Franz Kafka, Italian poet and novelist Gabriele D’Annunzio, and Futurist movement founder and leader F. T. Marinetti were among the influential writers whose vision of the future was shaped by the airplane. For them, the power of flight was an irresistible theme.

In September 1909, Kafka attended an air meet at Brescia, Italy, near Milan. He wrote a rich and textured sketch of the event entitled, “The Aeroplanes at Brescia.” In the brief essay, Kafka deftly captured the excitement, symbolism, and emotional response to the airplane that swept across Europe in 1908 and 1909.

Poet F. T. Marinetti, founder and leader of the Futurist movement, also became obsessed with the airplane, but the enthusiasm of the Futurists had a darker theme. They saw the coming of a machine-driven civilization that would divorce humanity from its past with unexpected and disturbing consequences, although in their view this would ultimately lead to a desirable end.

Among the most celebrated writers of his day, Gabriele D’Annunzio saw aviation as a messenger of a new life, a new civilization. He and others like him, saw spiritual transcendence through the conquest of the air. They believed an aerial world would revitalize culture, refashion laws and rituals, and provide an escape from the current reality of life.

Not all writers and intellectuals looked favorably upon the airplane. One of the sharpest critics was the Viennese journalist Karl Kraus. He believed that while people were clever enough to create sophisticated machines, they often lacked the intelligence to use them properly. Now that the air had been conquered, he feared the earth was condemned to be bombarded. His prediction would in part come true.