The Flight of the Phoenix Quotes

“Out of the desert came seven men, and a monkey.”
― Elleston Trevor, The Flight of the Phoenix

“Her shadow crossed the dunes, smaller now. Ahead lay the south desert, limitless. Soon she turned slowly, with the sun swinging across the port wing-tip, and headed west as they had planned.”
― Elleston Trevor, The Flight of the Phoenix

“The Army had your soul, once you’d been in it all those years—there were things you couldn’t shake off so easy, because they’d gone deep into you, and it was painful when they came out, because of the roots they’d grown, right deep down in your guts.
Name and number? Watson, 606. Smarten up there, Private Watson! You’re a soldier now, you know, not a bloody jelly fish! Get that salute right, private! Sir! Sir! Sir! Corporal, what’s your unit? Corporal Watson, dress that man! You are in charge of this rabble, Corp’l Watson? Sir! Report to my quarters, Sarnt Watson, oh six hundred hours! You should know better than that, Sergeant—now get those men in order! Sir! Sir! Sir!
Hold, Watty.”
― Elleston Trevor, The Flight of the Phoenix

“The wind had flung the sand thirty thousand feet into the sky above the desert in a blinding cloud from the Niger to the Nile, and somewhere in it was the airplane.”
― Elleston Trevor, The Flight of the Phoenix

“The shadows of the dunes were black-cut by the moon; the stars were huge and blue. Toward midnight the silk canopy was lifted, and fell inert, and was lifted again by the breeze that rose softly from the north, from the sea.”
― Elleston Trevor, The Flight of the Phoenix

“The figure of the captain appeared again by the tail unit.
Softly, sharply, “Watson!”
Hold your ground, Watty. Hold.
Captain Harris approached him, his eyes wide in the moonlight. “What’s the trouble?”
“No trouble sir.” He tried to bite the last word off but it was too late, it was said. Habit. Got a man down, in the end. “I’m not going, that’s all.”
They faced each other and unconsciously the rest of them stood back, as a small crowd does when a fight starts.
It’s not possible, Moran thought. This is the British Army.”
― Elleston Trevor, The Flight of the Phoenix

“She is not a toy, Mr. Towns, she is an airplane.”
― Elleston Trevor, The Flight of the Phoenix

“A dead run and he began to be afraid because she had to start in the next three or it was no go, after twenty-six days, no go. Risk the next cartridge on clearing the pots—she was too rich, stank of the stuff. Mixture weak, switches off, throttle wide open and risk it.
Five.
Steady and no kick, a clearer, with black-and-blue muck curling out of the pipe; he shivered in the heat with two to go and the fear of Christ in him.
Six.
A spinner and she kicked, banging on the gears with the air frame shaking, blue smoke curling, clearing—orange flame and the big prop spinning at a run and settling, putting out a roar from the pipe that drowned the sound of the sobbing in his throat as he eased the revs up and sat like a sack listening to the cylinders beating, hunting, one of them choked still but picking up—then she was running with a will and in the long sweet sound he heard another, faintly, and turned his head and saw them standing there with their mouths open, cheering.”
― Elleston Trevor, The Flight of the Phoenix