During my ten years of conducting research for my book "From The Ground Up" (an unpublished book detailing the actual history considering "ALL" of the early pioneers of flight), I ran across a number of quotes, some of which I found interesting, some profound, while others simply humorous, so I would like to share with you some of my personal favorites:

 

"There is an art, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss!"

–Douglas Adams (English humorist and novelist)

 

"The optimist invented the airplane, while the pessimist invented the parachute."

–George Barnard Shaw (Irish Playwright)

 

"With the earliest aviator experimenters, the chief designer was almost always the chief test pilot as well, which tended to weed out the bad engineers!" –Igor Sikorsky (aviation pioneer and inventor of the world's first practical helicopter)

 

"If black boxes survive air crashes, why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?"

-George Carlin (an American stand-up comic)

 

"You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky!"

–Amelia Earhart (award winning aviation pioneer, author, and first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932)

 

"He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying."

-Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher, poet, and composer)

 

"My soul is in the sky."-William Shakespeare

 

"If God had really intended men to fly, he'd make it easier to get to the airport."-George Winters (American actor)

 

"It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill."

–Wilbur Wright (quote from Wilbur’s initial letter to Octave Chanute, dated; May 13, 1900)

 

"Over here Bubbs, the European machines are guilty of just about everything, except the ability to fly!"

-Wilbur Wright (quote from a letter Wilbur wrote in June of 1907 to his brother Orville, after spending the spring and summer at Paris in 1907 and having witnessed numerous attempted flights by Delagrange, Bleriot, Dumont, Esnault-Peltrie, among several others with the Aero Club of France. Bubbs was Wilbur’s pet name for Orville)

 

"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris."

–Orville Wright (a 1911 quote, something which in 1938 Charles Lindbergh reminded Orville of, after the two became good friends)

 

"Some fear control system flutter because they don’t understand it, everyone else fears it because they do."

 –Theodore von Karman (Hungarian born aerospace engineer)

 

　

"The Wright Brothers created the single greatest cultural force since the invention of writing. The airplane became the first World Wide Web, bringing people, languages, ideas, and values together." –Bill Gates (co-founder of the Microsoft Corporation)

 

"october 5 (1905) wilbur wright flight of 24 miles circling field confirmed STOP hundreds witnessed flight STOP method of turning unusual STOP letter to follow with details STOP"

-H.M. Weaver (H.M. Weaver sent this telegram to his brother-in-law, L.S. Lahm, who was a member of the Aero Club of France and this telegram, as well as the follow-up letter detailing the Wright's experimental Flyer III test machine and the details of their work, were handed over to Ernest Archdeacon and Captain Ferber at the Aero Club of France, in December of 1905. It was ironic that 4 years later on September 9, 1908, that Orville Wright would, during his flight trials for the US Signal Corp, take up his first military passenger at Ft Myer, one Lieutenant Lahm, who just happen to be the son of L.S. Lahm)

 

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On Saturday August 8, 1908, Wilbur Wright took to the air on European soil (Le Mans) with the Wright’s first production Flyer III model "A", the first officially recorded public flight of a "practical" airplane (an airplane engineered to function as we know aircraft today) and Wilbur’s flight was dully witnessed by the newly formed FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale of France). In attendance were a number of so-called aviation experts, most specifically several members of the Aero Club of France, including their acting 1908 President and co-founder, Ernest Archdeacon.

 

"For a long time, the Wright brothers have been accused in Europe of Bluffing… They are today hallowed in France, and I feel an intense pleasure to be among the first to make amends!"

-Ernest Archdeacon (Co-founder and the 1908 President of the Aero Club of France and the known leader of those who had been promoting the Paris newspapers on relentless attacks against the Wright brothers. Rather ironic considering his above quote from that day?)

 

"..for months I have witnessed what I had thought were flights of an aeroplane, but today I find I just witnessed my first aeroplane flight, ever!"

-Unnamed Federation Aéronautique Internationale official

 

The most beautiful dream that has haunted the heart of man since Icarus is today reality. I would have waited ten times as long to see what I have seen today, Monsieur Wright has us all in his hands!"

-Louis Blériot (famous French aviation pioneer and in 1909 was the first aviator to successfully cross the English Channel)

 

"Wilbur Wright has completely dissipated all doubts. Not one of the former detractors of the Wrights dare question, today, the previous experiments of the men who are truly the first to fly….."

-Georges Beancon (Editor of L’Aerophile, the official magazine of the Aero Club of France)

 

"...the Wrights have beaten us all with their machine and I want one!"

-Leon Delagrange (early French pioneer aviator and the 1907 President of the Aero Club of France, Delagrange was also the first to order a French built Wright Flyer III "A")

 

"Il vole,...Il vole,...Il vole!" (he flies, he flies, he flies!) -Yelled by 3 or 4 young boys from their bicycles, while riding through Le Mans the late afternoon of August 8, 1908, after witnessing Wilbur Wright’s first demonstration flight on European soil.

 

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My favorite "T-Shirt" quote, spied at the 2008 Reno National Championship Air Races:

 

"Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Right, But Two Wrights Make An Airplane!"

 

Steve (Bear) Cartwright

 

No from anyone famous, but I remember one time while still getting the hang of pitch during landing my CFI looked over to me and said.

 

"Uh, are we going to touch, or you doing a low approach, because we haven't went over that yet."

 

Lol, ahh, memories.

 

Another good one was, "FLAPS, FLAPS, FLAPS!" During power up after a rather firm touch.

 

 

Sent from my Apple communications device.

William,

 

Yeah, we all have some of those don't we! Here are some more I have:

 

"Arguing with a pilot is a lot like wrestling with a pig in mud, after awhile you begin to think the pig likes it."

–Rex Thorp

 

"This doesn't look like California, what state is it?"

-Douglas Corrigan (Wrong-way Corrigan, who flew from New York to Ireland in 1938, claiming he intended on going home to California, but got lost after his compass malfunctioned)

 

Steve (Bear) Cartwright

Those are some great quotes, with a lot of humor. 

I like this one the most:

 

"There is an art, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss!"

–Douglas Adams (English humorist and novelist)

 

I think that I still need to practice the maneuver of missing the ground.

"According to my recollection most DC-3s eventually arrived at their destination if they carried enough fuel. In my private manual I firmly believed the only time there was too much fuel aboard any aircraft was if it was on fire. As for single engine emergencies, I had enough familiarity with the proper mixture of fright, sweat, and faith to remain convinced “it can’t happen to me.”...Ernest K. Gann from his book  “Ernest K. Gann’s Flying Circus” 

One of my personal favorites from Mr. Gann came from Fate Is The Hunter, where he

describes another airplane he was familiar with, the C-87 "Liberator Express":

 

"... They were an evil b%&$#%d contraption, nothing like the relatively efficient B-24 except in appearance. In time they they betrayed us in various ways and there was a tendency to approach one as if it were an angry bull elephant, to which they somehow bore a startling resemblance..."

 

"... The C-87 had other built in evils.It was a ground loving b*^&h, and with heavy loads it rolled, snorted, and porpoised interminably before asserting its questionable right to fly."

 

Maybe that's why the C-87 I have in my Hangar always sits idle... I should take her out for a spin!

 

Superglide17 and Viperpilot,

 

Great quotes guys, I especially like the line "....the only time there was too much fuel aboard any aircraft was if it was on fire." I'm going to remember that one. LOL!

 

Though not necessarily a quote, I did run across an item that the Navy pilots in WWII, who flew the Douglas SB2C "Helldiver", claimed the designation "SB2C" was actually "Son of a B*T*H Second Class"!

 

One of my other favorite quotes is from the billionaire investor Warren Buffet:

 

"The worst sort of business is one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, and then earns little or no money. Think airlines! Here a durable competitive advantage has proven elusive ever since the days of the Wright brothers. Indeed, if farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down."

 

Steve (Bear) Cartwright