Flutterby™! : Igor Sikorsky, badass

I went to high school in Connecticut, and remember at some point going to an exhibit on Igor Sikorsky where I ran across his famous admonition to engineering students:

In the course of your work you will from time to time encounter the situation where the facts and theory do not coincide. In such circumstances, young gentlemen, it is my earnest advice to respect the facts.

(memory refreshed from here). So when Violet Impudence tumblr had this picture of the man himself behind the stick, I had a moment of: Yeah. This is from when test pilots didn't hide behind Nomex fire suits and helmets.

Bonus "they just don't do aviation like they used to": The Martin Mars flying boat fire tanker.