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 AUTHOR'S NOTE.

The Military and Naval importance of aeronautics, more especially of mechanical flight, has in the past been slow to receive adequate recognition. Even to-day, in spite of the awakening which has been brought about by the Great War, we are far from a full appreciation of the extent to which, as a nation, our destiny will be determined by aircraft and by military aeronautics.

The early pioneers of mechanical flight were but little concerned with the prospective future of flying; they were rightly occupied in overcoming the difficulties standing in the way of achievement. That ultimately a field of utility would present itself was generally accepted as an article of faith. Many suggestions both as to commercial and military usage were put forward, more frequently than not in ignorance of the limitations by which flight as a mode of locomotion is circumscribed: often claims were made of an altogether extravagant character. If it be true that in some directions, from the point of view of those early engaged in aeronautical development, the outlook has proved a disappointment, it is no less certain that military aeronautics has not only fulfilled, but already transcended, the most sanguine expectation.

Without going so far as to claim having predicted or foreseen in its entirety the many-sided utility of aircraft