military aviation from 1912 onwards. Nevertheless this country could ill
have dispensed with the experiments of that small and courageous band of
aviators, among whom Dickson and Cody were prominent. By 1908 Cody had
built an aeroplane and was making experimental flights at Aldershot. In
1907, A. V. Roe, working under great difficulties, constructed and flew
his first machine, a triplane fitted with an 8-10 horse-power twin
cylinder Jap bicycle engine, the first tractor type machine produced by
any country, and a very important contribution to the science of flight.
In 1910 and 1911 we find de Havilland, Frank Maclean and the Short
Brothers, Ogilvie, Professor Huntingdon, Sopwith and the Bristol
Company, starting on the design and construction of machines, of which
the names have since become famous. At the same time certain centres of
aviation came into existence, such as Brooklands, where I well remember
beginning to fly in August, 1910, Hendon, Larkhill and Eastchurch,
destined to be the centre of naval aviation. It is significant, however,
of the slow progress made that by November 1st, 1910, only twenty-two
pilot's certificates had been issued, and it was Conneau, a French naval
officer, who in 1911 won the so-called "Circuit of Britain," i.e. a
flight from Brooklands and back via Edinburgh, Glasgow, Exeter and
Brighton. Cody and Valentine were the only British competitors to
complete the full course.

In May 1911 a demonstration was organized by the owners of the Hendon
Aerodrome to which a large number of Cabinet Ministers, members of
parliament, and army and navy officers were invited. The War Office
co-operated by arranging for a small force of horse, foot and guns to be
secretly disposed in a specified area some miles distant and by
detailing two officers, of whom I was one, to test what could be done to
find and report them by air. I remember that I had a special map
prepared, the first used in this, and I think any country, for the
aeroplane reconnaissance of troops. After a sufficiently exciting trip,
and with the troops successfully marked on the map, Hubert, my French
pilot, and I, returned and made our report to General Murray, the
Director of Military Training. It was a very interesting flight; the
weather good; our height about 1,500 feet; the machine a 50 horse-power
Gnome "box-kite" Henri Farman, which at one period of our 35 mile an
hour return journey elected to point itself skywards for an unpleasa