A flying pig is a symbol of an impossible event coming to pass. The popular saying "[it will happen] when pigs fly" (or when pigs have wings) is traditionally used to mean that the specified event will never occur.-------------Possibly the first occurrence of a pig actually flying occurred in 1909 when the British aviation pioneer Lord Brabazon made the first live air cargo flight with a pig in a basket tied to a wing-strut of his aeroplane.-------------The author John Steinbeck used a winged pig that he called Pigasus in his signature and his exlibris. His wife Elaine relates his sentiment that "Man must aspire though he be earth-bound".