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, ‘Roughing It,’ Chapter XXII, 1886
You haven’t seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky — Amelia Earhart
More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination — Wilbur Wright
The exhilaration of flying is too keen, the pleasure too great, for it to be neglected as a sport — Orville Wright
No one can realize how substantial the air is, until he feels its supporting power beneath him. It inspires confidence at once — Otto Lilienthal
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 — Welch Pogue
I’ve never known an industry that can get into people’s blood the way aviation does — Robert Six, founder of Continental Airlines.
Maybe it’s sex appeal, but there’s something about an airplane that drives investors crazy — Alfred Kahn, the ‘father of airline deregulation.
Dad, I left my heart up there — Francis Gary Powers, CIA U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union, describing his first flight at age 14.
As soon as we left the ground I knew I myself had to fly! — Amelia Earhart, after her first flight in an airplane, a ten minute sight-seeing trip over Los Angeles, 1920.
Even before [we] . . . had reached 300 feet, I recognized that the sky would be my home. I tumbled out of the airplane with stars in my eyes — Geraldyn Cobb, regards her first flight, piloted by her father when she was 12 years old.
To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. To fly is everything — Otto Lilienthal
Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle — Igor Sikorsky
