Military aviation quotes...
Being a stealth pilot is one of the most labor intensive and time constrained types of flying that I know. We have very strict timing constraints: to be where you are supposed to be all the time, exactly on time, and that has to be monitored by the pilot. For example, during a bomb competition in training in the US, I dropped a weapon that landed 0.02 seconds from the desired time, and finished third!
Lt. Col. Miles Pound, USAF
The most important thing in fighting was shooting, next the various tactics in coming into a fight and last of all flying ability itself.
Lt. Colonel W. A. 'Billy' Bishop, RAF.
Good flying never killed [an enemy] yet.
Major Edward 'Mick' Mannock, RAF.
Well boys, we've got three engines out, we've got more holes in us than a horse trader's mule, the radio is gone and we're leaking fuel and if we was flying any lower why we'd need sleigh bells on this thing...but we've got one thing on those Russkies. At this height why thy might harpoon us but they dang sure ain't gonna spot us on no radar screen!
Major T. J. King Kong in the 1963 movie 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.'
Look boys I ain't much of a hand at making speeches, but I got a pretty fair idea that something doggone important is goin' on back there. And I got a fair idea the kinda personal emotions that some of you fellas may be thinkin'. Heck, I reckon you wouldn't even be human beings if you didn't have some pretty strong personal feelings about nuclear combat. I want you to remember one thing, the folks back at home are counting on you and by golly we ain't about to let them down. I tell you something else, if this thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I'd say that you're all in line for some important promotions and personal citations when this thing is over with. That goes for ever' last one of you regardless of your race, color or creed. Now let's get this thing on the hump...we got some flying to do.
Major T. J. King Kong, in the 1963 movie 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.'
In the early stages of the fight Mr. Winston Churchill spoke with affectionate raillery of me and my Chicks. He could have said nothing to make me more proud; every Chick was needed before the end.
ACM Sir Hugh C. T. Dowding, dispatch to the Secretary of State for Air, 20 August 1941.
One of the secrets of air fighting was to see the other man first. Seeing airplanes from great distances was a question of experience and training, of knowing where to look and what to look for. Experienced pilots always saw more than the newcomers, because the later were more concerned with flying than fighting. . . . The novice had little idea of the situation, because his brain was bewildered by the shock and ferocity of the fight.
Air Vice-Marshal J. E. 'Johnnie' Johnson, RAF.
A fighter pilot is a man in love with flying. A fighter pilot sees not a cloud but beauty. Not the ground but something remote from him, something that he doesn't belong to as long as he is airborne. He's a man who wants to be second-best to no one.
Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, USAF.
A fighter without a gun . . . is like an airplane without a wing.
Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.
The most important thing is to have a flexible approach. . . . The truth is no one knows exactly what air fighting will be like in the future. We can't say anything will stay as it is, but we also can't be certain the future will conform to particular theories, which so often, between the wars, have proved wrong.
Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.
Aggressiveness was a fundamental to success in air-to-air combat and if you ever caught a fighter pilot in a defensive mood you had him licked before you started shooting.
Captain David McCampbell, USN, leading U.S. Navy ace in W.W.II.
The experienced fighting pilot does not take unnecessary risks. His business in to shoot down enemy planes, not to get shot down. His trained hand and eye and judgment are as much a part of his armament as his machine-gun, and a fifty-fifty chance is the worst he will take -- or should take -- except where the show is of the kind that . . . justifies the sacrifice of plane or pilot.
Captain Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker.
Next time a war is decided by how well you land on a carrier, I'm sure our Navy will clean up. Until then, I'll worry about who spends their training time flying and fighting.
clichι
I'd hate to see an epitaph on a fighter pilot's tombstone that says, I told you I needed training. . . . How do you train for the most dangerous game in the world by being as safe as possible? When you don't let a guy train because it's dangerous, you're saying, Go fight those lions with your bare hands in that arena, because we can't teach you to learn how to use a spear. If we do, you might cut your finger while you're learning. And that's just about the same as murder.
Colonel 'Boots' Boothby, USAF.
Only the spirit of attack borne in a brave heart will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be.
General Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe
The British were sporting. They would accept a fight under almost all conditions.
Gunther Rall, Luftwaffe, 275 victories.
. . . four other pieces of equipment that most senior officers came to regard as among the most vital to our success in Africa and Europe were the bulldozer, the jeep, the 2½-ton truck, and the C-47 airplane. Curiously, none of these is designed for combat.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
You can shoot down every MiG the Soviets employ, but if you return to base and the lead Soviet tank commander is eating breakfast in your snack bar, Jack, you've lost the war
Anonymous A-10 Pilot
Why don't we just buy one airplane and let the pilots take turns flying it.
Calvin Coolidge, complaining about a War Department request to buy more aircraft.
Of all my accomplishments I may have achieved during the war, I am proudest of the fact that I never lost a wingman.
Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF, aka Karaya One, worlds leading ace, 352 victories in W.W.II.
If we lose the war in the air we lose the war and lose it quickly.
Field Marshall Montgomery