# Wright Brother question. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 14, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wright-brother-question/218986 "2003-12-14T20:22:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wright-brother-question/218986/1 "2003-12-14T20:22:59Z")
Orville Wright lived through both WWI & WW2. Are there any publishings as to what his thoughts were regarding using airplanes as tools of war? I imagine he must of had to have _some_ opinion on it one way or another. ---
**Author:** ![Frame\_Dragging](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/53a042/32.png) [@Frame\_Dragging](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frame_Dragging)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wright-brother-question/218986/2 "2003-12-14T21:09:51Z")
My grandfather lived in Dayton, OH and served in the Army Air Corp in Dayton during WWI (age 19). I asked him at his 102nd Birthday party if he got to meet Orville at that time. He told me, “No, I just moved planes around but he was there.” Leads me to think Orville had no problem with using the airplane as a weapon of mass destruction. Grandpa died this year at 105, one of the few remaining WWI US Vets. Not to hijack the OP - he did receive US Citizenship for serving the USA during WWI as did many non-citizen WWI vets. He was at that time a British citizen. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wright-brother-question/218986/3 "2003-12-14T21:39:25Z")
Early on, the Wrights were secretive about their projects for fear of others stealing their ideas, but they did try to sell airplanes to various militaries: > [@](#): > > The Wrights offered to sell the airplane to, variously, the U.S. secretary of war, the French, the British and the Germans. But they refused to demonstrate its flight capabilities without a signed sales contract. Not surprisingly, customers balked at buying so novel a device without seeing whether it worked. From the December 2003 issue of Scientific American – the rest of the article is [online](http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000E2A9A-2E05-1FA8-AE0583414B7F0000&pageNumber=2&catID=2) as well, and is interesting reading. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wright-brother-question/218986/4 "2003-12-14T22:07:01Z")
The Wright Brothers were not naive, and they understood from the beginning that airplanes would have military applications and that armies were likely to be among their first and best paying customers. Orville hoped that the airplane would diminish the likelihood of war by making surprise attacks impossible. He was disappointed when WWI proved that this wasn’t the case, but he had no compunctions about working on bomb technology or military aircraft production. > [@](#): > > In October 1917, when the United States had been at war for only half a year, his (Orville’s) faith in the airplane as an instrument of peace because of its scouting capabilities was unshaken. “The nation with the most eyes will win the war and put an end to war,” he told a reporter. “This is what we planned and that is what will happen.” In November 1918, four days before peace was declared, he admitted that the airplane had become an angel of destruction as well as peace. “The aeroplane has made war so terrible that I do not believe any country will again care to start a war.” > . . . World War II changed all that. In August 1945, when the war had been over for only two weeks, Orville commented sadly to a friend . . . “I once thought the aeroplane would end wars. I now wonder whether the aeroplane and the atomic bomb can do it.” – “Wilbur and Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers”, by Fred Howard ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wright-brother-question/218986/5 "2003-12-14T23:08:51Z")
Orville was the pilot during an attempt to sell the Wright Flyer B to the U.S. Army in which a structural failure caused the plane to crash, seriously injuring Wright and killing Lt. Thomas Selfridge (for whom Selfridge Field, outside Detroit, near Mt. Clemens, was named). ---
**Author:** ![adirondack\_mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5a626/32.png) [@adirondack\_mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adirondack_mike)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wright-brother-question/218986/6 "2003-12-15T00:05:30Z")
From the [Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A33221-2003Dec3¬Found=true) ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wright-brother-question/218986/7 "2003-12-15T01:05:36Z")
The Washington Post article is interesting, but it repeats a common misconception: \*Orville had won the coin toss that day back in December 1903, and Wilbur got to watch his brother lie prone in their canvas-covered biplane for the 12-second, 120-foot first flight. \* There was a coin toss, but Wilbur won it. As a consequence, he was at the controls for the first attempt with the Flyer on Dec 14. He wasn’t quite ready for its pitch sensitivity, and made a hard landing after 3.5 seconds and 112 ft, doing some damage (soon repaired). The Wrights were encouraged by their motor’s performance, but didn’t consider 3.5 seconds long enough to be called a true flight. The next flyable weather was on Dec 17, and it was Orville’s turn.