Military Aviation Quotes

If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off.

Fighting in the air is not sport. It is scientific murder.

Go in close, and when you think you are too close, go in closer.

Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart.

The mastery of the turn is the story of how aviation became practical as a means of transportation. It is the story of how the world became small.

The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you.

Always keep an 'out' in your hip pocket.

You can't imagine a world, quite frankly, without a safe and secure aviation system. And so our job is to really focus on that, and what we need to do to keep it safe and secure.

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

We continue to subsidize highways and aviation, but when it comes to our passenger rail system, we refuse to provide the money Amtrak needs to survive.

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.

Aviation is going to control the world economically and militarily whether we like it or not. Airpower is not merely military aviation, it is also civilian aviation and airpower is peace power.

The J3 Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you.

Any idiot can get an airplane off the ground, but an aviator earns his keep by bringing it back anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances that man and God can dream up.

The only time an aircraft has too much fuel on board is when it is on fire.

The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down.

If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible.

Adolf Galland said that the day we took our fighters off the bombers and put them against the German fighters, that is, went from defensive to offsensive, Germany lost the air war. I made that decision and it was my most important decision during World War II. As you can imagine, the bomber crews were upset. The fighter pilots were ecstatic.

The first and absolute requirement of strategic air power in this war was control of the air in order to carry out sustained operations without prohibitive losses.

Strategic air assault is wasted if it is dissipated piecemeal in sporadic attacks between which the enemy has an opportunity to readjust defenses or recuperate.

Once the command of the air is obtained by one of the contending armies, the war becomes a conflict between a seeing host and one that is blind.

Air control can be established by superiority in numbers, by better employment, by better equipment, or by a combination of these factors.

Air power may either end war or end civilization.

In our victory over Japan, airpower was unquestionably decisive. That the planned invasion of the Japanese Home islands was unnecessary is clear evidence that airpower has evolved into a force in war co-equal with land and sea power, decisive in its own right and worthy of the faith of its prophets.

To have command of the air means to be able to cut an enemy's army and navy off from their bases of operation and nullify their chances of winning the war.

If we maintain our faith in God, love of freedom, and superior global air power, the future looks good.

Airpower has become predominant, both as a deterrent to war, and-in the eventuality of war-as the devastating force to destroy an enemy's potential and fatally undermine his will to wage war.

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.

My solution to the problem would be to tell [the North Vietnamese Communists] frankly that they've got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression or we're going to bomb them into the Stone Age. And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power - not with ground forces.

Offense is the essence of air power.

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.

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.

Only air power can defeat air power. The actual elimination or even stalemating of an attacking air force can be achieved only by a superior air force.

Air power alone does not guarantee America's security, but I believe it best exploits the nation's greatest asset - our technical skill.

The smallest amount of vanity is fatal in aeroplane fighting. Selfdistrust rather is the quality to which many a pilot owes his protracted existence.

This is a Solo Flight, but I want aviation enthusiasts and adventurers everywhere to join me in the endeavour.

Not to have an adequate air force in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence.

Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.

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.