a spent vast sums in the provision of machines: the giant Sikorsky
biplane, carrying four 100 horsepower Argus motors, was designed by
a young Russian engineer in the latter part of 1913, and in its early
trials it created a world's record by carrying seven passengers for
1 hour 54 minutes. Sikorsky also designed several smaller machines,
tractor biplanes on the lines of the British B.E. type, which were
very successful. These were the only home productions, and the imports
consisted mainly of French aeroplanes by the hundred, which got as
far as the docks and railway sidings and stayed there, while German
influence and the corruption that ruined the Russian Army helped to lose
the War. A few Russian aircraft factories were got into operation as
hostilities proceeded, but their products were negligible, and it is not
on record that Russia ever learned to manufacture a magneto.

The United States paid tribute to British efficiency by adopting the
British system of training for its pilots; 500 American cadets were
trained at the School of Military Aeronautics at oxford, in order to
form a nucleus for the American aviation schools which were subsequently
set up in the United States and in France. As regards production of
craft, the designing of the Liberty engine and building of over 20,000
aeroplanes within a year proves that America is a manufacturing country,
even under the strain of war.

There were three years of struggle for aerial supremacy, the combatants
being England and France against Germany, and the contest was neck
and neck all the way. Germany led at the outset with the standardised
two-seater biplanes manned by pilots and observers, whose training
was superior to that afforded by any other nation, while the machines
themselves were better equipped and fitted with accessories. All the
early German aeroplanes were designated Taube by the uninitiated, and
were formed with swept-back, curved wings very much resembling the wings
of a bird. These had obvious disadvantages, but the standardisation
of design and mass production of the German factories kept them in the
field for a considerable period, and they flew side by side with tractor
biplanes of improved design. For a little time, the Fokker monoplane
became a definite threat both to French and British machines. It was
an improvement on the Morane French monoplane, and with a high-powered
engine it climbed quickly and flew fast, doing a good deal of damage fo