Flight

process by which an object moves, through an atmosphere or beyond it

Flight is the process by which an object moves through an atmosphere (or beyond it, as in the case of spaceflight) without contact with the surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift associated with propulsive thrust, aerostatically using buoyancy, or by ballistic movement. Many things can fly, from natural aviators such as birds, bats, and insects, to human inventions like aircraft, including airplanes, helicopters, balloons, and rockets which may carry spacecraft. The engineering aspects of flight are the purview of aerospace engineering which is subdivided into aeronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through the air, and astronautics, the study of vehicles that travel through space, and in ballistics, the study of the flight of projectiles.

I just want to fly: Put your arms around me baby, I just want to fly. ~ Sugar Ray

Quotes

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Jack: No. Jump good!
  • Bryan Andrews and Brian Larsen, "Jack Learns to Jump Good", Samurai Jack, (March 1, 2002)
  • Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John’s, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingoes flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it.
  • Vainly the fowler's eye
    Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong,
    As, darkly painted on the crimson sky,
    Thy figure floats along.
  • Thou little bird, thou dweller by the sea,
    Why takest thou its melancholy voice,
    And with that boding cry
    Along the waves dost thou fly?
    • Richard Henry Dana, The Little Beach Bird, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 57.
  • Flying is years and years of utter boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror
  • Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting.
  • All flight is based upon producing air pressure, all flight energy consists in overcoming air pressure.
    • Otto Lilienthal, Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst (1889); English edition: Birdflight As The Basis of Aviation (1911).
  • Restat iter cœlo: cœlo tentabimus ire;
    Da veniam cœpto, Jupiter alte, meo.
  • One way remains—by air: by air a way we'll try;
    Pardon the bold adventure, Jove most high!
  • I just want to fly: put your arms around me baby, I just want to fly.
  • 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.
    • This quotation was first used in print (and misattributed to Leonardo da Vinci) in a science fiction story published in 1975, The Storms of Windhaven. One of the authors, Lisa Tuttle, remembers that the quote was suggested by science fiction writer Ben Bova, who says he believes he got the quote from a TV documentary narrated by Fredric March, presumably I, Leonardo da Vinci, written by John H. Secondari for the series Saga of Western Man, which aired on 23 February 1965. Bova incorrectly assumed that he was quoting da Vinci. The probable author is John Hermes Secondari (1919-1975), American author and television producer.
  • Across the narrow beach we flit,
    One little sand-piper and I;
    And fast I gather, bit by bit,
    The scattered drift-wood, bleached and dry,
    The wild waves reach their hands for it,
    The wild wind raves, the tide runs high,
    As up and down the beach we flit,
    One little sand-piper and I.
    • Celia Thaxter, The Sand-Piper, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 690.
  • For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man.
  • A flight ticket is a paper or electronic document that contains passenger information as well as flight information, including origin and destination, flight time, arrival time, and flight number.
  • The person who merely watches the flight of a bird gathers the impression that the bird has nothing to think of but the flapping of its wings. As a matter of fact this is a very small part of its mental labor. To even mention all the things the bird must constantly keep in mind in order to fly securely through the air would take a considerable part of the evening. If I take this piece of paper, and after placing it parallel with the ground, quickly let it fall, it will not settle steadily down as a staid, sensible piece of paper ought to do, but it insists on contravening every recognized rule of decorum, turning over and darting hither and thither in the most erratic manner, much after the style of an untrained horse. Yet this is the style of steed that men must learn to manage before flying can become an everyday sport. The bird has learned this art of equilibrium, and learned it so thoroughly that its skill is not apparent to our sight. We only learn to appreciate it when we try to imitate it.
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