rant officers, non-commissioned officers, and
men will be selected from the Corps of Royal Engineers. The existing
Balloon School will be superseded by the Air Battalion, and the new
organization will be regarded as taking effect from April 1st, 1911.'

The formation of the Air Battalion was a great step in advance. Up to
this time flying had been a hobby or fancy of individual men; it was now
organized and provided for as a part of the duty of the army. The
battalion was duly formed under the command of Sir Alexander Bannerman,
with Captain P. W. L. Broke-Smith, of the Royal Engineers, as adjutant.
Airships were assigned to No. 1 Company and aeroplanes to No. 2 Company.
This latter company, commanded by Captain Fulton, went into camp at
Larkhill about the end of April. When Mr. Cockburn, after completing
the course of instruction that he gave at Eastchurch, returned to
Larkhill, he found the battalion in process of formation. Its history,
and its development, a year later, into the Royal Flying Corps, must be
narrated in the next chapter, and the steps traced by which a small
balloon factory at Chatham, started in the year 1882, was transformed
into the Air Force of to-day. A few words may here be added concerning
Captain Fulton and Mr. Cockburn, who bore so large a part in the
creation of an air force. While he held his command in the Air
Battalion, Captain Fulton did all he could to get it recognized as a
separate branch of the army, distinct from the Royal Engineers. When the
Royal Flying Corps was formed he was appointed to the Central Flying
School as instructor, and was put in charge of the workshops there.
Thence he passed to the aeronautical inspection department, which was
placed entirely under his control and became, what it has remained, one
of the foundations of the strength and efficiency of the air force. He
could not be spared from this work for combatant service, so he saw
little of the war at the front; but more flying officers than ever heard
his name owe him a debt of gratitude for his faithful work in providing
for their safety. He died of an affection of the throat in November
1915. Mr. Cockburn, who was continuously at work on Salisbury Plain for
a period of something like four years, continued, as a civilian, to give
his help, first in the aeronautical inspection department, and, later
on, in the investigation of aeroplane accidents.

The account which has now been given of the early years of fly