hine for reconnaissance work was called for, carrying fuel
for a 200 mile flight with a speed range of between 35 and 60 miles per
hour, carrying both pilot and observer. It was to be equipped with
a wireless telegraphy set, and be capable of landing over a 30 foot
vertical obstacle and coming to rest within a hundred yards' distance
from the obstacle in a wind of not more than 15 miles per hour. A third
requirement was a heavy type of fighting aeroplane accommodating pilot
and gunner with machine gun and ammunition, having a speed range of
between 45 and 75 miles per hour and capable of climbing 3,500 feet in 8
minutes. It was required to carry fuel for a 300 mile flight and to give
the gunner a clear field of fire in every direction up to 30 degrees on
each side of the line of flight. Comparison of these specifications with
those of the 1912 trials will show that although fighting, scouting, and
reconnaissance types had been defined, the development of performance
compared with the marvellous development of the earlier years of
achieved flight was small.

Yet the records of those years show that here and there an outstanding
design was capable of great things. On the 9th September, 1912,
Vedrines, flying a Deperdussin monoplane at Chicago, attained a speed of
105 miles an hour. On August 12th, G. de Havilland took a passenger to a
height of 10,560 feet over Salisbury Plain, flying a B.E. biplane with
a 70 horse-power Renault engine. The work of de Havilland may be said to
have been the principal influence in British military aeroplane design,
and there is no doubt that his genius was in great measure responsible
for the excellence of the early B.E. and F.E. types.

On the 31st May, 1913, H. G. Hawker, flying at Brooklands, reached
a height of 11,450 feet on a Sopwith biplane engined with an 80
horse-power Gnome engine. On June 16th, with the same type of machine
and engine, he achieved 12,900 feet. On the 2nd October, in the same
year, a Grahame White biplane with 120 horse-power Austro-Daimler
engine, piloted by Louis Noel, made a flight of just under 20 minutes
carrying 9 passengers. In France a Nieuport monoplane piloted by G.
Legagneaux attained a height of 6,120 metres, or just over 20,070 feet,
this being the world's height record. It is worthy of note that of the
world's aviation records as passed by the International Aeronautical
Federation up to June 30th, 1914, only one, that of Noel, is credited to
Great B