told until the end of the war has come. Not only have aeroplanes,
since the beginning of the war, become safer, but they have also
become marvelously swifter and more powerful. As this is being written
news comes from Washington that some recently imported very big and
powerful Italian aeroplanes have made successfully a flight from
Newport News to the Federal capital--a distance of some 150 miles--at
the rate of 135 miles per hour and carrying ten passengers. This is
typical of the recent development in the science of flying.

The result of this development has been the more varied uses to which
aeroplanes are now being put. Not only do they continue to act as
observers of hostile positions and movements and as guides to
artillery operations, but they have also come into vogue as offensive
weapons. With increased carrying capacity and extended radius of
action it has become possible to utilize aeroplanes extensively for
the bombardment of important positions or localities far behind
hostile lines. Even for the purpose of hunting down and destroying
submarines aeroplanes are being used to-day, and frequently they
cooperate with naval forces in strictly offensive operations.

The six months' period covering February, 1917 to August, 1917,
therefore, shows the greatest activity of the various aerial forces
since the beginning of the war. On the other hand there has been a
greater lack of news and an extreme scarcity of details concerning
aerial operations than ever before. However, in spite of this latter
condition, it is possible to state that aeroplanes were used more
frequently and more extensively than ever before on all fronts,
especially the western front. From such reports as are available it
appears that the combined English and French aerial forces have become
superior, both in number and in efficiency, to those of Germany. The
latter, however, have maintained a remarkably high standard.

It is impossible from the reports which are available to give anything
like a complete history of aerial warfare during the period from
February to August, 1917. Throughout February, 1917, English, French,
German, Italian, Russian, and Austrian aeroplanes were extensively
employed wherever and whenever conditions permitted. Furnes in
Flanders was one of the places frequently bombed by German aeroplanes,
while British planes with even greater frequency visited the harbor of
Bruges (Zeebrugge) where heavy damage was inflicted o