It's a common misconception, but this comment (http://www.imcub.com/2009/06/can-you-smoke-an-e-cigarette-on-a-plane/comment-page-2/#comment-2176) takes it to a new extreme:
Quote from: Captain Art GriegoBe sure to bring your Bible and pray during the flight. Air travel is exceedingly dangerous these days, just look at all the crashes. In reality, we pilots don't really know what keeps a plane from dropping out of the sky like a stone. Sure, we have aerodynamic flight theory training in flight school, but that's JUST A THEORY. I've often been severely shaken by the thought that pilots don't really know why the plane stays in the air.
Yeah, apparently, mechanics just throw parts together at random until they get something that flies.
CapnOAwesome did a video on this. I'd post it here if it he hadn't taken it down.
I mean COME ON!
Gravity is a "theory" yet I don't hear them going off on gravity.
Yeah, in most cases they will reply that gravity is a law.