Aviation



aviation \A`vi*a"tion\, n.
  1. The art or science of flying.
  2. The operation of aircraft.
  3. The design, development, and production of aircraft.

I've been interested in Aviation since before I can remember. My father was in the US Air Force (so I can be considered somewhat of a military brat), and he passed his love of airplanes on to me. When I was younger I spent many hours assembling model kits, and the only ones I could do well were airplanes (and spacecraft). Aviation is a subject that will never get boring for me.


HIGH FLIGHT

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter - silvered wings;
Sunward, I've climbed, and joined the tumbling
mirth of sun-split clouds,
And done a hundred things you have not
dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
high in the sunlit silence;
Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along,
And flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

     -- John Gillespie Magee Jr.

In December 1941, John G. Magee, a nineteen year old American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England, was killed when his Spitfire collided with another airplane inside a cloud. Several months before his death, he composed his immortal sonnet "High Flight," a copy of which he mailed to his mother in the United States.



Airforce.com - Official Site of the USAF
Air Force Link - Bringing together the world of the U.S. Air Force
Air Force Flight Test Center - Edwards Air Force Base
Nellis Air Force Base - Home of the Fighter Pilot
National Museum of the United States Air Force - Home of Orville & Wilbur
Thunderbirds - USAF Precision Arial Demonstration Team


"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."

     -- Leonardo da Vinci

AcePilots.com
Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields
Aviation Now/Aviation Week - Aviation Week & Space Technology Magazine
The Centennial of Flight - The Future of Flight
Commemorative Air Force - Formerly "Confederate Air Force"
EAA - Experimental Aircraft Association
Farnborough International Airshow
Great Aviation Quotes
Jane's Information Group
Kalamazoo Air Zoo
National Air & Space Museum - Paying Homage to the World of Flight

Colonel Bud Anderson | General Chuck Yeager


"The last of the lonely places is the sky, a trackless void
where nothing lives or grows, and above it, space itself.
Man may have been destined to walk upon ice or sand,
or climb the mountains or take craft upon the sea.
But surely he was never meant to fly?
But he does, and finding out how to do it
was his last great adventure."

-- Frederick Forsyth, RAF


P-51 Mustang - "Cadillac of the Skies"
"The flight of the birds, so effortless and graceful, has led man
since the dawn of time to turn his gaze with longing to the skies.

But his dream of soaring above the clouds was not to be realised
without weary centuries of experiment and failure...

Man, because he was himself denied the power of flight,
reverenced it as a supernatural quality and could give no higher honour
to his gods and goddesses than the endowment of wings
in acknowledgement of their superior being.

In antiquity are found many examples of this expression
of awe at the power of flight."

-- from the film "Conquest of the Air," Alexander Korda, 1935