e in a rudimentary state at the outbreak of war. A
fighting service, suddenly engaged in a great war, must use the weapons
it has; it cannot spend more than a margin of its time and thought on
problematic improvements. The Naval Air Service, when the war began, had
good machines and good pilots. The army had endeavoured, before the war,
to establish, on behalf of the nation, a centralized control of
aeronautical manufacture, and the benefits of that policy, when the war
came, have already been described. The navy, following its traditional
plan, and working on freer lines, had done all it could to encourage
private effort, and so had greatly stimulated aeronautical invention and
progress. There was nothing inconsistent in the two policies; they were
stronger together than either could have been alone. When the great
effort was called for, the only thing that could be done at once was to
multiply the best existing types of machine, and to attempt, with the
means available, to perform such tasks as might present themselves.

Before the war the principal firms employed by the Admiralty in the
manufacture of flying machines were: for seaplanes, Messrs. Short
Brothers at Eastchurch, Messrs. Sopwith at Kingston-on-Thames, and
Messrs. J. Samuel White & Co. at Cowes, who had produced the Wight
seaplane; for aeroplanes, Messrs. Short and Messrs. Sopwith as before,
the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company at Bristol, and Messrs. A. V.
Roe & Co. at Manchester. Orders as large as they could handle were
placed with all these firms on the outbreak of war. Further, a very
large order for B.E. 2c machines was placed with various firms, who were
to construct them by the aid of Government plans and specifications; and
Messrs. Vickers received orders for their gun-carrying two-seater pusher
aeroplane known as the Vickers fighter.

The navy naturally paid more attention than the army to fighting in the
air. They were committed to the defence of the coast and the beating off
of hostile air-raids. In France, where the guns were going all day, the
first need was for reconnaissance machines; the navy, who were farther
from the enemy, had set their hearts on machines that should do more
than observe--machines that could fly far and hit hard. They diligently
fostered the efforts of the leading motor-car companies, especially the
Sunbeam and Rolls-Royce, and so were instrumental in the production of
very efficient engines of high horse-power. I