, Captain Fox,
Captain Hamilton, and by Major Burke, who had come over from Farnborough
on purpose. The important thing at this time, and for long after, was to
show the infantry what aeroplanes could do for them. At a later time,
during the war, it became necessary to teach the infantry what
aeroplanes could not do for them--that they could not, for instance,
supply them with a complete defence against enemy aircraft.

At the beginning of August 1912 Military Aeroplane Trials took place on
Salisbury Plain. These trials were competitions, arranged by the War
Office, to determine the type of aeroplane best suited to the
requirements of the army. One competition, with a first prize of L4,000,
was open to the world; the other, with a first prize of L1,000, was
limited to aeroplanes manufactured wholly, except for the engines, in
the United Kingdom. The judges were Brigadier-General Henderson, Captain
Godfrey Paine, Mr. Mervyn O'Gorman, and Major Sykes. The tests imposed
and the award of the prizes showed clearly enough that what the military
authorities were seeking was a strong, fairly fast machine, a good
climber, able to take off and alight on uneven ground and to pull up
within a short distance after alighting. Further, a high value was
attached to range of speed, that is, to the power of flying both fast
and slow, and to a free and open view from the seat of the observer.
Both the first prizes were won by Mr. Cody on his own biplane, which was
of the 'canard', or tail-first type, and was fitted with an
Austro-Daimler engine of a hundred and twenty horse-power. The winning
machine did not in the end prove to be suitable for army purposes, and
only a few were ordered, but the trials gave timely and needed
encouragement to the aeroplane industry. The army machines and the army
pilots were, of course, not eligible for these competitions, but the
factory machine B.E. 2 made a great impression on those who saw it fly.
It was in this machine that Mr. G. de Havilland, with Major Sykes as
passenger, created a British record by rising to a height of 9,500 feet
in one hour and twenty minutes. A few years later, when the war had
quickened invention, a good two-seater machine could rise to that height
in less than ten minutes. The only engine of British manufacture which
completed all the trials was a sixty horse-power Green engine, fitted in
an Avro machine.

Certainly the British public did not know what was being done for them