we were advised to only use the medical oxygen after the daily headaches appeared and that just 15 minutes use was all that was needed to clear up the headaches for a while before we would need it again. We were not advised to use medical oxygen continuously as the Federal Aviation Regulations advises pilots to do. We were not advised to use pulse oximeters to monitor our blood oxygen levels or that the company medical oxygen should have been routinely administered only with our doctors prescription.

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Ah hell. We had more fun in a week than those weenies had in a lifetime.

Where the world saw 'nothing'; And called it 'empty'.. I saw an Ocean of Air; Filled with opportunities...!

Workers must root out the idea that by keeping the results of their labors to themselves a fortune will be assured to them. Patent fees are so much wasted money. The flying machine of the future will not be born fully fledged and capable of a flight for 1,000 miles or so. Like everything else it must be evolved gradually. The first difficulty is to get a thing that will fly at all. When this is made, a full description should be published as an aid to others. Excellence of design and workmanship will always defy competition. (1894)

You are supposed to know how to fly or you would not be here. You will now learn to fly all over again. Our way. I have examined your logbooks. They contain some interesting and clever lies. If you are lucky and work a good solid eighteen hours a day in this school, it is barely possible that a few of you may succeed in actually going out on the line-that is, if the company is still in such desperate need of pilots that it will hire anybody who wears his wings in his lapel and walks slowly past the front door.

A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements.

Air Canada. That's a good name for a Canadian airline.

Aggressiveness was a fundamental to success in airtoair combat and if you ever caught a fighter pilot in a defensive mood you had him licked before you started shooting.

All agreed that the sensation of coasting on the air was delightful.

All attempts at artificial aviation are not only dangerous to human life, but foredoomed to failure from the engineering standpoint.

Air power is indivisible. If you split it up into compartments, you merely pull it to pieces and destroy its greatest asset - its flexibility.

[Airmail was] an impractical sort of fad, and had no place in the serious job of postal transportation.

All the calculations show it can't work. There's only one thing to do: make it work.

Always keep your eye on your opponent, and never let yourself be deceived by ruses.

Always keep an 'out' in your hip pocket.

A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned, for he will be going out on a day when he shouldn't.

America, the land of the free, is turning itself into the land of the free ride. [U.S. airlines] are operating in protected markets. They are hoovering up public funds and they still can't make a profit.

A modern, autonomous, and thoroughly trained Air Force in being at all times will not alone be sufficient, but without it there can be no national security.

An aircraft which is used by wealthy people on their expense accounts, whose fares are subsidized by much poorer taxpayers.

An airplane might disappoint any pilot but it'll never surprise a good one.

And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight.

Always turn and face the attack.

Always carry through an attack when you have started it.

Always keep a sharp lookout. "Keep your finger out"!

A recession is when you have to tighten your belt; depression is when you have no belt to tighten. When you've lost your trousers - you're in the airline business.

Anyone who's not interested in model airplanes must have a screw loose somewhere.

As long as I look into the muzzles, nothing can happen to me. Only if he pulls lead am I in danger.

As soon as we left the ground, I knew I had to fly.

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

At sea let the British their neighbours defy — The French shall have frigates to traverse the sky.

At the same time, as you know, unless you are a comic book reader, Daredevil is not a known thing.

Aviation records don't fall until someone is willing to mortgage the present for the future.

Aviation, this young modern giant, exemplifies the possible relationships of women with the creations of science.

Aviation is for the common man. My goal is to enable everyone to fly. It shouldnt be only for the rich.

Bankruptcy as a solution in kind of un-American.

Because operators are based thousands of miles away from the battlefield, and undertake operations entirely through computer screens and remote audio feed, there is a risk of developing a 'PlayStation' mentality to killing.

Beware the lessons of a fighter pilot who would rather fly a slide rule than kick your ass!

A pilot who says he has never been frightened in an airplane is, I'm afraid, lying.

A very friendly boom, like a pair of gleeful handclaps.

Aviation - and space travel, in particular - have always been especially captivating.

Can build plane... Delivery about three months.

Can the magic of flight ever be carried by words? I think not.

Fire short bursts of 1 to 2 seconds and only when your sights are definitely 'ON.'

Death is the handmaiden of the pilot. Sometimes it comes by accident, sometimes by an act of God.

Even the most eminent persons are subject to the laws of gravity.

Every other start-up wants to be another United or Delta or American. We just want to get rich.