Today in History – 24 June

Ömer İnönü says!

Following the decision stipulating Engineering School of Higher Education students to receive pilot training with aircrafts of Turkish Aeronautical Association, İsmet İnönü’s oldest son Ömer İnönü began training at Yeşilköy. In a statement he made to Cumhuriyet newspaper, Ömer İnönü conveyed his flight experiences to fellow youngsters as follows:

My love of flights and flying is as old as my earliest memories. When I was young, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to tales about aviation, planes, and the air.

I was six when I first saw a real airplane and I flew on it that day. This brief flight had little impact on me. All I could recall was that the world seemed better from the outside.

I flew again at different intervals. All these flights were aboard closed planes. Yet, one enjoys flying most in an open aircraft. The planes of Nuri Demiraş provided me with that pleasure for the first time. Now, the Turkish Aeronautical Association is helping us make progress in that respect. I will learn many things, but most importantly, I cannot wait for my first solo flight.

We used to hear stories about what kind of destiny awaits a nation that has no means to fly; we would listen to those stories with much suspicion. Now we see and believe it. The airplane is the most critical element of a nation’s self defense.

Apart from the pleasure of flying, the heart of an airborne person is filled with the lightness of having come a step closer to the defense of his nation. The young pilots and engineers, who will represent the core of airborne Turkey, will execute every mission with this ideal in mind.