they have quite dropped behind in the question of heavier-than-air
machines. France now after an equal period has just, and only just,
formed a really efficient fighting aerial corps; and this lead of five
years she is determined to maintain.'

This is not an over-statement. From the first the French, who had
thought out the whole business, laid great stress on reconnaissance and
control of artillery fire as the main uses of aircraft. For
reconnaissance the aeroplanes were practised to co-operate with cavalry.
For fire control official maps, divided into geometrical squares, so
that a pair of numbers will identify a position within a score or so of
yards, were supplied in duplicate to the pilots of the aeroplanes and to
the commanding officers of batteries. The system of signalling employed
was mostly primitive, but already in 1911 the French were experimenting
with captive balloons which received the messages from the aeroplane,
and by wireless, or some kind of visible signal, transmitted them to the
guns. 'Practice', says Lieutenant Glyn, 'has made almost perfect a
remarkable system which renders the efficient French artillery more
formidable than ever.' Further, infantry were trained to co-operate with
aircraft, so as to learn to take advantage of the new arm; and aerial
photography was practised, under strict conditions of secrecy, with a
surprising degree of success. In short, almost all the uses which later
became the commonplaces of the war were exemplified in the French
manoeuvres of 1911. Battle in the air and the use of aircraft as a
weapon of direct offence were later developments.

In October and November of the same year Captain F. H. Sykes, of the
General Staff, and Captain J. D. B. Fulton, of the Air Battalion,
visited many of the French military and civil aerodromes, and were
present at the military aeroplane competition at Rheims. 'The trials
held at Rheims', says Captain Sykes, 'are considerably in advance of
anything yet attempted.' The machines were flown by the best available
pilots, and were under the personal supervision of the makers and
designers. Aerodromes were better and more numerous than in England;
many of them were situated in wide plains, so that the learner could
make his first cross-country flights over good even landing ground.
Captain Sykes, in his report, suggests that aeroplane sheds should be
erected and flying schools started at stations not very far apart from
one another in En