that they carry; and he takes a lively personal interest in such
questions as stability, speed, rate of climbing, and ease in handling.
The ultimate appeal on the various devices, for the use by aircraft of
musketry, gunnery, photography, wireless telegraphy, bomb-dropping, and
signalling, must in the long run be made to the pilot. If he is
prejudiced, and sometimes prefers a known evil to an unknown good, his
hourly experiences and dangers are a wonderful solvent of that
prejudice. It is not in the laboratory that the Derby is won, or the
manoeuvres and tactics of the air worked out.

Major Brooke-Popham's squadron on Salisbury Plain was the first to get
to work. In its origin, as has been told, it was the old aeroplane
company of the Air Battalion, so that it was free from some of the
difficulties which attend the creation of a new unit. It had at its
disposal about ten machines of various types, and, for transport, one
Mercedes car belonging to Captain Eustace Loraine and another belonging
to the Government. Besides instructional flights and practice in
reconnaissance, which were of course a regular part of the business of
the squadron, it devoted its attention at once to co-operation with
other arms, and especially to the observation of artillery fire. It was
fortunate in getting the whole-hearted support of Colonel the Hon. F.
Bingham, who was at that time commandant of the school at Shoeburyness,
and chief instructor of the artillery practice camp at Larkhill. The
great difficulty was to devise a sufficient method of signalling to the
guns. Wireless telegraphy, which was destined to provide the solution of
this problem, was then at an early stage of its development, and the
apparatus was too cumbrous and heavy to be carried on the machines.
Experiments were made with flags, with written messages carried back and
dropped to the gunners, and finally with coloured Very lights. Progress
was slow. Only a small amount of ammunition was allowed to the gunners.
On windy days flying was far from safe; on calm days there was sometimes
fog, or, if the weather was hot, the air became dangerously bumpy.
Nevertheless the squadron flew in strong winds, and took every
opportunity of demonstrating to the troops on the plain that it was
worth their while to cultivate relations with the new arm. Towards the
end of May there was a big field day, and though the wind was almost a
gale, four machines went up, flown by Major Brooke-Popham