Giulio Douhet's forecasts treated speculative performance as present fact. He envisioned bombers carrying hundred-ton loads and flattening cities with chemical and biological weapons. Such schemes were defended as a way to avoid another war of prolonged trench slaughter, giving a catastrophic method a humanitarian-sounding rationale. These forecasts help explain why sensational replacement theories often displaced the more practical debate over what contemporary aircraft could reliably do.
Notable Point · 33:52-34:29
Douhet and speculative interwar air power
Giulio Douhet's extreme forecasts show how speculative air-power promises could overwhelm practical arguments about contemporary capability.