that a machine should make its contact with the ground at the slowest
possible speed, a maximum of plane surface would be employed. But when
aloft, and in full flight, the pilot would be able if he so desired to
reduce the area of his lifting surface, and so increase materially his
speed. With a machine of this type, when perfected, it should be
possible to rise quickly, and descend slowly, and yet at the same time,
when well aloft, attain a high speed with moderate engine-power.

The commercial possibilities of aviation are vast and far-reaching:
not for nothing, after centuries of striving, have men conquered the
air. The aeroplane is destined, by the facilities it offers for
communication between nations, to play a vital part in the growth of
civilisation. The construction and perfection of a commercial
aeroplane, a machine which can be used for the transport of passengers,
mails, and goods, represents largely a question of time and of money.
Technical problems still need to be solved. But none of them are
insurmountable. All should be overcome by an expenditure of money and
in the process of time--granted of course that research is directed
upon the right lines. A sufficient amount of money for experimental
work, which in aviation is very costly, was one of the prime
difficulties before the war. Capitalists were chary of aviation; they
had no faith in it. Now, after the work aircraft have done in war, and
with the need to provide the world with air fleets, the industry need
live no longer from hand to mouth. There should be funds available for
experiments with commercial-type aeroplanes.

As to the factor of time, this depends largely on the facilities that
are obtained by the industry--apart from its work on naval and
military craft--for test work with other machines. But in five years' time,
granted progress continues on the lines now promised, we should
have a service of passenger aeroplanes, each carrying fifty or more
people, flying daily between London, the Midlands, and the North;
while in ten years' time it should be possible to cross the Atlantic,
from London to New York, by means of a regular service of aerial craft.

The commercial aeroplane, even when perfected, would not be likely to
compete successfully with other means of transit unless it could offer
the advantages of a greater speed. Here, indeed, in the speeds they
will attain, lies the future of aircraft. The air will be our highway
because, in