Fighter Pilot Quotes

• 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

  Impossible Things, Oil, Smell

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• 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

  Sky, Enemy, Pilots

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• 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

  Egypt, Iraq, Flying

  Roald Dahl (2008). “Boy: Tales of Childhood”, p.156, Penguin UK

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• 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

  Uncles, Memories, War

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• 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

  Risk, Pilots, Aviation

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

  Thomas McGuire

  Thinking, Pilots, Aviation

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• The air battle is not necessarily won at the time of the battle. The winner may have been determined by the amount of time, energy, thought and training an individual has previously accomplished in an effort to increase his ability as a fighter pilot.

  Pappy Boyington

  Air, Effort, Training

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• An excellent weapon and luck had been on my side. To be successful, the best fighter pilot needs both.

  Adolf Galland

  Successful, Luck, Needs

  Adolf Galland (1954). “The first and the last: the rise and fall of the German fighter forces, 1938-1945”

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• 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.

  David McCampbell

  Fundamentals, Shooting, Pilots

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• 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

  Attitude, Eye, Self Confidence

  Christina Olds, Ed Rasimus, Robin Olds (2010). “Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds”, p.291, Macmillan

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• Their element is to attack, to track, to hunt, and to destroy the enemy. Only in this way can the eager and skillful fighter pilot display his ability. Tie him to a narrow and confined task, rob him of his initiative, and you take away from him the best and most valuable qualities he posses: aggressive spirit, joy of action, and the passion of the hunter.

  Adolf Galland

  Passion, Ties, Track

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The most important thing for a fighter pilot is to get his first victory without too much shock.

  Werner Molders

  Victory, Important, Pilots

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• 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

  Hawaii, Pilots, Fighter

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• 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

  Sports, Morning, Thinking

  "Button your lip" by Rachel Cooke, www.theguardian.com. March 5, 2005.

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• 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.

  Jimmy Doolittle

  Military, War, Air

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• 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

  Military, Idiot, Hell

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• To be a good fighter pilot, there is one prime requisite think fast, and act faster.

  John Trevor Godfrey

  Thinking, Pilots, Aviation

  John Trevor Godfrey (1958). “The look of eagles”

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

  Eddie Rickenbacker

  Sports, Military, Fighting

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• Fighter pilots have ice in their veins. They don't have emotions. They think, anticipate. They know that fear and other concerns cloud your mind from what's going on and what you should be involved in.

  Buzz Aldrin

  Thinking, Clouds, Ice

  "Buzz Aldrin, Moonwalker, Says Us Must Aim For Mars". Interview with James M. Clash, www.livemint.com. May 24 2013.

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• The closest modern equivalent to the Homeric hero is the ace fighter pilot.

  W. H. Auden

  Hero, Pilots, Aces

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• Everything I had ever learned about air fighting taught me that the man who is aggressive, who pushes a fight, is the pilot who is successful in combat and who has the best opportunity for surviving battle and coming home.

  Robert S. Johnson

  Home, Fighting, Successful

  Robert S. Johnson, Martin Caidin “Thunderbolt! The Extraordinary Story of a World War II Ace”, Lulu.com

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• 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

  Military, Fighting, Flying

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• There's a lot of Hollywood bullshit about flying. I mean, look at the movies about test pilots or fighter pilots who face imminent death. The controls are jammed or something really important has fallen off the plane, and these guys are talking like magpies; their lives are flashing past their eyes, and they're flailing around in the cockpit. It just doesn't happen. You don't have time to talk. You're too damn busy trying to get out of the problem you're in to talk or ricochet around the cockpit. Or think about what happened the night after your senior prom.

  Robin Olds

  Senior, Eye, Mean

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

  Ron McKeown

  Lessons, Pilots, Slides

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• 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

  Moving, Thinking, Blue

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