Military AviationWar is humanity's greatest calamity; on this everyone agrees. But will we ever be able to put an end to it? Only from Europe might we hope for an answer to this question, and up until now we have had no hint of a positive response. Let us then at least try to reduce the evils of war. what we should strive to do is reduce the number of war's victims, and if along with that we could serve our country and provide for its defense, this would be the act of a good citizen and a good patriot. Military aviation has always seemed to me the necessary instrument for producing this doubly beneficial result; at least it has always been at the core of my thinking. Before I took up this question of the national defense, I said to myself, since science belongs to no country, aviation might become the property of many. But being a simple inventor and a man who loves his country, I could think of nothing better than to clothe my work in secrecy, and this I did. In my brochure The First Stage of Military Aviation in France, I related the story that follows. I refer my reader to those sad pages, but for those who have not read them I will relate the essential facts. |
Contents
THE ORIGINAL BOOK | 3 |
Letters Cited in the Introduction | 13 |
Note No 1 Airplanes | 19 |
Copyright | |
4 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
12 October Ader's aerial air army air force air lanes aircraft design airfields airplane-carrier Algeria Alsace altitude armament artillery Arts et Métiers atmosphere Avion bat-type become Bird flight bomb bombers calm cannon carry Charles Gibbs Clément Ader considerable craft created cylinders danger deck defense design and construction direction editor's note enemy engine England English Eole field bases flight flying machines folded fortified bases France French frontier gasoline Germany glider Greek fire grenades ground height Henry Farman hunter idea installation kilometers l'Air l'aviation militaire land large birds large number later line airplanes Louis Mouillard maneuvers Mensier meters Metz military aviation mobile bases motor moving naval officers Paris planes possible propellers runway Satory and Vincennes school of aviation school of military scouts ships side signals spiral curve steam storks strategic surface tests tion turn vertical vultures weapon wheels wind wings