>everything I've read stated that they were creating planes for military purposes.

That was after they were successful at manned flight. They did not start out to invent a flying machine to sell to the military.

Manned flight was like a solution looking for a problem, after it became a reality. You can blame commercial airline travel on the Wright brothers. "If man was meant to fly, he would have wings"!

Remember that the first flight was in 1903. It was not until 1908 that the Wright's closed a contract with the U.S. Department of War for the first military airplane.

I have never read that the motivation to create a machine for manned flight by the Wright's was to sell an Airplane to the military. That came later.



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>>Hi Claudio,
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>>I don't think we can honestly say what the Wright Brothers had in mind entirely as a goal. Were they thinking about capitalizing on war? Were they thinking of advancing economics and travel? Were they possibly thinking of the humane benefits that flight could bring? REgardless, everyone that profits due to war is not necessarily a war-monger. Many many inventions and breakthroughs are done due to military research. Also, many drug manufacturers profit during war by immunizing our troops. Our troops desperately need those immunizations but perhaps they should not get them because the drug manufacturer is profitting?