GREAT AVIATION QUOTES
BOEING

There isn’t much to that machine of Maroney’s. I think we could build a better one.

William Boeing

Who had studied engineering at Yale University, and was a wealthy timber heir who also owned a shipyard, to his friend Conrad Westervilt, after they flew in a barnstormers seaplane at the 1914 Fourth of July fair on Seattle’s Lake Washington. Conrad replied,

“Of course we could. Would you like me to make some inquiries?”

This is the origin story of the Boeing Company. Told for example in Boeing magazine, a publication of the Boeing Public Relations Office, July 1956. Condensed from the first chapter of Harold Mansfield 1956 book Vision: A Saga of the Sky.

Selling airplanes.

Alvin 'Tex' Johnson

Boeing test pilot, asked by Boeing President William Allen what he thought he was doing the day before after two surprise barrel rolls of the new Dash 80 (later the B-707) airliner over a crowd of 250,000 people at the Seattle Gold Cup, 8 August 1955.

Tex explained the maneuver was harmless, performed at one G. In his book Tex Johnston: Jet-Age Test Pilot he says “the airplane does not recognize attitude, providing a maneuver is conducted at one G. It knows only positive and negative imposed loads and variations in thrust and drag. The barrel roll is a one G maneuver and quite impressive, but the airplane never knows it’s inverted.” Allen responded:

“You know that. Now we know that. But just don’t do it anymore.”

She flew like a bird, only faster.

Alvin 'Tex' Johnston

Boeing test pilot, climbing down from the cockpit of the Boeing Model 367-80 after its first flight, 15 July, 1954. It would become the B707 for the airlines and the KC-135 for the USAF.

I believe they’re all fucking Toyota Corollas.

Michael O'Leary

Ryanair CEO, regards the technical differences between Airbus, Boeing & Comac airliners. In Fortune magazine article, 18 November 2013.

See nine other Michael O’Leary great aviation quotes.

It handled magnificently. It’s a pilot’s dream.

Jack Waddell

Test pilot, press interview following the first flight of the Boeing 747, 9 February 1969. Reported for example in ‘Jumbo Jet’ Flies First Time; Flaw in Flap Noted, The New York Times, 10 February 1969.



See one other Jack Waddell great aviation quote.

Beautiful. A little turbulence but she soaks it up.

Jack Waddell

Boeing test pilot, radio transmission during the first test flight of the B747, 9 February 1969, six years to the day of the first flight of the B727. The test pilots deliberately wore business suits rather than flight suits to visually demonstrate the safety of the new airliner. Reported as 747 Goes Aloft for First Time; It’s Beautiful, The Seattle Times, 10 February 1969.



See one other Jack Waddell great aviation quote.

so I basically lied to the regulators (unknowingly)

Mark Forkner

Boeing test pilot, November 2016 text message to another Boeing employee used in 2021 legal indictment criminally charging him for hiding Boeing's flawed design of the 737 MAX from regulators.

Engineering is the science of doing things over again.

John E. 'Jack' Steiner

Chief engineer on the Boeing 727. A ‘summary he had once invented for a speech’, quoted in the 1965 book Billion Dollar Battle: The Story Behind the “Impossible” 727 Project.

The airplane flew beautifully. There were no surprises.

Randall Neville

Test pilot, first flight of the Boeing 787, Boeing Field. As a highly experienced test pilot and former director of Flight Operations for the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, Neville knew the wonder of ‘no surprises’ on a first flight, 15 December 2009.

The Boeing 747 is the commuter train of the global village.

Henk Tennekes

The Simple Science of Flight, 1996.

Unfortunately, our flight was at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Yevhenii Dykhne

President of Ukraine International Airlines, after a UIA Boeing 737-800 was unintentionally shot down on 8 January 2020 by an Iranian missile. Press conference in Kiev, 11 January 2020,

This airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys.

[Name Redacted]

Boeing company pilot. Internal message to a colleague regards the B737 MAX, 26 April 2017. Part of the document dump sent to the U.S. Congress investigation, October 2019.

It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let twins fly long-haul, overwater routes.

Lynn Helms

FAA Administrator, 1980, to Boeing’s CEO Dick Taylor when first approached about extending the allowed distance two engine aircraft could be from a suitable emergency landing location. This change would be required to allow the new Boeing 767 to fly to Honolulu and Europe from the US mainland.



The first ETOPS flight was TWA Flight 810, a B767 from Boston to Paris, 1 February 1985. Quoted in 1992 book Legend and Legacy : The Story of Boeing and its People.

The plane has a very light, responsive touch. I'd call it a two-finger airplane.

Waddell Wallick

Boeing 747 test pilot, describing the first flight to the press, 9 February 1969. Asked which two fingers, he “obligingly held up his left hand with forefinger and thumb curled as if gripping the control wheel”, Boeing magazine, March 1969.

If back then, we knew everything we know now, we would have made different decisions.

Dennis Muilenburg

CEO of Boeing, in testimony to the U.S. Congress about the B737 MAX, 29 October 2019. He started at Boeing as an intern in 1985. Two months after this quote, in December 2019, he was fired for failing to stabilize the company following the two 737 Max crashes.

A great weapon for peace, competing with intercontinental missiles for mankind’s destiny.

Juan Trippe

Pan Am’s founder, on the B747, at the ceremonial 747 contract-signing banquet in Seattle on Boeing’s 50th Anniversary. April 1966. Quoted in the 2014 book The Airbus A380: A History and others.



See three other Juan Trippe great aviation quotes.

Autonomy is going to come to all of the airplanes eventually. The future of autonomy is real.

Dave Calhoun

Boeing CEO, at an event commemorating the final delivery of a B747, Everett, Washington. 31 January 2023. Reported by Bloomburg.

See one other Dave Calhoun great aviation quote.

Kansas City Center, this is Air Force One. Would you please change our call sign to SAM 27000.

Colonel Ralph Albertazzie, USAF

39,000 feet over Missouri after being informed that passenger Richard Nixon was no longer president since Gerald Ford had been sworn into office. 9 Aug 1974.

They were heading from Washington D.C. to Nixon’s home, La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, California.

SAM 27000 was the second of two Boeing VC-137C United States Air Force aircraft that were specifically configured and maintained for the use of the President of the United States. SAM 27000 comes from 'Special Air Mission' and its serial number 72-7000. It's on display now at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Everything went very well. If anything, it was fairly routine. I think I'll just go home and relax.

John Armstrong

Boeing test pilot, first flight of the 757, FAA registration N757A, on 19 February 1982. Reported in The New York Times newspaper 22 February 1982. A problem with the number 2 engine (right wing) required an air restart during the flight. The prototype landed at Paine Field, Everett, Washington, after 2 hours, 31 minutes. The article added this:

“I’ve been over it so many times that actually I feel a lot more comfortable in my airplane than in my own car. We know basically what it’s going to fly like.”

We believe the airplane is trying to tell us something and that it has been trying for quite awhile.

Bernard Loeb

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Director of Aviation Safety, Safety Board hearing on the 1994 USAir Boeing 737 rudder crash. Boeing had been advancing a theory of pilot error, but eventually the design fault was found. 23 March 1999, quoted the next day in U.S. panel questions safety of 737s, Chicago Tribune, Section 1, 14 March 1999.