teresting otherwise for
the method of maintaining longitudinal control, which was achieved
by pivoting the whole of the three main planes so that their angle
of incidence could be altered. This was the direct converse of the
universal practice of elevating by means of a subsidiary surface either
in front or rear of the main planes.

Recollection of the various flying meetings and exhibitions which one
attended during the years from 1909 to 1911, or even 1912 are chiefly
notable for the fact that the first thought on seeing any new type of
machine was not as to what its 'performance'--in speed, lift, or what
not--would be; but speculation as to whether it would leave the ground
at all when eventually tried. This is perhaps the best indication of the
outstanding characteristic of that interim period between the time of
the first actual flights and the later period, commencing about 1912,
when ideas had become settled and it was at last becoming possible to
forecast on the drawing-board the performance of the completed machine
in the air. Without going into details, for which there is no space
here, it is difficult to convey the correct impression of the chaotic
state which existed as to even the elementary principles of aeroplane
design. All the exhibitions contained large numbers--one had almost
written a majority--of machines which embodied the most unusual features
and which never could, and in practice never did, leave the ground.
At the same time, there were few who were sufficiently hardy to say
certainly that this or that innovation was wrong; and consequently
dozens of inventors in every country were conducting isolated
experiments on both good and bad lines. All kinds of devices, mechanical
and otherwise, were claimed as the solution of the problem of stability,
and there was even controversy as to whether any measure of stability
was not undesirable; one school maintaining that the only safety lay
in the pilot having the sole say in the attitude of the machine at any
given moment, and fearing danger from the machine having any mind of
its own, so to speak. There was, as in most controversies, some right
on both sides, and when we come to consider the more settled period from
1912 to the outbreak of the War in 1914 we shall find how a compromise
was gradually effected.

At the same time, however, though it was at the time difficult to pick
out, there was very real progress being made, and, though a number of
'f