With fighter command controlling the skies the invasion couldn’t take place. ibid.
They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind ... There are a lot of people who say that bombing can never win a war: well, my answer to that is that it has never been tried here. And we shall see. Air Marshall Sir Arthur Bomber Harris
Mitsuo Fuchida, a commander in the Imperial Japanese navy, was the air-strike leader of the Japanese carrier force that attacked Pearl Harbor. Considered one of Japan’s most skilful fliers, Commander Fuchida ... led the first wave of 183 airplanes against the US fleet at Pearl Harbor ... he was the one who shouted the war cry, ‘Tora, Tora, Tora’.
Of the 70 Japanese officers who participated in the raid on Pearl Harbor, Fuchida was the only one who returned to Japan alive. He later fought against the United States throughout the war in the Pacific.
Fuchida was a national hero in Japan, but at war’s end he was a disillusioned and bitter man. Don Gilleland, Unique Story of Pearl Harbor
Doc, I don’t want to fly any more – it’s dangerous. Catch 22 1970 Starring Alan Arkin & Martin Balsam & Richard Benjamin & Arthur Garfunkel & Jack Gilford & Anthony Perkins & Martin Sheen & Jon Voight & Orson Welles & Buck Henry & Bob Newhart & Paula Prentiss et al, director Mike Nichols, pilots’ mess Yossarian
Where the hell’s my parachute? ibid. Yossarian
Hitler was fascinated by the possibilities of flight. Hitler’s Bodyguard: Hitler’s Aircraft and Flights of Fear, Netflix 2008
Secretly he rebuilt his country’s Air force. ibid.
A personal air fleet for Hitler that consisted of almost fifty aircraft. ibid.
[Hans] Baur served Hitler for thirteen years as his chief pilot. ibid.
Hitler’s second-in-command ... He claimed he never wanted the war but it was his Air Force who made it possible in the first place. Goering: A Career: Seduction of Power, Military Channel 2012
Germany’s most famous pilot ... who put a bullet through his head. Hitler’s Generals: Udet, 1996
Udet’s knowledge of engines and planes brought him the dream job of fighter pilot. Flyers were the new idols, the knights of the air. They flew in rickety constructions of canvas and plywood. The air war looked like a game but it was a deadly battle. Hardly any of the fighter pilots survived the war. ibid.
No-one else could pick up a cloth with a wing-tip. ibid.
Udet always drank when he flew. ibid.
Germany’s most famous female pilot. Hitler’s Idols: Hanna Reitsch
The flight to the Bunker goes down in history. ibid.
She would test Hitler’s super-weapons. ibid.
Flight Captain – the first woman in history to hold the rank. ibid.
At the start of the War the German Air Force is the strongest in the world. ibid.
1959: the Boeing 747 flies between New York and Los Angeles. America: The Story of the US: Superpower, History 2010
Amy Johnson ... Britain has a rich history of pioneers ... The first women to fly solo around the world. The British VII: War and Peace, Sky Atlantic 2012
Could there really be a secret city hidden below Denver International Airport? America’s Book of Secrets 2/10, H2 2013
Something goes wrong. They suddenly lose speed. The Elizabethan has crashed through a fence. Manchester Utd: Munich Air Crash, Channel 5 2013
Harry Gregg pulls out one passenger after another both living and dead. ibid.
21 people are dead ... Manchester United, one of the world’s greatest football teams, is effectively wiped out. ibid.
Gentlemen, I give you the Whittle engine. Frank Whittle
If we’re on long-haul flights I’ve been known to sleep on the floor so I hear the engine. Wayne Rooney
You’re getting on that plane with Victor where you belong ... You’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but soon and for the rest of your life. We’ll always have Paris. Casablanca 1942 ***** starring Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman & Paul Henreid & Claude Rains & Conrad Veidt & Sydney Greenstreet & Peter Lorre & Curt Bois et al, director Michael Curtiz
Aviation is the branch of engineering that is least forgiving of mistakes. Freeman Dyson
I flew a Cessna once, course that was before my first breakdown. The Comic Strip Presents … s4e2: South Atlantic Raiders: Argie Bargie, Max, Channel 4 1990
We should have taken the coach. The Comic Strip Presents … s8e2: Four Men in a Plane, Nigel Planer, Channel 4 2000
It’s just like driving a Mondeo this. ibid.
I’ve never been on a decision-making course. ibid. Mayall
I saw this film once where they drink each other’s piss. I dunno. I went out for a drink. Nice cool pint of lager it was. ibid. Planer
Ian’s got some mints he’s not telling us about. ibid. Richardson
Flight 911 was in trouble. James Burke, Connections s1e1: The Trigger Effect, BBC 1979
Heaviest aircraft pulled by an individual: David Huxley (Australia) pulled a Boeing 747-400 weighing 187 tonnes (412,264 lb) Guinness World Records 1985 (50th edition)
‘This is the captain. Brace for impact.’ Miracle Landing on the Hudson, words you don’t want to hear, National Geographic 2014
And boom! ... The plane just shook and shuttered ... There was a smell ... The interphone did not work ... Miss, you need to sit down ... I think the engine is going to fall off ... I have some good news and some bad news ... It's not running. ibid. comments
I think he said he’s going into the Hudson. ibid.
Everybody survived. ibid.
Air Stewardess: Would you take your seat please, sir?
Norman Wisdom: No it’s all right; I’m getting off at the next stop.
No! We’re all going to die! And we’ve all got to be ready for it! Come on! Everybody sing Nearer My God to Thee! Kenneth Williams, attributed, on board a flight amid turbulence
Ghost plane flies again: Aircraft spotted 50 years after tragic moorland crash. Derbyshire local news article
There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror. Orson Welles
In a hot air balloon invented by a pair of dabbling amateurs ... it was paper that first inspired the French brothers’ interest in flight. Ronald Top, Industrial Revelations: Europe s4e7: High Fliers, Discovery 2007
A few months after the Montgolfiers’ first flight the Paris Academy launched a hydrogen balloon. ibid.
In 1906 Graf von Zeppelin recorded a twenty-four hour flight. The German government commissioned an entire fleet. ibid.
The Wright Brothers experimented with box-kites and concluded that two sets of wings would increase lift ... Their plane – Flier 1 – looks very like a box-kite, except the Wrights added a system of controls and a lightweight engine. In 1903 the Wright brothers completed the first powered flight in a winged craft. It was a magnificent achievement but it lasted less than a minute. ibid.
On July 25th 1909 [Louis] Bleriot used it to fly across the English Channel. ibid.
It was huge. It was two-hundred-and-forty-five-metres long ... This was not a party balloon: the Hindenburg had enough life to carry four one-thousand-and-fifty-horsepower engines. ibid.
The Hindenburg fire brought the age of the airship to a tragic end. ibid.