Why did US-aviation sleep through?

[mike_baram]

Wouldn't you know it....if something is f***ed up, blame the lawyers.

Q:What do you call 50 lawyers skydiving?
A:Skeet.

[Vigilant]

Europe was unbelievably slow off the mark too I should like to point out! The Wrights flew in Dec. 1903, yet 4 years later when Wilbur came over to Europe to demonstrate their machine we Europeans were barely able to get off the ground. Certainly not to fly beautifully controlled circles etc like they could. Our best plane was the Farman which could only fly in a dead calm and turn corners if you were lucky. The Wrights' patent thing was not an issue here because no European country ever recognised it at all!

However by 1914 there certainly were good military machines available to European armies. (Think of the Avro 504 or the early Albatroses.) I would guess the US army didn't provide the same impetus in America because it didn't think it could be fighting anyone other than the Mexicans for the foreseeable future. I don't know if the legal battles were also relevant.

[Vigilant]

So Mike, you don't think the Wrights should have got any financial reward for INVENTING the practical aeroplane? All they wanted was a modest recognition for their work. Not at all unreasonable IMHO.

Lawyer hat off now

What's skeet in English English BTW?

[mike_baram]

Nu? What do the Brits call the clay disks you send flying off for target practice? We colonials (who are into it) enjoy "skeet shooting" with shotguns.

[Barrett]

Some of the replies already dealt with these, but essentially there were 3 reasons:

1) no perceived requirement
2) no bureaucracy to benefit
therefore...
3) no funding

[stephen]

And when you run for president on the platform of keeping America out of the war, it's a little difficult to pour money into an aviation arms race. Wilson had his hands tied on that one. From a public opinion standpoint, prudent forthought in the aviation field would have been political suicide.

The US wasn't ready for WWII ether. in 1939 the US Navy's best fighter was a biplane while the Jappannesse where putting the finnishing touches on the Zero which was relaceing a monoplane fighter they allready had. the army was training new recrutes with trucks that had signs printed "Tank" hanging from them and wooden mock ups of machine guns the best tank in the army's inventory was the M2 it had 2 turrets and each one had a machine gun. It took almost 6 months of combat before Bewster Buffalo was recognised as an obsolete POS by the brass. and allmost 6 months longer to realise that the MK14 torpedoe was faulty. America has had a habit of being unprepared. look at the civil war Bull Run was a huge fistfight between 50,000 untrained troops too the point were troops that where merely green where the Ellet , Europe at the time was a sellers market for any type of gun or cannon not because The US goverment was trying to keep guns out of Rebel hands but The US needed those guns just as bad as The confederates did. Back to the orginal subject of WWI the US had been watching the fighting for 3 years but still didn't have a reasonable light machinegun even though the lewis gun was invented by an american we didn't have any reasonable Machine gun in fact. The only good weapons the US had availible when the war started were the colt M1911 and the springfield 1903. look at it between 1846 and 1951 the US military has not been ready for any war It has becalled upon to fight

[Vigilant]

[mike_baram]

Vigilant,
Duh....we call them "clay pigeons" too..... I must have been dozing on that one. Skeet is the sport itself, from the Old Norse "skeyti" - "projectile".
Mike

[Vigilant]

"Now, not a lot of people know that..."

I know you probably don't celebrate Xmas, but happy 25th December anyway!

Vig.
(On his way to sleep it all off)