Quantcast
Channel: Flying by the seat of my pants
Browsing latest articles
Browse All 15 View Live

Flying by the seat of my pants

Has anyone found the origin of this?My guess is that if the controls of your aircraft were malfunctioning, you would try to steer using "body English", or squirming around hoping that the friction...

View Article



Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

This thread at the alt.usage.English newsgroup discusses the origin but doesn't identify it:goojaI'm thinking 30s, 40s, but might be earlier or later.

View Article

Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

I've always though of this as a picturesque figure of speech from the early days of cross-country flying (WW1 and after), when a pilot's backside was as reliable a piloting/navigation instrument as...

View Article

Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

Don't want to hijack the thread, but...what the heck? Sailing across the gulf stream in pre-ubiquitous GPS days from Florida to the Bahamas was very difficult because the rate of flow of the stream...

View Article

Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

Now we know why there were so few deep water sailors in ancient times --- not very many of them had pants.

View Article


Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

Also may be of interest to consider an excerpt from OED2s entry for dead reckoning in the nautical context and its extension to aviation in the 1917 and 1935 cites below (with a cite from 1890...

View Article

Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

First citation in the OED3 draft entry:"1938 New Yorker 30 July 7/1 For sometime before Douglas Corrigan flew to Dublin by the seat of his pants, we had been noticing that something was the matter...

View Article

Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

Great to have the answer man, the go-to man, back -- thanks, Doc.On edit:Wiki re-cap of Wrong_Way_CorriganIn 1938, after a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, he flew...

View Article


Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

I trust you're not ascribing this bit of business to Edith and Archie Bunker, for whom it would be quite anachronistic.

View Article


Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

Yes, maybe I should have picked more obviously fictional names. TV's Archie Bunker Dies - Jun 21, 2001 - E! Online News Carroll O'Connor was 76. ...

View Article

Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

Consistent with what's said on the ADS-L lists, my understanding has always been that the phrase refers to using one's butt in lieu of instruments, not controls. The feeling of one's weight in the...

View Article

Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

Brainerd Daily Reporter, Brainerd Minnesota, July 19, 1938:LOS ANGELES Douglas Corrigan was described as an aviator who "flies by the seat of his pants" by a mechanic who rejuvenated the plane.... The...

View Article

Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

That's a great antedate, Rev Jim -- OED would do well to use it in the post-draft stage for OED3, as it has a succinct explanation of the meaning.

View Article


Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

"Brainerd" always makes me think of this hilarious Lileks piece about Fargo:So maybe they should have called the film "Brainerd" -- that sounds like plain-spoken heartland patois for shooting someone...

View Article

Re: Flying by the seat of my pants

Maybe it isn't a far go to become a brain-nerd around here.

View Article

Browsing latest articles
Browse All 15 View Live




Latest Images