John Knoll Quotes

I enjoy going out to the plants, the factories where just some sub-element maybe of the orbiter or the space station is built. Those people take such pride in that component, and they build it to perfection, and it's just a pleasure to see that.

During one or two summers, as well as part-time during the school year, I worked for a small Canadian company which developed electrical instruments for military planes.

Just as the lunar landings inspired many young people to consider careers in space and related fields, the solution of the challenging instrumentation problems presented in space science can inspire young people to push beyond the current state of the art.

By the time I got into test work, it was dying out. It wasn't really flight test at all; it was mostly testing new gadgets.

At the end of October 4 in 1957, when I was coming back from sea duty in the South Pacific, Sputnik went up. I realized that humans would be right behind robot aircraft or spacecraft even though I really had no plans of being in aviation or a professional aviator and certainly not in the military.

When a product is made, everyone hopes for the best. Whether it could have been better or not is more of an afterthought.

The cigars herein contained are made by WHITE MEN.

My first job at General Motors was as a quality inspector on the assembly line. I was checking fits between hoods and fenders. I had a little scale and clipboard. At one point, I was probably examining 60 jobs an hour during an eight-hour shift. A job like that teaches you to value all the people who do a job like that.

I couldn't stand not controlling my own product from how it's manufactured to how it's sold.

I don't know all the future steps, but I know one of them: we need to build a low-cost, highly operable, reusable launch vehicle. No matter which path we take, it has to include that gate, and so that's why that's Blue Origin's mission.

In this industry, you have to have passion. It's tough; there's no mercy. But I just love cars - I love to bring a new car to market. And every time I do this, it gets a little easier.

I personally look forward to building the Orion. I believe that our country needs to pursue that technology.

I had a great life at Boeing. I'd been there for 37 years and contributed to all the Boeing airplanes as a designer: the 707, 727, 37, 47, 57, 67 and 'triple 7' and the 87.

There are few aspects of everyday life that aren't touched by the technologies developed for space travel.

My dad worked at NASA his whole career; he's a research scientist.

We are building a company, Gemini, and the ETF, which is another company. I don't know if we're experts, but the goal is not to be an expert but to change the world. Does Richard Branson understand all the physics behind his space craft? I'm not sure.

We have neglected our aerospace program, and I am detecting a lot of bipartisan support to continue that mission.

When I started, I didn't have any idea of production or how things worked in footwear.

Boeing is a United States icon.

The best American manufacturers customize products to meet customer needs, reduce the time required to make them and constantly improve their design.

I just felt that space was the next thing coming in aviation. It was higher, faster. It had the risk.

I always wanted to be a pilot, though somewhere down the line switched to computers.

I think it's really a sign of great American strength that we do invest the money we do in technology, in these hard projects, in NASA.

It was a very strange time in the late 1950s/early 1960s, when people were putting things in space, but that language of spacecraft hadn't really congealed yet. A lot of artists at that time were looking at them as aesthetic objects.

The job of automobile manufacturers is to passionately build something that others love to own.