>From Stephen Lawrence: > ... Jed Rothwell wrote: >> >> At this point we need the academics. We should ignore the critics. The >> Wrights should have! They should have dealt with the British War Office >> instead of the U.S. War Department, because the British understood and >> appreciated what they had accomplished. > > You've said or implied this several times now. It seems to me that there > may have been another issue present, aside from simple economics. > > There is a problem when you have an invention of military value, which is > that if you shop it around among foreign governments, even "friendly" > foreign governments, you may eventually be accused of being a traitor. You > may even feel, yourself, that you are being a traitor. > > It seems possible that the Wrights went first to the U.S. War Department > specifically because they were U.S. citizens, and did not feel it would have > been appropriate, feasible, right, or (fill in blank) to sell their > technology overseas before the U.S. military adopted it.
I agree. Personally, I could also see our government talking out to two sides simultaneously: Out of one side: “This flying machine technology is total crap! We spent oodles of hard-earned tax money trying to prove that this technology could take wing, and we failed utterly. Go away! Please stop wasting our time!” ...and out of the other side: “Oh, by the way, if you attempt to market this technology to any foreign government, we will take an extremely dim view of your actions. We will be watching you.” Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
