GREAT AVIATION QUOTES
Eddie Rickenbacker


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There are 10 quotes matching Eddie Rickenbacker in the collection:


I don’t care what you cover the seats with as long as you cover them with assholes.

Eddie Rickenbacker

CEO Eastern Airlines, to the designers proudly showing off the seat cover designs for the the Lockhead Electra, first turboprop airliner to be operated in the United States. Quoted in the 2012 book Attention All Passengers: The Airlines’ Dangerous Descent—and How to Reclaim Our Skies.

A squadron commander who sits in his tent and gives orders and does not fly, though he may have the brains of Soloman, will never get the results that a man will, who, day in and day out, leads his patrols over the line and infuses into his pilots the 'espirit de corps.'

Brigadier General William 'Billy' Mitchell, USAS

In a report on the success of Eddie Rickenbacker. Quoted in the 1960 book The Aces.

The Aces

See two other William 'Billy' Mitchell great aviation quotes.

I pay those guys to fly, so let them fly. I’ll be damned if I’ll pay them to just sit there.

Reportedly Eddie Rickenbackerer

CEO Eastern Airlines. Eastern aircraft were some of the last to be equipped with autopilots His pilots saying was if it wasn’t in Captain Eddie’s SPAD he won’t buy it. Quoted in 1999 book Human Factors in Multi-Crew Flight Operations by Orlady & Orlady.

Fighting in the air is not sport. It is scientific murder.

Captain Edward 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAAS

26 combat victories.Fighting the Flying Circus, 1919.

Rickenbacker in his SPAD S.XIII

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 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAAS

26 combat victories in WWI. Fighting the Flying Circus, 1919.

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 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAAS

26 combat victories in WWI. Fighting the Flying Circus, 1919.

The experienced fighti ng 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 that either for offense or defense justifies the sacrifice of plane and pilot.

Captain Edward 'Eddie' Rickenbacker, USAAS

The most successful and most decorated United States flying ace of WWI with 26 combat victories. The Men Who Cleared the Clouds, Chapter XIX of Supplementary Volume to the Great War History, 1920.

Within the next few decades, autos will have folding wings that can be spread when on a straight stretch of road so that the machine can take to the air.

Eddie Rickenbacker

In an article titled Flying Autos in 20 Years, Popular Science magazine, July 1924.

Flying Autos in 20 Years

Atomic energy may fly airplanes in the next generation. Somebody alive today may take a voyage in a spaceship. Anyone who has watched aviation closely for the past half century is justifiably hesitant to even predict what the shape of the future aircraft may be.

Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker

President and General Manager, Eastern Air Lines. From Kitty Hawk to Jets article, Popular Mechanics magazine, Golden Anniversary Issue, January 1952.

Popular Mechanics magazine, Golden Anniversary Issue, January 1952

The very existence of aviation is proof that man, given the will, has the capacity to accomplish deeds that seem impossible.

Eddie Rickenbacker

Rickenbacker: An Autobiography, 1967. .


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