ufacturers. Shipments of men and
planes overseas were of course brought to an end and at the same time
arrangements were made for bringing back from France the great aerial
equipment mobilized there. Indeed, the air service units were among
the first to be returned, especially the labor and construction troops
in England.

Nevertheless, military aviation of the future was definitely
safeguarded. A bill was presented to Congress for an aerial force of
4,000 officers and 22,000 men, a fitting contrast to the force of 65
officers and 1,120 men with which the country had entered the war.
Certain flying fields and schools which had shown the greatest value
in the past and promised most for the future were definitely
designated for permanent use, and especial effort was made to keep in
the service the best of the technical experts and designers who had
helped to solve America's problems of the air.

Abroad demobilization was less rapid, as it was in all other lines.
The British, who had given particular thought to after-war aviation,
immediately turned to converting all their valuable war material and
experience into a national force which should assure England of the
supremacy of the air as well as strength in her supremacy of the seas.
France, the custodian of Germany's great aerial force, found more than
enough work for all her men in taking care of the hundreds of
surrendered machines. Both nations at the same time took long steps
toward building up the civil machinery necessary for private,
non-military flying.

For several months, of course, there was a hiatus. Thought had been so
concentrated on military aviation that the conversion to peace work
proved slow. Only the most general plans had been made in any of the
countries, and those by ardent supporters of aviation, who were forced
to make the most earnest efforts to obtain consideration of the
subject in the midst of all the vital problems of peace and
reconstruction. Greatest of all the difficulties was that, as private
flying had been prohibited during the war, there were, with the coming
of peace, no rules and regulations ready for it. Also many great
projects for international flights had to be postponed because of
complete lack of international rules in this respect.

Nevertheless, most spectacular and convincing flights followed one
another in rapid succession. The most outstanding of these flights
was, of course, the first crossing of the Atlantic by sea