RIP Tom Skerritt. “Gentlemen. You are the top one percent of all naval aviators. The elite. The best of the best. We'll make you better.” “Well, that'll just about cover the flybys.” “What I’m about to tell you is classified. It could end my career.” Commander Mike 'Viper' Metcalf, in the 1986 movie Top Gun. Written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. All my Top Gun quotes: aviationquotations.com/topgu… #TomSkerritt #Viper #TopGun #FlyNavy

#USN #FlyNavy #airpower “If I do my job right, history will never know my name. … Mission success for me is not to fight and win a war; it’s to provide a deterrent capability so that we never go to war in the first place.” ~ Admiral Samuel Paparo, Commander of the United States Pacific Command, interview in his office at the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, on a hill overlooking Pearl Harbor, late July 2026. Quoted in The Admiral Who Must Prevent War With China, Time magazine, 24 September 2026.

#davinci @RAFMUSEUM #fakequotes Eyes Turned Skyward fake quote update. At the wonderful Waterstones bookstore in Piccadilly, London, spotted the NOT Leonardo da Vinci quote in an unexpected place — a book by the Curator of Documents at the Royal Air Force Museum. Used as the epigraph, right at the start of the Introduction. Who actually said it first? See airfactsjournal.com/2020/08/…

Apt quote considering the recent airline flyby of a stadium: “Thrill the ignorant, impress the knowledgeable, but frighten no one.” Advice on what a Red Arrows air show display should look like, given to Ian Dick, then Red 1, from former Red 1 Ray Hanna. Quoted in the 2021 book I'm reading right now, written by (another) former Red 1, Wing Commander David Montenegro, The Red Arrows: The Story of Britain's Iconic Display Team. #RedArrows #flyby #safety #airshow #aerobatics

I was at the Leonardo Museum in Milan this weekend. Lots of fun & cool da Vinci flying machine models. And guess what. No ‘quote’ about when once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return. There was, however, a statement about while coming up with hundreds of flying ideas — he “never actually reached his goal.” airfactsjournal.com/2020/08/…

#boeing #B777 #Emirates #bakedbeans “We're not taking that batch and that's it. As far as we're concerned, what they do with them is up to them. Heinz would be interested – baked bean cans.” Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates, telling The Telegraph newspaper at the Farnborough International Airshow that their initial batch of 10 jets required such a patchwork of changes to update them that they were not fit for purpose. 20 July 2026.

“In flying, you’re always preparing for an alternative. So I went to my alternative. I’m still kicking in doors to keep on going.” RIP Wally Funk. One of the original women of Mercury 13 denied her chance of a spaceflight in the 1960’s — right stuff wrong sex — Wally went on to teach 3,000 people to fly, logged over 19,000 hours, became the first female FAA inspector and the first female NTSB air safety investigator. She did get to go into space, with Jeff Bezos in Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on 20 July 2021. Quote from The Dallas Morning News, 20 September 1998. theguardian.com/us-news/2026… #WallyFunk #flying #mercury13 #CFI

#USAF #F22 #aerobatics “You may fly this aircraft with reckless abandon.” Original wording of the USAF F-22 Dash-1 flight manual. Quoted in The Evolving Fighter, Air & Space Quarterly, @Smithsonian @AirandSpace, Summer 2026.

#safety #NASA #spaceshuttle “We talk about risk and safety, and I hear a lot of people say, “Safety is number one.” “Safety is the most important thing.“ It’s not entirely true. Safety is really important. And we need to always keep safety in front of us. But in the end, what’s number one is to go.” ~ Wayne Hale Former NASA Mission Control Flight Director and Manager Space Shuttle Program. Reflecting on STS-114, the Return to Space mission, and the career and character of Eileen Collins, at the end of the fantastic 2024 documentary Spacewoman. It's out now on Apple TV and Amazon. spacewoman.film

#flying #Popeleo #notAI #A320 “It is a pleasure and a blessing to meet you. Thank you for everything. It is a great honor.” Pope Leo XIV, from the jumpseat of an Iberia A320 flying from Madrid to Barcelona, to escorting Spanish Air Force fighter pilots, 9 June 2026. First time a Pope talked from the cockpit? Pictures look like AI, but it really happened. nbcnews.com/video/pope-leo-t…

#airlinepilot #womenfly “I’d never seen a pilot who looked like me.” Captain Carole Hopson, United Airlines. Wonderful story: washingtonpost.com/travel/20…

#flying #flyingmag #firstsolo “Every pilot looks at their first solo flight as a major rite of passage they never forget. It marks the first time a person realizes they're truly responsible for their own life.” Martha Lunkin Rites of Passage, Flying magazine, June 2026.

#flying @flywithaopa “During my decades of flying, I have observed that virtually everything in an airplane has the potential to fail and at some point, probably will.” Barry Schiff Decades is an understatment. He has over 70 years of flying experience. In his monthly AOPA Pilot magazine Proficient Pilot column, What If?, AOPA Pilot, May 2026. The article ended with this pratical advice: “On the next rainy day, crawl into a cockpit and play What if? Ask yourself what you would do if this control or that switch were to fail. It can be an enlightening exercise in preparedness.” aopa.org/news-and-media/all-…

#airpower #USAF #flying “[It] is not enough to shoot down all birds in flight if you want to wipe out the species. The most effective method would be to destroy the eggs and the nests systematically.” “[It] is much more important to destroy a railroad station, a bakery, a war plant, or to machine-gun a supply column, moving trains, or any other behind-the-lines objective, than to strafe or bomb a trench.” General Giulio Douhet, The Command of the Air, 1921. theguardian.com/world/2026/m…