The aircraft would perhaps have remained a sports vehicle for years if it had not been for the First World War. In 1910, during the Picardie Military Exercises in France, it was introduced for the first time as a weapon, against the background of a war looming on the horizon.

In the history of aviation, it is generally acknowledged that the Wright Brothers were the pioneers to perform the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft named Wright Flyer in December 17, 1903. This object, called “aircraft”, whose function could not be specified at least at the outset, was considered to be a privilege for the rich and the aristocracy who could afford them to prove themselves or to satisfy their taste for flight. Thus in the United States, where the first flight was performed, the Wright Brothers were seriously criticised for building a vehicle of no economic benefit. Hence, they went to Europe, where flying was regarded as a value and that aircraft was considered a means of exhibiting grandeur for the purposes enumerated above. In 1908, the Brothers made a fortune with the company they established there.