Orville Wright Quotes

The most amazing lesson in aerodynamics I ever had was the day I climbed a thermal in a glider at the same time as an eagle. I witnessed, close up, effortlessness and lightness combined with strength, precision and determination.

We were flying on a winged vehicle that would do reentry different than we had ever done before. So all of those were firsts. Test pilots truly love firsts.

In my opinion, we should search for a completely different flying machine, based on other flying principles.

One reason, doubtless, why squirrels are so bold and reckless in leaping through the trees is that, if they miss their hold and fall, they sustain no injury. Every species of tree-squirrel seems to be capable of a sort of rudimentary flying, at least of making itself into a parachute, so as to ease or break a fall or a leap from a great height.

They don't hand out Ph.D.s in test piloting, but you pick up a tremendous amount of scientific and engineering knowledge along the way. After all, when you take up a brand new plane and put it through its paces to see if it will hang together, you are really flying somebody's theory.

We returned home, after these experiments, with the conviction that sailing flight was not the exclusive prerogative of birds.

One can get a proper insight into the practice of flying only by actual flying experiments. . . . The manner in which we have to meet the irregularities of the wind, when soaring in the air, can only be learnt by being in the air itself. . . . The only way which leads us to a quick development in human flight is a systematic and energetic practice in actual flying experiments.

At which time the repulsor puts out its final effort and slows you down so you crash quite slowly into the surface." "Crash." "Quite slowly." Face & Luke

I have had the feeling that a properly constructed flying-machine should be capable of being flown as a kite; and conversely, that a properly constructed kite should be capable of use as a flying-machine when driven by its own propellers.

Apollo was a big, unwieldy vehicle. I had a problem with the flight controllers over that. It would try to fare its way like an airplane.

Okay, so, flying,” I started, taking a deep breath and focusing on the thing I loved most in the world. “Flying is … great. It feels great when you’re doing it. It’s fun. Pure freedom. There’s nothing better.” Dylan smiled, a slow, easy smile that seemed to light up his whole face. “So the first thing we’re going to do,” I told him, “is push you off the roof.

A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, which instrument it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements.

Great tragedies have great consequences. They ripple through the fabric of this world and the next. When the loss is too great for either world to bear, Everlost absorbs the shock, like a cushion between the two.

Four snakes gliding up and down a hollow for no purpose that I could see - not to eat, not for love, but only gliding.

Over the years, the U.S. economy has shown a remarkable ability to absorb shocks of all kinds, to recover, and to continue to grow.

The best way to break up with a girl is like I'm taking off a band-aid. Slowly and in the shower.

Every flight begins with a fall.

The helicopter appeared so reluctant to fly forward that we even considered turning the pilot's seat around and letting it fly backward.

This landing is gonna get pretty interesting. Define "interesting". "Oh God, oh God, we're all going to die"? [on speakerphone]: This is the captain: we have a little problem with our entry sequence so we may experience some slight turbulence, then explode.

I expertly angled my raison bran to accomodate the g-forces.

The law of flying was not discovered by the contemplation of things staying on the ground.

My comedy is like emotional hang-gliding.

There was nothing subtle about our landing. The pilot just pointed the nose at the ground and let her rip.

Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle.

The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.