Note 8 — XII THE WRIGHTS IN EUROPE

When the airplane was first considered for military purposes, the Wrights thought the plane could be such a destructive instrument in warfare that no nation, no government, would risk subjecting people to the terrors it could create. Another reason why the brothers thought the machine might prevent war was the possibility that it could be used against those persons chiefly responsible for bringing on a war. That is, if one nation started an attack against another, with or without a declaration of war, the nation attacked could drop bombs on, say, assembled members of the legislature, or the buildings housing the highest officials of the aggressor country. That possibility, it was hoped, would deter any nation from taking warlike steps.