Why we don't need an enemy

Back then, $1 billion was big money. Yet, the Military Aviation Appropriations Act of 1917 and two subsequent bills passed with almost no debate. It was virtually a blank check to buy an air armada to fight World War I. The New York Times hailed the legislation, predicting that America would have “such an air fleet as the world has never known.” The battlefield skies would be flooded with thousands of American planes.

It didn’t work out that way. By July 1918, there was still not one U.S.-built plane flying in combat. In the end, the military got fewer than 200 planes for the $1 billion.