Ol' Buffalo Aviation Page

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you're reading this in English, thank a veteran.

Aviation Quotes

Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value. — Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre

Air power can either paralyze the enemy's military action or compel him to devote to the defense of his bases and communications a share of his straitened resources far greater that what we need in the attack. — Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British Statesman, Soldier

A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't flying his plane to its maximum. — Jon McBride, Astronaut

Arguing with a pilot is like wrestling with a pig in the mud, after a while you begin to think the pig likes it. — Seen on a General Dynamics bulletin board

As far as sinking a ship with a bomb is concerned, you just can't do it. — Rear Adm. Clark Woodward, US Navy, 1939

Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible. — Edward Rickenbacker (1890-1973) US war hero and airline executive

Below 20, boys are too rash for flying; above 25, they are too prudent. — W.J. Abbot

Construction of an aerial vehicle which can carry even a single man...requires the discovery of some new metal or force. Even with such a discovery, we could not expect one to do more than carry its owner. — Simon Newcomb, US astronomer, 1903

Flying is a great way of life for men who want to feel like boys, but not for those who still are. — Author Unknown

Flying is a hard way to earn an easy living. — Author Unknown

Flying is like prostitution. First you do it for the love of it, then you do it for a few friends, and finally you do it for the money. — Author Unknown

Forget all that stuff about lift, gravity, thrust and drag. An airplane flies because of money. If God had meant man to fly, He'd have given him more money. — Author Unknown

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. — Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895

I can't imagine a set of circumstances that would produce Chapter 11 for Eastern. — Frank Lorenzo

I don't understand all I know about this thing. — Joe May

If an airplane is still in one piece, don't cheat on it; ride the bastard down. — Ernest K. Gann, author & aviator

If at first you don't succeed, well, so much for skydiving. — Henry Youngman

If black boxes survive air crashes -- why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff? — George Carlin

I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things. — Antoine de St.-Exupery

If the Wright brothers were alive today Wilber would have to fire Orville to reduce costs. — Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines, USA Today, June 8, 1994

If we die, we want people to accept it. We hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. — Astronaut Gus Grissom

If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible. — Bob Hoover - renowned aerobatic pilot

I now know the color of fear. It's brown. — Anonymous skydiver.

Instrument flying is an unnatural act probably punishable by God. — Gordon Baxter

International flying is a hard way to earn an easy living. — Author Unknown

In the Alaska bush I'd rather have a two hour bladder and three hours of gas than vice versa. — Kurt Wien

It is easy to make a small fortune in aviation as long as you start with a large fortune. — Author Unknown

It's a good landing if you can still get the doors open. — Author Unknown

It's not that all airplane pilots are good-looking. Just that good-looking people seem more capable of flying airplanes. Or so seasoned observers contend. A matter of self-confidence? No doubt, no doubt. — Mike Mailway, a.k.a. L.M. Boyd

It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you have wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane. — Charles Lindbergh

I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine. — Caskie Stinnett

It used to be that flying was dangerous and sex was safe; now it's the other way around. — Author Unknown

I've flown every seat on this airplane, can someone tell me why the other two are always occupied by idiots? — Don Taylor

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress. — Captain Eric Moody, British Airways, passenger PA after flying through volcanic ash in a B-747

Lady, you want me to answer you if this old airplane is safe to fly? Just how in the world do you think it got to be this old? — Author Unknown

Landing and moving around the moon offers so many serious problems for human beings that it may take science another 200 years to lick them. — Science Digest, August 1948

Never Feel Sorry For Anyone Who Owns an Airplane. — Tina Marie

On any given day, I can get one half the workers to kill the other half. — Robber Baron Jay Gould on the eve of an unsuccessful strike against his Southwestern System (Missouri Pacific Railroad) in 1876

Once you get hooked on the airline business, it's worse than dope. — Ed Acker, while Chairman of Air Florida

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. — Helen Keller

Only skydivers know why the birds sing. — Author Unknown

Out of 10,000 feet of fall, always remember that the last half inch hurts the most. — Captain Charles W. Purcell, 1932

People who invest in aviation are the biggest suckers in the world. — David G. Neeleman, after raising a record $128 million to start JetBlue, quoted in 'Business Week,' 3 May 1999

Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools. — New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work, 1921

Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. — Epicurus (341-270 BC)

Son, you're going to have to make up your mind about growing up and becoming a pilot. You can't do both. — Author Unknown

The exhilaration of flying is too keen, the pleasure too great, for it to be neglected as a sport. — Orville Wright

The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down. — General Chuck Yeager, USAF, describing his first confrontation with a Me262

The fixed-wing aeroplane is a technologically sound and militarily appropriate method of extending and applying tactical capabilities on the battlefield. The rotary-wing helicopter, however, is a piece of junk. — Author Unknown

The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you. — Max Stanley, Northrop test pilot

The purpose of the propeller is to keep a pilot cool. If you think not, stop the propeller and watch him sweat. — Author Unknown

There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror. — Orson Welles

There are only two types of aircraft -- fighters and targets. — Doyle 'Wahoo' Nicholson, USMC

There just isn’t the demand for these 30-year-old airplanes that there was even a year ago. Many of them, it appears, are headed for less-glamorous lives in the beverage industry. — Richard Bye, editor of Jet Storage Update, in a Wall Street Journal article about older aircraft being grounded - and scrapped for aluminum - following weaker demand 1n 2002

There will never be a bigger plane built. — A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people

The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline baggage. — Mark Russell

These days no one can make money on the goddamn airline business. The economics represent sheer hell. — C. R. Smith, President of American Airlines

The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. — G.K. Chesterton

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. — St. Augustine

Though I fly through the Valley of Death I shall fear no evil, for I am at 80,000 feet and climbing. — Sign over the entrance to SR-71 operations in Kadena, Japan

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and you will always long to return. — Leonardo da Vinci

You cannot get one nickel for commercial flying. — Inglis M. Uppercu, founder of the first American airline to last more than a couple of months, Aeromarine West Indies Airways, 1923

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you're grateful. — Paul Theroux

You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3. — Paul F. Crickmore - test pilot

You know they invented wheelbarrows to teach FAA inspectors to walk on their hind legs. — Marty Caidin

Young man, was that a landing or were we shot down?

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A Tribute To Those Who Have Slipped The Surly Bonds

Pilots: You see them at airport terminals around the world. You see them in the morning early, sometimes at night. They come neatly uniformed and hatted, sleeves striped; they show up looking fresh. There's a brisk, young-old look of efficiency about them.

They arrive fresh from home, from hotels, carrying suitcases, battered briefcases, bulging, with a wealth of technical information, data, filled with regulations, rules.

They know the new, harsh sheen of Chicago's O'Hare. They know the cluttered approaches to Newark; they know the tricky shuttle that is Rio; they know, but do not relish, threading the needle into old Hong Kong.

They respect foggy San Francisco. They know the up-and-down walk to the gates at Dallas, the Texas sparseness of Abilene, the Berlin Corridor, New Orleans' sparking terminal, the milling crowds at Washington. They know Butte, Boston, and Beirut.

They appreciate Miami's perfect weather, they recognize the danger of an ice-slick runway at JFK.

They understand about short runways, antiquated fire equipment, inadequate approach lighting, but there is one thing they will never comprehend: complacency.

They remember the workhorse efficiency of the DC-3s, the reliability of the DC-4s and DC-6s, the trouble with the DC-7s.

They discuss the beauty of an old gal named Connie. They recognize the high shrill whine of a Viscount, the rumbling thrust of a DC-8 or 707. And a Convair.

They speak a language unknown to Webster. They discuss ALPA, EPRs, fans, mach and bogie swivels. And, strangely, such things as bugs, thumpers, crickets, and CATs, but they are inclined to change the subject when the uninitiated approaches.

They have tasted the characteristic loneliness of the sky, and occasionally the adrenaline of danger. They respect the unseen thing called turbulence; they know what it means to fight for self-control, to discipline one's senses.

They buy life insurance-but make no concession to the possibility of complete disaster, for they have uncommon faith in themselves and what they are doing.

They concede that the glamour is gone from flying. They deny that a man is through at sixty. They know that tomorrow, or the following night, something will come along that they have never met before; they know that flying requires perseverance. They know that they must practice, lest they retrograde.

They realize why some wit once quipped: "Flying is year after year of monotony punctuated by seconds of stark terror."

As a group, they defy mortality tables, yet approach semiannual physical examinations with trepidation. They are individualistic, yet bonded together. They are family men, yet rated poor marriage bets. They are reputedly overpaid, yet entrusted with equipment worth millions. And entrusted with lives, countless lives.

At times they are reverent: They have watched the Pacific sky turn purple at dusk. They know the twinkling, jeweled beauty of Los Angeles at night; they have seen snow up on the Rockies. They remember the vast unending mat of green Amazon jungle, the twisting silver road that is the father of Waters, an ice cream cone called Fujiyama. And the hump of Africa.

They have watched a satellite streak across a starry sky, seen the clear, deep blue of the stratosphere, felt the incalculable force of the heavens.

They have marveled at sun-streaked evenings, dappled earth, velvet night; spun silver clouds, sculptured cumulus: God's weather. They have viewed the Northern Lights, a wilderness of sky; a pilot's halo, a bomber's moon, horizontal rain, contrails and St. Elmo's Fire.

They have learned to accept these challenge in everyday, they have realized a complete removal from earthy attachments, and they have reveled in a sense of high suspension.

Only a pilot experiences all these. It is their world. — Author Unknown

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