dvisory Committee for Aeronautics, 1909, to
combine theory and practice. The National Physical Laboratory. Growth of
the factory under Mr. Mervyn O'Gorman, 1909-16. Its services to
aviation. Private makers of aircraft stand aloof. The designing office
at the factory. Its services during the war. Famous factory types of
aeroplane--the B.E., the F.E., the S.E., the R.E. The question of
stability; work of Mr. Lanchester and Professor Bryan. The story of Mr.
Busk. Workmanship and safety. Notable devices invented at the factory.

The navy employs private firms of aircraft makers. The Short brothers.
Factory airships from 1908 to 1913. All airships assigned to the navy in
1913. The _Mayfly_ fiasco, 1908-11. Captain Murray Sueter and Captain
Bertram Dickson on the command of the air. The true doctrine--freedom
and the open highways.

French military aviation in 1911. Reports of Lieutenant Glyn and Captain
Sykes. German aeronautics in 1912. Report of Captain Sueter and Mr.
O'Gorman. Changed conditions of naval warfare. British naval airship
section reconstituted. Purchase of foreign airships. British rigid
airships ordered in 1913, too late for the war. German belief in the
airship. Private efforts of British naval officers. Commander Oliver
Swann first gets off the water in an Avro aeroplane fitted with floats,
1911. Lieutenant C. R. Samson flies off the deck of H.M.S. _Africa_,
1911. Lieutenant Samson's first seaplane. The first flying boat.

The problem of the making of an air force. The need of discipline. Early
doings of the Air Battalion, 1911. Difficulties of policy. Lighter than
air and heavier than air. Aeroplanes few; airships unpopular. Royal
Engineers and others. Mr. Cockburn teaches the battalion to fly. They
fly from Larkhill to Farnborough. Cross-country flights. Army manoeuvres
of 1911; adventurers of the Air Battalion. The accident to Lieutenant
Reynolds. Record flight of Lieutenant Barrington-Kennett. Death of
Lieutenant Cammell. Our apprenticeship in the air. The English fashion.

CHAPTER V. The Royal Flying Corps. pp. 198-276

Institution of the Royal Flying Corps. Plans prepared by General
Henderson, Captain Sykes, and Major MacInnes. History in the making.
Choice of the squadron as the unit of the new force. Pressure of time.
Institution of the Central Flying School. The question of the rank of
pilots. The question of the independence of the Flying Corps. The
attitude of the n