The Random Military Aircraft Pic/Vids thread
- Thread starter Coiled03
- Start date
Got to see a B2 at an air show on the east coast of Florida years ago. Seeing it coming from the distance you'd expect it to sound like some alien space craft's silent drive system, not exactly the case.
It dropped a bunch of watermelon a few hundred yards or so from the beach on one of its passes
Sent from my SM-G930T using the svtperformance.com mobile app
It dropped a bunch of watermelon a few hundred yards or so from the beach on one of its passes
Sent from my SM-G930T using the svtperformance.com mobile app
Great Aviation Quotes: Combat
Good flying never killed [an enemy] yet.
— attributed to Major Edward 'Mick' Mannock, RAF, ranking British Empire fighter ace of WWI. 61 victories.
Once committed to an attack, fly in at full speed. After scoring crippling or disabling hits, I would clear myself and then repeat the process. I never pursued the enemy once they had eluded me. Better to break off and set up again for a new assault. I always began my attacks from full strength, if possible, my ideal flying height being 22,000 ft because at that altitude I could best utilize the performance of my aircraft. Combat flying is based on the slashing attack and rough maneuvering. In combat flying, fancy precision aerobatic work is really not of much use. Instead, it is the rough maneuver which succeeds.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF, aka Karaya One, the World's leading ace, with 352 victories in WWII Jagdgeschwader 52.
Men were going to die in the air as they had for centuries on the ground and on the seas, by killing each other. The conquest of the air was truly accomplished.
— René Chambe, Au Temps des Carabines, 1955.
Up there the world is divided into bastards and suckers. Make your choice.
— Derek Robinson, Piece of Cake, 1983.
A top World War II ace once said that fighter pilots fall into two broad categories: those who go out to kill and those who, secretly, desperately, know they are going to get killed—the hunters and the hunted.
— General Nathan F. Twinning, USAF
You lived and died alone, especially in fighters. Fighters. Somehow, despite everything, that word had not become sterile. You slipped into the hollow cockpit and strapped and plugged yourself into the machine. The canopy ground shut and sealed you off. Your oxygen, your very breath, you carried into the chilled vacuum, in a steel bottle.
— James Salter, The Hunters, 1956.
I belong to a group of men who fly alone. There is only one seat in the cockpit of a fighter airplane. There is no space alotted for another pilot to tune the radios in the weather or make the calls to air traffic control centers or to help with the emergency procedures or to call off the airspeed down final approach. There is no one else to break the solitude of a long cross-country flight. There is no one else to make decisions.
I do everything myself, from engine start to engine shutdown. In a war, I will face alone the missiles and the flak and the small-arms fire over the front lines.
If I die, I will die alone.
— Richard Bach, Stranger to the Ground, 1963.
The more mechanical becomes the weapons with which we fight, the less mechanical must be the spirit which controls them.
— Field Marshal Archibald P. Wavell.
I mean, I had fast motor cars and fast motor bikes, and when I wasn't crashing airplanes, I was crashing motor bikes. It's all part of the game.
— Sir Harry Broadhurst, RAF, 12 victories WWII.
I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast for I intend to go in harm's way.
— Captain John Paul Jones, in a letter to le Ray de Chaumont, 16 November 1778.
The hunters are the ones who go out and kill. Maybe one out of ten good fighter pilots will be one of the hunters.
— Jack Ilfrey, USAAF, 8 victories WWII.
To the aircraft I aim, not the man.
— Francesco Baracca, Italy's leading ace of WWI, in Italian "è all'apparecchio che io miro non all'uomo," the prancing horse emblem he sported on his aircraft was used by Enzo Ferrari on his cars. Corpo Aeronautico Militare, 34 victories WWI.
You don't think much of the individual, because you don't think you've hit him and you hope that he will bail out or something; it's the aeroplane you've hit … normally it was more of a game if you like, you were outwitting and shooting down another aircraft, you were simply hitting metal.
— Wing commander Pete Malam Brothers, RAF, 16 victories WWII. Imperial War Museum Sound 7462.
It was war. We were defending our country. We had a strict code of honor: you didn't shoot down a cripple and you kept it a fair fight.
— Captain Wilfrid Reid 'Wop' May, RFC, 13 victories WWI.
I hate to shoot a Hun down without him seeing me, for although this method is in accordance with my doctrine, it is against what little sporting instincts I have left.
— James McCudden, VC, RFC, 1917.
My habit of attacking Huns dangling from their parachutes led to many arguments in the mess. Some officers, of the Eton and Sandhurst type, thought it was 'unsportsmanlike' to do it. Never having been to a public school, I was unhampered by such considerations of form. I just pointed out that there was a bloody war on, and that I intended to avenge my pals.
— Captain James Ira Thomas 'Taffy' Jones, RFC, 37 victories in 3 months WWI
Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart.
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen.
Fighting in the air is not sport. It is scientific murder.
— Captain Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAS, 'Fighting the Flying Circus.'
The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down.
— General Chuck Yeager, USAF, describing his first confrontation with a Me262.
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.
It was my view that no kill was worth the life of a wingman… . Pilots in my unit who lost wingmen on this basis were prohibited from leading a [section]. The were made to fly as wingman, instead.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF.
The wingman is absolutely indispensable. I look after the wingman. The wingman looks after me. It's another set of eyes protecting you. That the defensive part. Offensively, it gives you a lot more firepower. We work together. We fight together. The wingman knows what his responsibilities are, and knows what mine are. Wars are not won by individuals. They're won by teams.
— Lt. Col. Francis S. "Gabby" Gabreski, USAF, 28 victories in WWII and 6.5 MiGs over Korea.
There is a peculiar gratification on receiving congratulations from one's squadron for a victory in the air. It is worth more to a pilot than the applause of the whole outside world. It means that one has won the confidence of men who share the misgivings, the aspirations, the trials and the dangers of aeroplane fighting.
— Captain Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAS.
And I have yet to find one single individual who has attained conspicuous success in bringing down enemy aeroplanes who can be said to be spoiled either by his successes or by the generous congratulations of his comrades. If he were capable of being spoiled he would not have had the character to have won continuous victories, for the smallest amount of vanity is fatal in aeroplane fighting. Self-distrust rather is the quality to which many a pilot owes his protracted existence.
— Captain Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAS, 'Fighting the Flying Circus.'
In every squadron there were, perhaps, four or five pilots who exuded confidence. They knew that they were going out to shoot. The rest knew sub-consciously, that they would make up the numbers, mill about, and get shot at.
— Lynn Garrison, quoted in Fighter Command Air Combat Claims, 1939–45 (2003) by John Foreman.
Nothing makes a man more aware of his capabilities and of his limitations than those moments when he must push aside all the familiar defenses of ego and vanity, and accept reality by staring, with the fear that is normal to a man in combat, into the face of Death.
— Major Robert S. Johnson, USAAF.
The duty of the fighter pilot is to patrol his area of the sky, and shoot down any enemy fighters in that area. Anything else is rubbish.
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen, 1917. Richtofen would not let members of his Staffel strafe troops in the trenches.
Anybody who doesn't have fear is an idiot. It's just that you must make the fear work for you. Hell when somebody shot at me, it made me madder than hell, and all I wanted to do was shoot back.
— Brigadier General Robin Olds, 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, RCAF.
In nearly all cases where machines have been downed, it was during a fight which had been very short, and the successful burst of fire had occurred within the space of a minute after the beginning of actual hostilities.
— Lt. Colonel W. A. 'Billy' Bishop, RCAF.
You must take the war to the enemy. You must attack and go on attacking all the time.
— Major Willy Omer François Jean Coppens de Houthulst, Belgian Air Service, 37 victories WWI.
I fly close to my man, aim well and then of course he falls down.
— Captain Oswald Boelcke, probably the world's first ace.
Aerial gunnery is 90 percent instinct and 10 percent aim.
— Captain Frederick C. Libby, RFC.
I had no system of shooting as such. It is definitely more in the feeling side of things that these skills develop. I was at the front five and a half years, and you just got a feeling for the right amount of lead.
— Lt. General Guenther Rall, GAF.
When one has shot down one's first, second or third opponent, then one begins to find out how the trick is done.
— Baron Manfred von Richtofen.
I put my bullets into the target as if I placed them there by hand.
— Capitaine René Paul Fonck, French Air Service, 75 victories WWI.
You can have computer sights of anything you like, but I think you have to go to the enemy on the shortest distance and knock him down from point-blank range. You'll get him from in close. At long distance, it's questionable.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF.
I am not a good shot. Few of us are. To make up for this I hold my fire until I have a shot of less than 20 degrees deflection and until I'm within 300 yards. Good discipline on this score can make up for a great deal.
— Lt. Colonel John C. Meyer, USAAF.
Go in close, and when you think you are too close, go in closer.
— Major Thomas B. 'Tommy' McGuire, USAAF.
I opened fire when the whole windshield was black with the enemy … at minimum range … it doesn't matter what your angle is to him or whether you are in a turn or any other maneuver.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF.
As long as I look into the muzzles, nothing can happen to me. Only if he pulls lead am I in danger.
— Captain Hans-Joachim Marseille, Luftwaffe.
Everything in the air that is beneath me, especially if it is a one-seater … is lost, for it cannot shoot to the rear.
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen
I started shooting when I was much too far away. That was merely a trick of mine. I did not mean so much as to hit him as to frighten him, and I succeeded in catching him. He began flying curves and this enabled me to draw near.
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen
A fighter without a gun … is like an airplane without a wing.
— Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.
I'm waiting to be told how cobras, hooks, or vectored thrust help in combat. They're great at air shows, but zero energy is a fighter pilot's nightmare. Shoot your opponent down and his number two will be on your tail thinking it's his birthday — a target hanging there in the sky with zero energy.
— Ned Firth, Eurofighter
See, decide, attack, reverse.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF.
So it was that the war in the air began. Men rode upon the whirlwind that night and slew and fell like archangels. The sky rained heroes upon the astonished earth. Surely the last fights of mankind were the best. What was the heavy pounding of your Homeric swordsmen, what was the creaking charge of chariots, besides this swift rush, this crash, this giddy triumph, this headlong sweep to death?
— H. G. Wells, 'The World Set Free,' 1914.
I was a pilot flying an airplane and it just so happened that where I was flying made what I was doing spying.
— Francis Gary Power, U-2 reconnaissance pilot held by the Soviets for spying, in an interview after he was returned to the US.
The Yo-Yo is very difficult to explain. It was first perfected by the well-known Chinese fighter pilot Yo-Yo Noritake. He also found it difficult to explain, being quite devoid of English.
— Squadron Leader K. G. Holland, RAF.
… my pilot pointed to his left front and above, and looking in the direction he pointed, I saw a long dark brown form fairly streaking across the sky. We could see that it was a German machine, and when it got above and behind our middle machine, it dived on it for all the world like a huge hawk on a hapless sparrow.
— James McCudden, VC, RFC.
Fighting spirit one must have. Even if a man lacks some of the other qualifications, he can often make up for it in fighting spirit.
— Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.
I never went into the air thinking I would lose.
— Commander Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, USN.
Speed is life.
— Anon., popularized by Samuel Flynn, Jr., USN.
Speed is the cushion of sloppiness.
— Commander William P. 'Willie' Driscoll, USNR.
It is probable that future war will be conducted by a special class, the air force, as it was by the armored Knights of the Middle Ages.
— Brigadier General William 'Billy' Mitchell, 'Winged Defense,' 1924.
Most healthy young men or women from sixteen to forty years of age can be taught to fly an ordinary airplane. A great majority of these may become very good pilots for transport- or passenger-carrying machines in time of peace; but the requirements for a military aviator call for more concentrated physical and mental ability in the individual than has ever been necessary in any calling heretofore.
— Brigadier General William 'Billy' Mitchell, 'Skyways,' 1930.
Their element is to attack, to track, to hunt, and to destroy the enemy. Only in this way can the eager and skillful fighter pilot display his ability. Tie him to a narrow and confined task, rob him of his initiative, and you take away from him the best and most valuable qualities he posses: aggressive spirit, joy of action, and the passion of the hunter.
— General Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe.
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 WWII
The smallest amount of vanity is fatal in aeroplane fighting. Self-distrust rather is the quality to which many a pilot owes his protracted existence.
— Captain Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker.
Fly with the head and not with the muscles. That is the way to long life for a fighter pilot. The fighter pilot who is all muscle and no head will never live long enough for a pension.
— Colonel Willie Bats, GAF, 237 victories, W.W. II.
The air battle is not necessarily won at the time of the battle. The winner may have been determined by the amount of time, energy, thought and training an individual has previously accomplished in an effort to increase his ability as a fighter pilot.
— Colonel Gregory 'Pappy' Boyington, USMC, 26 victories, 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.
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind … Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.
— Joseph Heller, Catch 22, 1955.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
— Muhammad Ali (nee Cassius Clay).
A good fighter pilot, like a good boxer, should have a knockout punch … You will find one attack you prefer to all others. Work on it till you can do it to perfection … then use it whenever possible.
— Captain Reade Tilley, USAAF.
He must have a love of hunting, a great desire to be the top dog.
— Sergei Dolgushin, Russian Air Force, 24 victories WWII.
Know and use all the capabilities in your airplane. If you don't, sooner or later, some guy who does use them all will kick your ass.
— Dave 'Preacher' Pace, USN.
Good flying never killed [an enemy] yet.
— attributed to Major Edward 'Mick' Mannock, RAF, ranking British Empire fighter ace of WWI. 61 victories.
Once committed to an attack, fly in at full speed. After scoring crippling or disabling hits, I would clear myself and then repeat the process. I never pursued the enemy once they had eluded me. Better to break off and set up again for a new assault. I always began my attacks from full strength, if possible, my ideal flying height being 22,000 ft because at that altitude I could best utilize the performance of my aircraft. Combat flying is based on the slashing attack and rough maneuvering. In combat flying, fancy precision aerobatic work is really not of much use. Instead, it is the rough maneuver which succeeds.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF, aka Karaya One, the World's leading ace, with 352 victories in WWII Jagdgeschwader 52.
Men were going to die in the air as they had for centuries on the ground and on the seas, by killing each other. The conquest of the air was truly accomplished.
— René Chambe, Au Temps des Carabines, 1955.
Up there the world is divided into bastards and suckers. Make your choice.
— Derek Robinson, Piece of Cake, 1983.
A top World War II ace once said that fighter pilots fall into two broad categories: those who go out to kill and those who, secretly, desperately, know they are going to get killed—the hunters and the hunted.
— General Nathan F. Twinning, USAF
You lived and died alone, especially in fighters. Fighters. Somehow, despite everything, that word had not become sterile. You slipped into the hollow cockpit and strapped and plugged yourself into the machine. The canopy ground shut and sealed you off. Your oxygen, your very breath, you carried into the chilled vacuum, in a steel bottle.
— James Salter, The Hunters, 1956.
I belong to a group of men who fly alone. There is only one seat in the cockpit of a fighter airplane. There is no space alotted for another pilot to tune the radios in the weather or make the calls to air traffic control centers or to help with the emergency procedures or to call off the airspeed down final approach. There is no one else to break the solitude of a long cross-country flight. There is no one else to make decisions.
I do everything myself, from engine start to engine shutdown. In a war, I will face alone the missiles and the flak and the small-arms fire over the front lines.
If I die, I will die alone.
— Richard Bach, Stranger to the Ground, 1963.
The more mechanical becomes the weapons with which we fight, the less mechanical must be the spirit which controls them.
— Field Marshal Archibald P. Wavell.
I mean, I had fast motor cars and fast motor bikes, and when I wasn't crashing airplanes, I was crashing motor bikes. It's all part of the game.
— Sir Harry Broadhurst, RAF, 12 victories WWII.
I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast for I intend to go in harm's way.
— Captain John Paul Jones, in a letter to le Ray de Chaumont, 16 November 1778.
The hunters are the ones who go out and kill. Maybe one out of ten good fighter pilots will be one of the hunters.
— Jack Ilfrey, USAAF, 8 victories WWII.
To the aircraft I aim, not the man.
— Francesco Baracca, Italy's leading ace of WWI, in Italian "è all'apparecchio che io miro non all'uomo," the prancing horse emblem he sported on his aircraft was used by Enzo Ferrari on his cars. Corpo Aeronautico Militare, 34 victories WWI.
You don't think much of the individual, because you don't think you've hit him and you hope that he will bail out or something; it's the aeroplane you've hit … normally it was more of a game if you like, you were outwitting and shooting down another aircraft, you were simply hitting metal.
— Wing commander Pete Malam Brothers, RAF, 16 victories WWII. Imperial War Museum Sound 7462.
It was war. We were defending our country. We had a strict code of honor: you didn't shoot down a cripple and you kept it a fair fight.
— Captain Wilfrid Reid 'Wop' May, RFC, 13 victories WWI.
I hate to shoot a Hun down without him seeing me, for although this method is in accordance with my doctrine, it is against what little sporting instincts I have left.
— James McCudden, VC, RFC, 1917.
My habit of attacking Huns dangling from their parachutes led to many arguments in the mess. Some officers, of the Eton and Sandhurst type, thought it was 'unsportsmanlike' to do it. Never having been to a public school, I was unhampered by such considerations of form. I just pointed out that there was a bloody war on, and that I intended to avenge my pals.
— Captain James Ira Thomas 'Taffy' Jones, RFC, 37 victories in 3 months WWI
Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart.
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen.
Fighting in the air is not sport. It is scientific murder.
— Captain Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAS, 'Fighting the Flying Circus.'
The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down.
— General Chuck Yeager, USAF, describing his first confrontation with a Me262.
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.
It was my view that no kill was worth the life of a wingman… . Pilots in my unit who lost wingmen on this basis were prohibited from leading a [section]. The were made to fly as wingman, instead.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF.
The wingman is absolutely indispensable. I look after the wingman. The wingman looks after me. It's another set of eyes protecting you. That the defensive part. Offensively, it gives you a lot more firepower. We work together. We fight together. The wingman knows what his responsibilities are, and knows what mine are. Wars are not won by individuals. They're won by teams.
— Lt. Col. Francis S. "Gabby" Gabreski, USAF, 28 victories in WWII and 6.5 MiGs over Korea.
There is a peculiar gratification on receiving congratulations from one's squadron for a victory in the air. It is worth more to a pilot than the applause of the whole outside world. It means that one has won the confidence of men who share the misgivings, the aspirations, the trials and the dangers of aeroplane fighting.
— Captain Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAS.
And I have yet to find one single individual who has attained conspicuous success in bringing down enemy aeroplanes who can be said to be spoiled either by his successes or by the generous congratulations of his comrades. If he were capable of being spoiled he would not have had the character to have won continuous victories, for the smallest amount of vanity is fatal in aeroplane fighting. Self-distrust rather is the quality to which many a pilot owes his protracted existence.
— Captain Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAS, 'Fighting the Flying Circus.'
In every squadron there were, perhaps, four or five pilots who exuded confidence. They knew that they were going out to shoot. The rest knew sub-consciously, that they would make up the numbers, mill about, and get shot at.
— Lynn Garrison, quoted in Fighter Command Air Combat Claims, 1939–45 (2003) by John Foreman.
Nothing makes a man more aware of his capabilities and of his limitations than those moments when he must push aside all the familiar defenses of ego and vanity, and accept reality by staring, with the fear that is normal to a man in combat, into the face of Death.
— Major Robert S. Johnson, USAAF.
The duty of the fighter pilot is to patrol his area of the sky, and shoot down any enemy fighters in that area. Anything else is rubbish.
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen, 1917. Richtofen would not let members of his Staffel strafe troops in the trenches.
Anybody who doesn't have fear is an idiot. It's just that you must make the fear work for you. Hell when somebody shot at me, it made me madder than hell, and all I wanted to do was shoot back.
— Brigadier General Robin Olds, 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, RCAF.
In nearly all cases where machines have been downed, it was during a fight which had been very short, and the successful burst of fire had occurred within the space of a minute after the beginning of actual hostilities.
— Lt. Colonel W. A. 'Billy' Bishop, RCAF.
You must take the war to the enemy. You must attack and go on attacking all the time.
— Major Willy Omer François Jean Coppens de Houthulst, Belgian Air Service, 37 victories WWI.
I fly close to my man, aim well and then of course he falls down.
— Captain Oswald Boelcke, probably the world's first ace.
Aerial gunnery is 90 percent instinct and 10 percent aim.
— Captain Frederick C. Libby, RFC.
I had no system of shooting as such. It is definitely more in the feeling side of things that these skills develop. I was at the front five and a half years, and you just got a feeling for the right amount of lead.
— Lt. General Guenther Rall, GAF.
When one has shot down one's first, second or third opponent, then one begins to find out how the trick is done.
— Baron Manfred von Richtofen.
I put my bullets into the target as if I placed them there by hand.
— Capitaine René Paul Fonck, French Air Service, 75 victories WWI.
You can have computer sights of anything you like, but I think you have to go to the enemy on the shortest distance and knock him down from point-blank range. You'll get him from in close. At long distance, it's questionable.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF.
I am not a good shot. Few of us are. To make up for this I hold my fire until I have a shot of less than 20 degrees deflection and until I'm within 300 yards. Good discipline on this score can make up for a great deal.
— Lt. Colonel John C. Meyer, USAAF.
Go in close, and when you think you are too close, go in closer.
— Major Thomas B. 'Tommy' McGuire, USAAF.
I opened fire when the whole windshield was black with the enemy … at minimum range … it doesn't matter what your angle is to him or whether you are in a turn or any other maneuver.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF.
As long as I look into the muzzles, nothing can happen to me. Only if he pulls lead am I in danger.
— Captain Hans-Joachim Marseille, Luftwaffe.
Everything in the air that is beneath me, especially if it is a one-seater … is lost, for it cannot shoot to the rear.
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen
I started shooting when I was much too far away. That was merely a trick of mine. I did not mean so much as to hit him as to frighten him, and I succeeded in catching him. He began flying curves and this enabled me to draw near.
— Baron Manfred von Richthofen
A fighter without a gun … is like an airplane without a wing.
— Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.
I'm waiting to be told how cobras, hooks, or vectored thrust help in combat. They're great at air shows, but zero energy is a fighter pilot's nightmare. Shoot your opponent down and his number two will be on your tail thinking it's his birthday — a target hanging there in the sky with zero energy.
— Ned Firth, Eurofighter
See, decide, attack, reverse.
— Colonel Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann, GAF.
So it was that the war in the air began. Men rode upon the whirlwind that night and slew and fell like archangels. The sky rained heroes upon the astonished earth. Surely the last fights of mankind were the best. What was the heavy pounding of your Homeric swordsmen, what was the creaking charge of chariots, besides this swift rush, this crash, this giddy triumph, this headlong sweep to death?
— H. G. Wells, 'The World Set Free,' 1914.
I was a pilot flying an airplane and it just so happened that where I was flying made what I was doing spying.
— Francis Gary Power, U-2 reconnaissance pilot held by the Soviets for spying, in an interview after he was returned to the US.
The Yo-Yo is very difficult to explain. It was first perfected by the well-known Chinese fighter pilot Yo-Yo Noritake. He also found it difficult to explain, being quite devoid of English.
— Squadron Leader K. G. Holland, RAF.
… my pilot pointed to his left front and above, and looking in the direction he pointed, I saw a long dark brown form fairly streaking across the sky. We could see that it was a German machine, and when it got above and behind our middle machine, it dived on it for all the world like a huge hawk on a hapless sparrow.
— James McCudden, VC, RFC.
Fighting spirit one must have. Even if a man lacks some of the other qualifications, he can often make up for it in fighting spirit.
— Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF.
I never went into the air thinking I would lose.
— Commander Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, USN.
Speed is life.
— Anon., popularized by Samuel Flynn, Jr., USN.
Speed is the cushion of sloppiness.
— Commander William P. 'Willie' Driscoll, USNR.
It is probable that future war will be conducted by a special class, the air force, as it was by the armored Knights of the Middle Ages.
— Brigadier General William 'Billy' Mitchell, 'Winged Defense,' 1924.
Most healthy young men or women from sixteen to forty years of age can be taught to fly an ordinary airplane. A great majority of these may become very good pilots for transport- or passenger-carrying machines in time of peace; but the requirements for a military aviator call for more concentrated physical and mental ability in the individual than has ever been necessary in any calling heretofore.
— Brigadier General William 'Billy' Mitchell, 'Skyways,' 1930.
Their element is to attack, to track, to hunt, and to destroy the enemy. Only in this way can the eager and skillful fighter pilot display his ability. Tie him to a narrow and confined task, rob him of his initiative, and you take away from him the best and most valuable qualities he posses: aggressive spirit, joy of action, and the passion of the hunter.
— General Adolf Galland, Luftwaffe.
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 WWII
The smallest amount of vanity is fatal in aeroplane fighting. Self-distrust rather is the quality to which many a pilot owes his protracted existence.
— Captain Edward V. 'Eddie' Rickenbacker.
Fly with the head and not with the muscles. That is the way to long life for a fighter pilot. The fighter pilot who is all muscle and no head will never live long enough for a pension.
— Colonel Willie Bats, GAF, 237 victories, W.W. II.
The air battle is not necessarily won at the time of the battle. The winner may have been determined by the amount of time, energy, thought and training an individual has previously accomplished in an effort to increase his ability as a fighter pilot.
— Colonel Gregory 'Pappy' Boyington, USMC, 26 victories, 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.
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind … Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.
— Joseph Heller, Catch 22, 1955.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
— Muhammad Ali (nee Cassius Clay).
A good fighter pilot, like a good boxer, should have a knockout punch … You will find one attack you prefer to all others. Work on it till you can do it to perfection … then use it whenever possible.
— Captain Reade Tilley, USAAF.
He must have a love of hunting, a great desire to be the top dog.
— Sergei Dolgushin, Russian Air Force, 24 victories WWII.
Know and use all the capabilities in your airplane. If you don't, sooner or later, some guy who does use them all will kick your ass.
— Dave 'Preacher' Pace, USN.
???? !!!!
Grumman Bearcat
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wonder if you could put a smaller pulley on this Mustang....
Blue Angels on return trip from recent air show
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Funny you say that.... the P-51D's ran a supercharged Merlin. German Bf-109's and FW-190s ran methanol and nitrous injection in the later parts of the war.....wonder if you could put a smaller pulley on this Mustang....
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