Chuck Yeager

I have flown in just about everything, with all kinds of pilots in all parts of the world - British, French, Pakistani, Iranian, Japanese, Chinese - and there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between any of them except for one unchanging, certain fact: the best, most skillful pilot has the most experience.

The best pilots fly more than the others; that's why they're the best.

There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot.

When I was picked to fly the X-1, it was my duty to fly it, and I did.

It wasn't that the X-1 would kill you, it was the systems in the X-1 that would kill you.

All that I am ... I owe to the Air Force.

If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing.

I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit.

Most pilots learn, when they pin on their wings and go out and get in a fighter, especially, that one thing you don't do, you don't believe anything anybody tells you about an airplane.

There is no such thing as a natural born pilot. Whatever my aptitudes or talents, becoming a proficient pilot was hard work, really a lifetime's learning experience. For the best pilots, flying is an obsession, the one thing in life they must do continually. The best pilots fly more than the others; that's why they're the best. Experience is everything. The eagerness to learn how and why every piece of equipment works is everything. And luck is everything, too.

You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don't give up.

The first time I ever saw a jet, I shot it down.