that the immediate future of the flying-machine is guaranteed by its employment by the Army and Navy. It is already admitted by military and naval authorities that for the purpose of reconnaissance an aeronautical machine of some kind is imperative, and its more active employment as a gun-carrying or bomb- (or torpedo-) bearing machine will without question follow: its utility in this direction has already been experimentally demonstrated. In the author's opinion, there is scarcely an operation of importance hitherto entrusted to cavalry that could not be executed as well or better by a squad or fleet of aeronautical machines.[1] If this should prove true, the number of flying-machines eventually to be utilized by any of the great military Powers will be counted not by hundreds but by thousands, and possibly by tens of thousands, and the issue of any great battle will be definitely determined by the efficiency of the Aeronautical Forces."
In addition to the foregoing, the author gave especial prominence to military aeronautics, as presenting the most promising field of development, in his Presidential address[2] to the Institution of Automobile Engineers, in October, 1910.
The intention to write specifically on the subject of Aircraft in Warfare had been in the author's mind for some years, it was only after the outbreak of hostilities however that this intention came to be realised. The present work may be said to date from its contribution as a series of articles to "Engineering," covering a period from September to December, 1914. The text and order of the original articles have been preserved in the present volume, and thus the matter appears under the dates of its original publication. Revision
