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aviation in World War One |
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Most companies passed into the
hands of auto manufacturers, who had
experience in mass-production techniques, and to
people who were comfortable in the
world of corporate finance. The
Wrights, Blériot, and Curtiss did not
belong to this world;
Fokker, Saulnier, and Martin did.
Second, the war only whetted the appetite
of many military
strategists for a time when the full potential of
air power could be applied to
conflict. The requirements
for effective aerial bombing, for instance, turned out to
be much more stringent than
those for close fighter combat. Bombers have to carry larger
payloads, have greater
range, fly faster and higher, and be better armoured
than fighters.
World War I saw two cycles begin
that were to become perennial
parts of the future of aviation. One
cycle was the
parry-and-thrust between adversaries, as
one side gained an advantage that required better
planes from the other side
as a counter; the other cycle was the
same sort of competition
between the makers of fighters and
the makers of bombers. Better fighters created the
need for better bombers,
which in turn created a need for
better fighters, and so on. As terrible a war as
the Great War was, it is
fortunate that it ended when it did, because
both sides had already
produced the beginnings of a fleet
of advanced bombers that would have decimated cities
and resulted in even
greater civilian deaths across Europe.
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