petitors Colonel Van Ryneveld
came nearest to making the journey successfully, leaving England on
a standard Vickers-Vimy bomber with Rolls-Royce engines, identical in
design with the machine used by Captain Ross-Smith on the England
to Australia flight. A second Vickers-Vimy was financed by the Times
newspaper and a third flight was undertaken with a Handley-Page machine
under the auspices of the Daily Telegraph. The Air Ministry had already
prepared the route by means of three survey parties which cleared the
aerodromes and landing grounds, dividing their journey into stages of
200 miles or less. Not one of the competitors completed the course, but
in both this and Ross-Smith's flight valuable data was gained in
respect of reliability of machines and engines, together with a mass of
meteorological information.

The Handley-Page Company announced in the early months of 1920 that they
had perfected a new design of wing which brought about a twenty to forty
per cent improvement in lift rate in the year. When the nature of the
design was made public, it was seen to consist of a division of the
wing into small sections, each with its separate lift. A few days later,
Fokker, the Dutch inventor, announced the construction of a machine in
which all external bracing wires are obviated, the wings being of a
very deep section and self-supporting. The value of these two inventions
remains to be seen so far as commercial flying is concerned.

The value of air work in war, especially so far as the Colonial
campaigns in which British troops are constantly being engaged is in
question, was very thoroughly demonstrated in a report issued early
in 1920 with reference to the successful termination of the Somaliland
campaign through the intervention of the Royal Air Force, which between
January 21st and the 31st practically destroyed the Dervish force under
the Mullah, which had been a thorn in the side of Britain since 1907.
Bombs and machine-guns did the work, destroying fortifications and
bringing about the surrender of all the Mullah's following, with the
exception of about seventy who made their escape.

Certain records both in construction and performance had characterised
the post-war years, though as design advances and comes nearer to
perfection, it is obvious that records must get fewer and farther
between. The record aeroplane as regards size at the time of its
construction was the Tarrant triplane, which made its first--and