Lawrence Hargrave Quotes

I think my strengths are definitely - I'm a really good glider. I'm one of the fastest, like on a straight drag race, I can pretty much kill that.

Flying was great. You have to think fast. You have to develop intuition about the physics of air moving quickly over a surface.

The jet stream is a very strong force and pushing a balloon into it is like pushing up against a brick wall, but once we got into it, we found that, remarkably, the balloon went whatever speed the wind went.

He that can swim needs not despair to fly; to swim is to fly in a grosser fluid, and to fly is to swim in a subtler. We are only to proportion our power of resistance to the different density of matter through which we are to pass. You will be necessarily upborne by the air if you can renew any impulse upon it faster than the air can recede from the pressure.

When I first came out with my fans and the wind hit me, I almost took off.

Flight without feathers is not easy.

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.

To fly we have to have resistance.

Skysurfing is skydiving with a board on the feet. You can imagine with this big surface of a skysurfing board, there is a lot of force, a lot of power. Of course, I can use this power, for example, for nice spinning - we call it 'helicopter moves.'

And from a poise at this station the plane may swoop down, at great disadvantage if close to the back of the wave, at various slopes and directions till it cuts into the air that is being raised by the face of the following wave, which again enables it to resume its velocity.

Through the years of experience I have found that air offers less resistance than dirt.

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

The airplane stays up because it doesn't have the time to fall.

The pink ball is a bit different. I don't think it moves as much through the air.

The light dove, cleaving the air in her free flight, and feeling its resistance, might imagine that its flight would be still easier in empty space.

The secret of flight is this -- you have to do it immediately, before your body realizes it is defying the laws.

The wind always seems to blow against catchers when they are running.

To speak of this subject you must... explain the nature of the resistance of the air, in the second the anatomy of the bird and its wings, in the third the method of working the wings in their various movements, in the fourth the power of the wings and the tail when the wings are not being moved and when the wind is favourable to serve as guide in various movements.

The floating vapour is just as true an illustration of the law of gravity as the falling avalanche.

All flight is based upon producing air pressure, all flight energy consists in overcoming air pressure.

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.

It's not like there's a law against flying." "Yes there is. The law of gravity.

In the case of an airplane, speed is determined by the outcome of the conflict between thrust of the power and drag of the plane. So it also is with humans.

Well, gentlemen, do you believe in the possibility of aerial locomotion by machines heavier than air? ... You ask yourselves doubtless if this apparatus, so marvellously adapted for aerial locomotion, is susceptible of receiving greater speed. It is not worth while to conquer space if we cannot devour it. I wanted the air to be a solid support to me, and it is. I saw that to struggle against the wind I must be stronger than the wind, and I am.

If you know which way the current is going, you can use it to your advantage.