Aircraft and Submarines: The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day Uses of War's Newest Weapons

In Short

Willis J. Abbot traces the evolution of military aviation and undersea navigation from early philosophical theories to their destructive deployment in World War I. Blending historical narrative with contemporary technical detail, the work documents how balloons, dirigibles, airplanes, and submarines evolved from dangerous novelties into essential instruments of battle. Written in 1918 as these weapons reached unprecedented operational efficiency, the book captures a pivotal moment when modern mechanical innovation permanently altered global strategy. It endures as an authentic contemporary chronicle of the birth of modern technological warfare.

The Story

The narrative begins centuries before the Great War, tracing humanity’s persistent obsession with conquering the air and the depths of the ocean. Early experimenters struggle against public skepticism and rudimentary technology. In Paris, the earliest balloon flights rely on crude chemical processes to generate hydrogen, drawing crowds of astonished spectators and royal guards to escort massive, gas-filled envelopes through dark city streets. Early pioneers face constant physical peril; aviators like Alberto Santos-Dumont risk catastrophic crashes into urban rooftops when primitive airships collide with buildings and trees. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin systematically refines the rigid dirigible, expanding production facilities to construct giant airships designed specifically to bomb ground targets and naval ports across the English Channel.

Simultaneously, inventors struggle to develop functional submersible vessels. David Bushnell constructs the hand-cranked Turtle during the American Revolution, attempting underwater attacks against British warships in New York harbor. Decades later, Irish-born inventor John P. Holland experiments with foot-pedaled craft before developing petroleum- and electric-powered submersibles. Despite bureaucratic hostility from naval authorities, Holland’s designs eventually demonstrate the lethal practicality of submarine attack. Other designers, including Thomas Lake, further refine ballast tanks, periscopes, gyrocompasses, and internal combustion engines, turning submersibles into long-range sea hunters.

When World War I erupts, both technologies rapidly mature on the battlefields of Europe. Airplanes transition from simple reconnaissance craft into specialized fighting machines. Armies deploy swift biplanes, armored "pushers," and specialized fighters like the German Fokker and British Vickers Scout to direct artillery fire, hunt enemy observation balloons, and engage in aerial combat. Mechanical failures, shell fire, and brutal physical injuries become commonplace for pilots operating thousands of feet above the trenches.

At sea, submarine warfare accelerates dramatically. Germany unleashes unrestricted submarine attacks against belligerent and neutral shipping alike, sinking merchant vessels and passenger liners such as the Lusitania. The strategic crisis goads the United States into breaking diplomatic relations and entering the conflict. Commercial submersibles like the massive Deutschland demonstrate unprecedented cargo capacities and transoceanic ranges. Abbot concludes by surveying the internal layout of modern submarines and examining how aviation and submarine design must inevitably adapt to commercial and peaceful pursuits once global hostilities end.

How It Unfolds

The early struggle for the skies Inventors in eighteenth-century France manufacture inflammable gas with iron filings and acid, launching decorated balloons before awestruck urban crowds. Early experimenters slowly establish the basic principles of lighter-than-air flight despite severe mechanical setbacks.

Pioneering rigid airships and airplanes Santos-Dumont survives perilous crashes against Parisian hotel roofs, while Count von Zeppelin develops massive rigid dirigibles despite frequent collisions with trees. Meanwhile, Orville and Wilbur Wright systematically refine powered heavier-than-air flight, predicting that airplanes will primarily serve as military reconnaissance tools rather than strategic bombers.

Submarines emerge from trial to reality David Bushnell’s hand-propelled submarine fails to attach its explosive charge to a British warship due to iron hull fittings, setting off decades of experimental underwater design. John P. Holland spends years refining internal combustion engines and ballast tanks, overcoming naval skepticism to create the modern military submarine.

Aviation transforms the Western Front As World War I intensifies, Allied and German forces deploy thousands of specialized biplanes to direct long-range artillery fire and destroy observation balloons. Aviators perform demanding multi-hour missions daily, coping with severe shell damage, engine failures, and catastrophic wounds in mid-air.

Undersea fleets reshape global strategy Submarines equipped with diesel engines, periscopes, and multiple torpedo tubes wage relentless warfare against global commerce. German sinkings of neutral and passenger ships ultimately force the United States into the war, while giant commercial submersibles demonstrate the technology's vast range.

The People

• Willis J. Abbot: The author and historical commentator, who systematically documents the technical evolution and wartime application of aircraft and submersibles.
• Orville Wright: The legendary American aviation pioneer, who advises against investing in dirigible balloons, advocates for safer low-speed aircraft, and offers his technical facilities to the United States government upon the outbreak of war.
• Wilbur Wright: Orville's brother and co-inventor, who shares a strict pact never to fly together on the same craft to protect their research records from a single catastrophic accident.
• Alberto Santos-Dumont: An intrepid Brazilian aviator operating in Paris, who survives a violent airship explosion over the Trocadero hotels and is rescued from his hanging wicker basket by local firemen.
• Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin: A determined German inventor, who builds massive manufacturing plants in Friedrichshafen to construct rigid dirigibles designed explicitly for long-range bombing operations against Great Britain.
• David Bushnell: An American inventor who designs the Turtle during the Revolutionary War, struggling against chronic ill health and unreliable operators in his bid to sink British warships.
• John P. Holland: An Irish immigrant driven by anti-British sentiment, who spends decades developing foot-pedaled and motor-driven submarines, overcoming widespread ridicule to establish the foundation of the modern submarine force.
• Captain Paul König: The former North German Lloyd liner captain, who assumes command of the giant merchant submarine Deutschland, navigating the complex steel vessel across the Atlantic Ocean.

In Its Own Voice

"Eyewitnesses have left descriptions of the scene. Torch-bearers lighted on its way the cortège the central feature of which was the great bag, half filled with gas, flabby, shapeless, monstrous, mysterious, borne along by men clutching at its formless bulk."

Abbot describes the midnight transport of an early experimental balloon through the dark, narrow streets of medieval Paris.

"The keel, in spite of my weight, that of the motor and machinery, and the shock it had received in falling, resisted wonderfully. The thin pine scantlings and piano wires of Nice... had saved my life!"

Aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont recalls hanging in a wicker basket against a hotel courtyard wall after his airship envelope exploded.

"An army without airplanes is like a soldier without eyes."

French military experts explain why tactical air superiority is essential for directing modern artillery and preventing surprise enemy concentrations.

What It's Really About

Abbot explores how humanity's ancient dream of exploring the air and sea was swiftly co-opted by the demands of modern industrial warfare. The text examines the tension between mechanical innovation and moral restraint, highlighting how inventions intended for sport, transit, or exploration became instruments of mass slaughter. Through detailed historical comparisons, the author argues that technological superiority inevitably dictates the outcome of geopolitical conflicts. The work asks whether society can master these terrifying machines for peaceful, post-war commerce, or whether human ingenuity will remain permanently chained to the destruction of life and property.

Why Read It Today

Written in 1918 while World War I was still raging, the book offers an extraordinary time-capsule of technological optimism mixed with wartime anxiety. Readers fascinated by military history, aviation, or naval engineering will appreciate Abbot's precise technical descriptions of early aircraft structures, diesel engines, and torpedo mechanisms. The writing feels remarkably vivid and direct, unspooling like a period newsreel filled with eyewitness accounts, military depositions, and interviews with legendary pioneers like Orville Wright.

The text does carry the clear stamp of its era. Modern readers will easily spot period attitudes, including unabashed national biases, wartime fervor, and dated assumptions regarding international diplomacy. The book occasionally lingers over granular details of mechanical patents, construction dimensions, and diplomatic correspondence, which creates slow moments in the narrative pace. Yet this very density gives the work its authentic texture. It leaves the reader with a profound sense of how rapidly the twentieth century accelerated, turning speculative inventions into world-shaking weapons in a few short decades.