cope for individual
thought.

The following sketch[1] has been written in the hope that some of those
who read it may be inspired to study aviation in one or other of its
branches, whether from the historical, technical, strategical, or
commercial point of view. Any opinions expressed are, of course, my own
and not official.

[1] First written and delivered as the Lees-Knowles Lectures at
Cambridge University in February and March, 1921.

I propose first briefly to trace the history of aviation from its
beginnings to the outbreak of war; next to describe the evolution of
aircraft and of air strategy during the war; and last to estimate the
present position and to look into the future.

CHAPTER I

PRE-WAR

EARLY THOUGHTS ON FLIGHT.

The story of the growth of aviation may be likened to that of the
discovery and opening up of a new continent. A myth arises, whence no
one can tell, of the existence of a new land across the seas. Eventually
this land is found without any realization of the importance of the
discovery. Then comes the period of colonization and increasing
knowledge. But the interior remains unexplored. So, in the case of
aviation, man was long convinced, for no scientific reason, that flight
was possible. With the first ascent by balloon came the imagined mastery
of the air; later, the invention of flight that can be controlled at
will. To-day we are still in the stage of colonization. The future
resources of the air remain hidden from our view.

The Daedalean myth and the ancient conception of the winged angelic host
show how the human mind has long been fascinated by the idea of flight,
but the first design of an apparatus to lift man into the air, a
parachute-like contrivance, was only reached at the end of the fifteenth
century in one of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts. About the same time
lived the first of the long line of daring practical aviators, without
whom success would never have been achieved, one John Damian, a
physician of the Court of James IV of Scotland, who "took in hand to fly
with wings, and to that effect caused make a pair of wings of feathers,
which being fastened upon him, he flew off the castle wall of Stirling,
but shortly he fell to the ground and brake his thigh-bone."

Nearly 250 years later the aeronaut had not made much progress, for we
read of the Marquis de Bacqueville in 1742 attaching to his arms and
legs planes of his own design and launching himself f