reated by the drastic repair and reconstruction of another
machine. A Voisin pusher with a sixty horse-power Wolseley engine had
been presented to the army by the Duke of Westminster, and was sent to
the factory for repair. When it emerged, like the phoenix, from the
process of reconstruction, only the engine remained to testify to its
previous existence, and even that was replaced, a little later, by a
sixty horse-power Renault engine. It was now the B.E. tractor, and in
March 1912, some two months before the formation of the Royal Flying
Corps, it was handed over to the Air Battalion, and was assigned to
Captain Burke. It had a long and adventurous career, and was often flown
at Farnborough for the testing of experimental devices. When at last it
was wrecked, beyond hope of repair, in January 1915, it had seen almost
three years of service, and had perhaps known more crashes than any
aeroplane before or since. It was frequently returned to the factory for
the replacement of the undercarriage and for other repairs. The first
machine of its type, it outlived generations of its successors, and
before it yielded to fate had become the revered grandfather of the
whole brood of factory aeroplanes.

Many of the records of the early work of No. 2 Squadron, commanded by
Major Burke, are missing. This was the first squadron sent out from
Farnborough to occupy a new station, and to carry on its work as an
independent unit. It may safely be presumed that a great part of the
time spent at Farnborough was devoted to organization, and to
preparation for the new venture. The shortage of machines was the main
obstacle to early training. In May 1912 Captain G. H. Raleigh and
Lieutenants C. A. H. Longcroft and C. T. Carfrae were sent for a month
to Douai in France, to pick up what knowledge they could at the workshop
where Breguet machines were being constructed for the Flying Corps. They
then returned to Farnborough, where they began to practise cross-country
flying. Much initial training was necessary before the squadron could be
fitted for independence. In January 1913 it began to move north, by air
and road and rail; by the end of February it was installed in its new
quarters at Montrose. Five of the officers flew all the way: Captain J.
H. W. Becke and Lieutenant Longcroft on B.E. machines, Captains G. W. P.
Dawes and P. L. W. Herbert, Lieutenant F. F. Waldron on Maurice Farmans.
The first stage of the flight was to Towcester on the