Page:O que eu vi, o que nós veremos (1918).pdf/84

 A bit of patience!

Whoever reads No. 1 of "Je sais tout", 1905, will see that in my article published in that issue I said: "The war of the future will be waged by means of fast air cruisers standing on inaccessible heights, bombing forts, armies and ships at will". This article was ridiculed by some in the military.

There may be some today who ridicule my predictions about the commercial future of airplanes. Those who live, however, will see.

This conference of mine in Washington was well accepted, and I believe that one of the proofs is that the Aero Club of America invited me to represent them at the Pan-American Aeronautical Congress, which was to be held in Chile. I accepted this honor and left willing to find everything in Chile: I had met Chilean society in Paris and knew it to be the friendliest in the world; I had heard about the natural beauty of Chile, so I was going to see it. I was going to see the Andes, I was going to see a lot of things, everything, except airplanes. That was my expectation. The reader can imagine my astonishment when upon disembarking