e
battle in mid-air to foes no less well trained and desperate than
they.

CHAPTER VI

THE TRAINING OF THE AVIATOR

The Great War, opening in Europe in 1914 and before its end
involving practically the whole world, including our own nation, has
had more to do with the rapid development of aircraft, both
dirigible balloons and airplanes, than any other agency up to the
present time. It tested widely and discarded all but the most
efficient. It established the relative value of the dirigible and
the airplane, so relegating the former to the rear that it is said
that the death of Count Zeppelin, March 8, 1917, was in a measure
due to his chagrin and disappointment. It stimulated at once the
inventiveness of the constructors and the skill and daring of the
pilots. When it opened there were a few thousand machines and
trained pilots in all the armies of Europe. Before the war had been
in progress three years there were more flying men over the
battlefields of the three continents, Europe, Asia, and Africa,
than there were at that time soldiers of all classes enlisted in the
regular army of the United States. Before that war the three arms of
the armed service had been infantry, artillery, and cavalry. The
experience of war added a new arm--the aviation corps--and there is
to-day some doubt whether in importance it should not be ranked
above the cavalry.

[Illustration: "_America"--Built to Cross the Atlantic Ocean._ (C) U.
& U.]

When war was declared none of the belligerent nations had its aerial
fleet properly organized, nor was the aviation department in any of
them equal in preparedness to the rest of the army. The two great
antagonists did not differ greatly in the strength of their flying
forces. Germany possessed about 1000 airplanes, exclusive of about
450 in private hands, of all which it is estimated about 700 were
ready for immediate service. Fourteen Zeppelins were in commission,
and other large dirigibles of different types brought the number of
the craft of this sort available up to forty.

[Illustration: _Wright Airplane in Flight._]

France was stronger in airplanes but weaker in dirigibles. Of the
former she had about 1500; of the latter not more than twenty-five.
The land was swept for planes in the hands of private owners and, as
the French people had from the first taken a lively interest in
aviation, more than 500 were thus obtained. The French furthermore
at the very outset imperille