WHY ARE AIRCRAFT TERMS FRENCH?

After reading my BLOG article TULSA TIME, Mona Lisa asked, "If the Wright Brothers invented the airplane, why are aircraft terms French?"

Here is a list of aircraft terms which are French that came readily to mind:

NACELLE
FUSELAGE
LONGERON
AILERON
EMPENNAGE
DECALAGE
DIRIGIBLE
HANGAR
SORTIE
EN ROUTE

Even the word AVIATION is French!

I know that I thought that the reason for the French terms was because of the Montgolfier Brothers as I so pridefully stated in my TULSA TIME article.

The French and Germans were very aggressive in the early development of aircraft, especially after the Wright Brothers took their aircraft to Europe to show, and unlike the secretive Wright Brothers, the French liked to SHOW OFF!

Many historians believe that because the Wrights were so involved in lawsuits about their patents (with Glenn Curtiss and others) that they weren't as innovative as the French and German aviation pioneers. When the United States entered World War I, the country was hopelessly behind and had to rely on the French and British to supply the majority of its aeroplanes (as they were called then). The names of World War I aircraft which come easily to mind are De Havilland, Fokker, Nieuport, and, of course, the Sopwith Camel! Only the Curtiss JN-4 comes to mind as an American aeroplane.

It was good that the United States was only involved in World War I for a year.

This is an Autochrome Lumiere of a NIEUPORT FIGHTER in 1917 in Aisne, France,