Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible. Simon Newcomb
Newcomb stated the above in 1901, but he was not as closed off as the quote makes people think. “He begins an article titled “Is the Airship Possible?” with the remark, “That depends, first of all, on whether we are to make the requisite scientific discoveries.” He ends with the remark “the construction of an aerial vehicle … which could carry even a single man from place-to-place at pleasure requires the discovery of some new metal or some new force.”
Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a Canadian–American astronomer, applied mathematician, and autodidactic polymath. He served as Professor of Mathematics in the United States Navy and at Johns Hopkins University. Born in Nova Scotia, at the age of 19 Newcomb left an apprenticeship to join his father in Massachusetts, where the latter was teaching.
Categories: Quotes
Stories and Quotes from the Mind* and Keyboard of A.A.Forringer 
Witty observation, disparaging remark, question for A.A., well this is your chance.