d men in the city, men who are
ordinarily very sound in their conclusions, who declared the public
would never go there in appreciable numbers. How wrong they were, how
little they gauged the change that was taking place in the public mind,
is shown by the fact that, on a popular day at this aerodrome, as
many as 60,000 people have paid for admission.

In the immediate future, as in the immediate past, aviation will be
concerned largely with the building of naval and military craft. This
will, so to say, be the foundation of its development in other
directions. War for instance, notably in the fitting of craft with
duplicate power-plants, will provide data that is invaluable in the
building of commercial craft, and in machines also for the use of the
tourist. In aerial touring there lies an important field for the
development of aircraft--one which may serve to bridge the gap between
a relatively small, purely pleasure-type machine, and a craft which
has utility in the fields of commerce. The motor-car provides an
enjoyable means of travelling from place to place; but in the
aeroplane, once it is airworthy, reliable, and comfortable, the
tourist has a vehicle which is distinctly more pleasurable and
exhilarating. The day was dawning before the war, and will now be
hastened, when, garaging his aircraft at the London Aerodrome as a
convenient starting-point, an aerial traveller will tour regularly by
air, using his flying machine as he would a motor. Already, dotted
about England, are aerodromes he may use as halting-points on his
flight, and at which he can house his machine and secure the attention
of mechanics; and the number of these grounds should grow rapidly in
the future.

In the aeroplane for the tourist, for the man who buys a machine and
flies for his own pleasure, it is necessary to combine comfort and
safety. As regards comfort, though much remains to be done in the
perfection of detail, the occupants of a machine are now more studied
than they were in the pioneer days. Then a pilot sat out on a crude
seat, exposed fully to the rush of wind as a machine moved through the
air. Now he is placed within a covered-in hull, a screen to protect
him from the wind. From this stage, as was the case with the motor-car,
rapid progress should be made in a provision of comfort.

When touring by air under favourable conditions, there should be no
more risk with an aircraft than with a motor-car. One of the most
frequent