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.

  Chuck Yeager

  Want, Pilots, Aviation

  66 Copy quote

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

  Bob Hoover

  Flying, Pilots, Aviation

  80 Copy quote

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

  Hoyt Vandenberg

  Military, Believe, Air

  59 Copy quote

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

  John Paul Jones

  Life, Fear, Military

  Letter to Le Ray de Chaumont, 16 Nov. 1778

  63 Copy quote

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• 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.

  Walter Cunningham

  Dream, Airplane, Men

  53 Copy quote

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

  Thomas McGuire

  Thinking, Pilots, Aviation

  46 Copy quote

• Air power may either end war or end civilization.

  Winston Churchill

  Military, War, Air

  Winston Churchill, Robert Rhodes James (1980). “Churchill speaks: Winston S. Churchill in peace and war : collected speeches, 1897-1963”, Atheneum

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

  Eddie Rickenbacker

  Airplane, Impossible, Aviation

  57 Copy quote

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

  Manfred von Richthofen

  Military, Heart, Fighting

  183 Copy quote

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

  C. Maxwell Stanley

  Airplane, World, Pilots

  22 Copy quote

• 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.

  Giulio Douhet

  Military, War, Mean

  General Giulio Douhet (2014). “Command Of The Air”, p.42, Pickle Partners Publishing

  25 Copy quote

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

  Carl Andrew Spaatz

  Military, Air, Numbers

  13 Copy quote

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

  Winston Churchill

  Military, Air, Independence

  Winston S. Churchill (2013). “Arms and the Covenant”, p.54, RosettaBooks

  23 Copy quote

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

  Curtis LeMay

  Military, Air, Looks

  122 Copy quote

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

  Eddie Rickenbacker

  Sports, Military, Fighting

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Alexander P. de Seversky

  Air, Aviation, Defeat

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

  Laughter, Military, Clouds

  In K. Rhys More Poems from the Forces (1943) "High Flight"

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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

  55 Copy quote

• Offense is the essence of air power.

  Henry H. Arnold

  Military, Air, Essence

  32 Copy quote

• 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.

  Omar N. Bradley

  Military, War, Enemy

  22 Copy quote

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

  Chuck Yeager

  Military, Saws, Firsts

  93 Copy quote

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

  Eddie Rickenbacker

  Fighting, Vanity, Quality

  Eddie Rickenbacker (2012). “Fighting the Flying Circus”, p.48, Tales End Press

  9 Copy quote

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• 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.

  Carl Andrew Spaatz

  Military, War, Loss

  17 Copy quote

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

  Ernest K. Gann

  Emergencies, Aviation, Happens

  30 Copy quote

• 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.

  Janet Napolitano

  Jobs, Safety, Focus

  "Secretary Napolitano's Remarks to the National Press Club". www.realclearpolitics.com. April 16, 2010.

  44 Copy quote

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