Page:O que eu vi, o que nós veremos (1918).pdf/91

 as one of the main weapons of war, when every European nation possesses tens of thousands of aircrafts, when the American Congress has just ordered the construction of 22,000 of these machines and is already drafting a law ordering the construction of a new, even larger series; when Argentina and Chile have a splendid air fleet of war, we, here, still do not face this problem with the attention it deserves!

Rio de Janeiro. 16 November 1917

Santos-Dumont

His Excellency thanked me and told me that in the future, if he ever needed my advice, he would let me know.

My airship park, which was in St. Cloud, was a tenth of a square kilometer. When I started flying I looked for a bigger one, which was the one in Bagatelle: it had about a