Aircraft in war

Patriotism has been the most powerful factor in developing aërial navigation. Montgolfier experimented with his paper balloons filled with heated air in the desire that his inve...

Before free balloons were successfully motor driven and steered, stern necessity had pressed them into the service of war. During the siege of Paris, in 1870, when the Parisians...

With the new century came the modern military airship--to stay, at any rate, until the heavier-than-air principle of aërial navigation has so developed as to absorb those featur...

(ii.) _Clement-Bayard._--It is a question whether it is advisable to extend the non-rigid system to the amount that has been latterly done in the case of such a construction as...

Many reports have been current concerning the exact dimensions of the airship fleet that Germany can put into action. It has been said that she has been extremely active since t...

In a later chapter it will be pointed out that though the aëroplane scout has often to make dashes over the enemy, and it would be thought that from his swift movements his impr...

The year of 1908 will be memorable in aëronautical science for its demonstration of the possibility of mechanical flight. Day after day in France and America was then seen the s...

France has indeed been the breeding-place for types of aëroplanes. From France have the nations of late been largely gathering them--save Germany. She has preferred to evolve he...

The history of Germany’s developments in aërial navigation on the heavier-than-air principle during the last few years is the history of preparation for war. France was, indeed,...

Manœuvres in peace were the first practical test of the value of aëroplanes in war. The French proved their efficiency in their manœuvres in Picardy as long ago as 1910. The res...

The question has been often asked why we were so long in this country in grasping the necessity of keeping pace with other countries by having a national flying corps? In an int...

In the portion of this handbook which especially dealt with airships, certain advantages possessed by them over aëroplanes were noted; several of their disadvantages were also a...