The Magic and Wonder of Flight from England to Poland

The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? —it is the same the angels breathe.

— Mark Twain, Roughing It, Chapter XXII, 1886.

 

The natural function of the wing is to soar upwards and carry that which is heavy up to the place where dwells the race of gods. More than any other thing that pertains to the body it partakes of the nature of the divine.

— Plato, Phaedrus.

A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the study of so vast a subject. A time will come when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them.

— Seneca, Book 7, first century CE

Sometimes, flying feels too godlike to be attained by man. Sometimes, the world from above seems too beautiful, too wonderful, too distant for human eyes to see …

— Charles A. Lindbergh, The Spirit of St. Louis, 1953.

You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky.

— Amelia Earhart

Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight—how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.

— Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

No one can realize how substantial the air is, until he feels its supporting power beneath him. It inspires confidence at once.

— Otto Lilienthal

We returned home, after these experiments, with the conviction that sailing flight was not the exclusive prerogative of birds.

— Otto Lilienthal, 1874.

Coming home to my family afterward makes the work richer, easier and more fun.     

Edie Falco