Top quotes from Aerospace and Defense Summit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The following are some notable quotes from the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit:

"Here's the bottom line on transformation: After spending tens of billions of dollars and millions of man hours of reflection on how to do it, we still can't find the tallest man in Afghanistan."

Loren Thompson, defense analyst, Lexington Institute, describing Pentagon's attempts at transformation of the U.S. military and the failure to capture Osama bin Laden

"Leaving and coming back has been interesting. A lot of people have been questioning my sanity."

Tom Horton, chief financial officer, American Airlines, on his return to the airline industry this year

"We believe that further consolidation would be good for us. Clearly what you have right now is too many hubs."

Laura Wright, chief financial officer, Southwest Airlines

"If there are assets anywhere in the U.S. that make some sense for us to look at, we will definitely look at those opportunities ... We know that others would be looking at those opportunities as well, so it becomes a bidding war."

Paul Tate, Chief Financial Officer, Frontier Airlines on interest in assets shed in a potential merger of US Airways and Delta

"From our standpoint, we very definitely feel we need to be preparing for a continued upswing of aviation in this country, and certainly globally, and an increase in traffic as time goes on."

Marion Blakey, administrator, Federal Aviation Administration

"Historically, it has been a mixed bag at best in terms of the results of consolidation."

William Ayer, Chief Executive, Alaska Air Group