Pilots are drawn to flying because it's a perfect combination of science, romance and adventure. — Charles Lindbergh
Flying is hypnotic and all pilots are willing victims to the spell. — Ernest K. Gann
Flying is more than a sport and more than a job; flying is pure passion and desire, which fill a lifetime. — Adolf Galland
There are pilots and there are pilots; with the good ones, it is inborn. You can't teach it. If you are a fighter pilot, you have to be willing to take risks. — Robin Olds
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. — Elrey Borge Jeppesen
Most pilots learn, when they pin on their wings and go out and get in a fighter, especially, that one thing you don't do, you don't believe anything anybody tells you about an airplane. — Chuck Yeager
And I fly planes all the time. And helicopters. — Treat Williams
A pilot who says he has never been frightened in an airplane is, I'm afraid, lying. — Louise Thaden
As a military pilot and a test pilot, handling unusual situations and aircraft malfunctions was part of the business. — Fred Haise
If you have flown, perhaps you can understand the love a pilot develops for flight. It is much the same emotion a man feels for a woman, or a wife for her husband. — Louise Thaden
There are two kinds of airplanes - those you fly and those that fly you . . . You must have a distinct understanding at the very start as to who is the boss. — Ernest K. Gann
Even the ablest pilots are willing to receive advice from passengers in tempestuous weather. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
If you want to fly, give up everything that weights you down.
Pilots And Flying Quotes
I was a fighter pilot, flying Hurricanes all round the Mediterranean. I flew in the Western Desert of Libya, in Greece, in Syria, in Iraq and in Egypt. — Roald Dahl
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can't I? — Yip Harburg
The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be?--it is the same the angels breathe. — Mark Twain
Don't be afraid of being outnumbered. Eagles fly alone. Pigeons flock together.
The most important thing in fighting was shooting, next the various tactics in coming into a fight and last of all flying ability itself. — Billy Bishop
If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible. — Bob Hoover
I recently learned something quite interesting about video games. Many young people have developed incredible hand, eye, and brain coordination in playing these games. The air force believes these kids will be our outstanding pilots should they fly our jets. — Ronald Reagan
What good are wings withou the courage to fly.
You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky. — Amelia Earhart
The thing is helicopters are different from airplanes An airplane by it's nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or incompetent piloting, it will fly — Harry Reasoner
I've been as a pilot involved in the Gulf War. And then, in the No-Fly Zone — Philippe Perrin
I think it is love of that blue vault of sky that becomes your playground if, and only if, you are a fighter pilot. You don't understand it if you fly from A to B in straight and level, and merely climb and descend. You're moving through the basement of that bolt of blue. — Robin Olds
Airplanes And Flying Quotes
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. — Igor Sikorsky
Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle. — Igor Sikorsky
I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit. — Chuck Yeager
Don't make me walk when I want to fly.
Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger. — George W. Bush
Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible. — Eddie Rickenbacker
Unlike the boundaries of the sea by the shorelines, the "ocean of air" laps at the border of every state, city, town and home throughout the world. — L. Welch Pogue
Friends are angels who lift our feet when our own wings have trouble remembering how to fly.
The most beautiful dream that has haunted the heart of man since Icarus is today reality. — Louis Bleriot
Because of [Amelia Earhart], we had more women available to fly in the 1940's to help us get through World War II. And because of these women, women of my generation are able to look back and say, 'Hey, they did it. They even flew military airplanes, we can do it, too.' — Eileen Collins
To put your life in danger from time to time... breeds a saneness in dealing with day-to-day trivialities. — Nevil Shute
Airline Pilots Quotes
There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror. — Orson Welles
Why does every plane have two pilots? Really, you only need one pilot. Let's take out the second pilot. Let the bloody computer fly it. — Michael O'Leary
If the pilots were in charge, Columbus would still be in port. They believe the assertion that the world is flat. — Robert Crandall
Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay.
I used to be an airline pilot. I got fired because I kept locking the keys in the plane. They caught me on an 80 foot stepladder with a coat hanger. — Steven Wright
What is that mountain goat doing way up here in the clouds? — Gary Larson
I am equal to a baby and to a hundred year old lady. I am equal to an airline pilot and a car mechanic. I am equal to you. You are equal to me. It's that universal.
Except that it's not. — A.S. King
People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
He won't fly on the Balinese airline, Garuda, because he won't fly on any airline where the pilots believe in reincarnation. — Spalding Gray
I've produced more pilots than United Airlines, and they've all been disasters. Every audition I ever took in my life I lost. — Willard Scott
The painting world is awash with people who cannot paint. This is a condition that would not be tolerated in other professions such as Dentistry, Medicine, or among members of the Airline Pilot's Association. — Robert Genn
I never trust the airlines from those countries where the pilots believe in the afterlife. You are safer when they don't. — Muriel Spark
Fighter Pilot Quotes
Anybody who doesn't have fear is an idiot. It's just that you must make the fear work for you. Hell when somebody shot at me, it made me madder than hell, and all I wanted to do was shoot back. — Robin Olds
Fighter pilot is an attitude. It is cockiness. It is aggressiveness. It is self-confidence. It is a streak of rebelliousness, and it is competitiveness. But there's something else - there's a spark. There's a desire to be good. To do well; in the eyes of your peers, and in your own mind. — Robin Olds
The duty of the fighter pilot is to patrol his area of the sky, and shoot down any enemy fighters in that area. Anything else is rubbish. — Manfred von Richthofen
If you can't fly, then run, If you can't run, then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.
Many pilots of the time were the opinion that a fighter pilot in a closed cockpit was an impossible thing, because you should smell the enemy. You could smell them because of the oil they were burning. — Adolf Galland
By interviewing at least one veteran, you can preserve memories that otherwise might be lost. My uncle was a downed fighter pilot and P.O.W. in World War II, and I am looking forward to recording his story for inclusion in the project. — Spencer Bachus
People with conservative temperaments don't become fighter pilots or presidential candidates - they're all that way to some extent. — Tucker Carlson
Eagles don't fly with pigeons.
Before I became a fighter pilot, everyone said that women didn't have the physical strength. Well, I had just completed the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. — Martha McSally
An excellent weapon and luck had been on my side. To be successful, the best fighter pilot needs both. — Adolf Galland
A lot of people think Formula One isn't a sport because everyone drives a car when they go to work in the morning. But we're pulling up to six G on a corner or during breaking, which is almost like being a fighter pilot. So we have to do a lot of work on our neck muscles. — Jenson Button
The most important thing for a fighter pilot is to get his first victory without too much shock. — Werner Molders
In the space age, man will be able to go around the world in two hours - one hour for flying and one hour to get to the airport. — Neil H. McElroy
The helicopter appeared so reluctant to fly forward that we even considered turning the pilot's seat around and letting it fly backward. — Igor Sikorsky
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. — Ernest K. Gann
I have flown in just about everything, with all kinds of pilots in all parts of the world - British, French, Pakistani, Iranian, Japanese, Chinese - and there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between any of them except for one unchanging, certain fact: the best, most skillful pilot has the most experience. — Chuck Yeager
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. — Amy Johnson
No one can realize how substantial the air is, until he feels its supporting power beneath him. It inspires confidence at once. — Otto Lilienthal
In the early 1930s, flying from England to Australia was the longest flight in the world. It was considered extremely dangerous and hazardous, pushing pilots to the limits of mechanical skills and human endurance. Aviation was young. — Mary Garden
Harmony comes gradually to a pilot and his plane. The wing does not want so much to fly true as to tug at the hands that guide it; the ship would rather hunt the wind than lay her nose to the horizon far ahead. She has a derelict quality in her character; she toys with freedom and hints at liberation, but yields her own desires gently. — Beryl Markham
If you don't like what you see, stop looking. — Nancy Lopez
Nobody who has not been up in the sky on a glorious morning can possibly imagine the way a pilot feels in free heaven. — William T. Piper
When you think about flying, it's nuts really. Here you are at about 40,000 feet, screaming along at 700 miles an hour and you're sitting there drinking Diet Pepsi and eating peanuts. It just doesn't make any sense. — David Letterman
The desire to reach for the sky runs very deep in the human psyche. — Cesar Pelli
A fool and his money are soon invited everywhere. — Warren Buffett
The way I see it, you can either work for a living or you can fly airplanes. Me, I'd rather fly. — Len Morgan
But to fly is just like swimming. You do not forget easily. I have been on the ground for more than ten years. If I close my eyes, however, I can again feel the stick in my right hand, the throttle in my left, the rudder bar beneath my feet. I can sense the freedom and the cleanliness and all the things which a pilot knows. — Saburo Sakai
Gravity. It's not just a good idea; it's the law! — Adam Savage
Flying without feathers is not easy: my wings have no feathers. — Plautus
And so, I was not a military test pilot, but as soon as NASA expressed an interest in flying scientists and people who were not military test pilots, that was an epiphany that just came like a stroke of lightning. — Story Musgrave
Listen, Mr. President, there's a no-fly zone in Syria. You fly in, it applies to you. And, yes, we would shoot down the planes of Russian pilots if, in fact, they were stupid enough to think that this president was the same feckless weakling that the president we have in the oval office is right now. — Chris Christie
Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. — Gilbert K. Chesterton
The Constitution: it's not just a good idea, it's the law. — Michael Badnarik
I went to the University of Washington as a physics and astronomy major. My other interest, of course, was aviation. I always wanted to be a pilot. And if you're going to fly airplanes, the best place to be is the Air Force. — Michael P. Anderson
The way an aircraft flies - that is the way the strategy works. Most of the time the plane is on autopilot, and does a great job of flying itself. Every once in a while it is necessary for the pilot to jump in. — Roy Niederhoffer
What is it in fact, this learning to fly? To be precise, it is 'to learn NOT to fly wrong.' To learn to become a pilot is to learn - not to let oneself fly too slowly. Not to let oneself turn without accelerating. Not to cross the controls. Not to do this, and not to do that. . . . To pilot is negation. — Henri Mignet
Every flying machine has its own unique characteristics, some good, some not so good. Pilots naturally fly the craft in such a manner as to take advantage of its good characteristics and avoid the areas where it is not so good. — Neil Armstrong
Then there was the challenge to keep doing better and better, to fly the best test flight that anybody had ever flown. That led to my being recognized as one of the more experienced test pilots, and that led to the astronaut business. — Alan Shepard
When I was getting close to being accepted for pilot training, I was allowed to get in a jet airplane. I sat there looking at all those switches and dials and I got the distinct feeling that I was sitting in the nose of bomb. I realized my fantasies of flying and fighting were just that - fantasies. — Morgan Freeman
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of pilots and flying quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about pilots and flying to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of pilots and flying quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
