Neil Armstrong talks about aviation and spaceflight.

The first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, celebrated the 100th year of flight during his afternoon speech at the Bakersfield Business Conference.

Armstrong explained the history of flight from the Wright Brothers at Camp Kitty Hawk to supersonic planes and, ultimately, to the moon. While describing the space race, Armstrong offered interesting tidbits about spaceflight.

“Once in orbit, if you increase your speed by just over 41 percent, you will never return to Earth,” he said. “That is kind of a nice thing to remember if you are ever in a spacecraft.”

Armstrong told the audience a little bit about how NASA decided on pilots for spaceflight.

“After flying some unsuspecting animals in rockets, they started thinking about putting humans on them, but who would be persuaded to take the trip? Prisoners would be interested,” he joked. “Doctors know about physiology in the human body. Soldiers could be ordered. Finally, they chose pilots.”

Along with a little humor, Armstrong described how the colorful Earth fades into the inky black sky as one is propelled away from it at speeds much faster than a bullet.

“And that’s when you go, uh-oh,” he said.