Why don't they make the whole plane out of that black box stuff?

I’m surprised there isn’t a jet airplane designed in the shape of a brick. Some people (aeronautical engineers) might say that’s because bricks aren’t aerodynamic. Yeah, right. I’d like to see someone make that claim as they watch a brick flying towards their face at a high velocity.

I have woven a parachute out of everything broken.

I seen you actin’ up with your plane. Real fancy. And when I landed I asked: ‘Who’s that young duck with his pinfeathers showin’?’ and they told me it was you tryin’ out a plane you’d just bought.” He stared at LeRoy and wagged his finger: “You’re clever, but you ain’t clever enough to break the rules.” “What rules?” “Not many. Five, six? Stay away from whirlin’ propellers, they chop you into mincemeat. Never, never climb into your plane without checkin’ the gas. An empty tank is remorseless. You’ll be flyin’ into strange areas without strips, so never, never land straight in. Circle to see whether the ice is frozen or the sand strip along the river is solid. On the way out, check every visible point, you’ll need ’em comin’ back. Don’t hesitate to sleep beside your plane, because tryin’ to find your way home at night in a fog ain’t really productive. And for Christ’s own sweet sake, tie down your cargo. Keep plenty of light rope in your plane and lash down them floatin’ objects, or sure as hell they’re goin’ to smash right into the back of your head at sixty miles an hour.” As LeRoy tried to visualize the situations in which these instructions would apply, the old-timer added a special one for Alaska: “And, LeRoy, maybe you wouldn’t think of this, but in winter always keep an armful of spruce branches in the rear of your plane, tied down, of course.

If Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at the age of 22, it would have changed the history of music... and of aviation.

Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.

In measured time forty-seven days had passed since the crash. Forty-two days, he thought, since he had died and been born as the new Brian. When the plane had come and gone it had put him down, gutted him and dropped him and left him with nothing.

I mean, if Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at twenty-two, the history of music would have been very different. As would the history of aviation, of course.

...though nothing is damaged, everything is changed.

Every flight begins with a fall.

"We wrote this song called 'Flight of Icarus'. It's a Fable... It's about this bloke named Icarus, right, and one day he goes "'Ello, I think I'm gonna fly about!", so he builds some wings out of wax and feathers, right, and he goes flying about like a cunt through the air, right, and he goes up to this ball of fire called 'the sun' that hides obscured by the clouds over the UK, right... So he goes up to the ball of fire and the wings melt, 'cause they're made out of wax, right, so he goes plummetin', plummetin' down to the earth, and he fuckin' dies, right... alright, so we wrote this song called 'Flight of Icarus', right, and it's basically sayin' "Hey man, wake up! Don't go flyin' about near the sun unless you're in an airplane," right, 'cause the wings are metal, right, and they won't melt, right... So, here's a song that's workin' on two different levels at once, right... 'cause the wings of the plane are made out of metal, right... and we play Metal music, right... two dimensional, see? So Maiden's always thinking... Always thinking."

In the quiet, I talked to my friend, who happened to be a T-33, and asked point-blank the questions I could never answer.

'What are you, airplane? What is it about you and all your wide family that has made so many men leave all they know and come to you? Why do they waste good human love and concern on you who are nothing but so many pounds of steel and aluminum and gasoline and hydraulic fluid?

All of flying is easy. Just takes learning. Like everything else. Like everything else.

¡Oh raza humana, nacida para remontar vuelo!, ¿por qué el menor soplo de viento te hace caer?