Could anyone please assist in tracking down the remarks made by Orville, speaking at some time in the 1940s, explaining eloquently and persuasively why, notwithstanding Guernica , Dresden and Hiroshima he had no regrets about inventing the aeroplane. I believe that I first read these remarks on the internet, but have not found them on the various Wright Brothers and general quotations sites I have checked. Perhaps I saw this in printed form, possibly in the surprisingly little known and currently out of print "How we invented the Airplane", but most of my aviation history books are stuck in boxes at the moment.
In the meantime I have to settle for St Exupery, which is not a bad second:-
"Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures - in this century, as in others, our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together."
"The machine does not isolate us from the great problems of nature but plunges us more deeply into them"
PS: I have control, that helpful website referred to by QDM also has this, explaining the postion re the press
http://www.wrightstories.com/airplan...stortedByPress
The first report had them "soaring three miles"
EDIT:
Found it (I like today's Google logo variant)
"I don't have any regrets about my part in the invention of the airplane, though no one could deplore more than I do the destruction it has caused. I feel about the airplane much as I do in regard to fire. That is, I regret all the terrible damage caused by fire. But I think it is good for the human race that someone discovered how to start fires and that it is possible to put fire to thousands of important uses."
- Orville Wright