to an eddy in a stream, and it has the effect of making the
machine fly very unsteadily. Remous are probably caused by electrical
disturbances of the atmosphere, which cause the air streams to meet
and mingle, breaking up into filaments or banding rills of air. The
wind--that is, air in motion--far from being of approximate uniformity,
is, under most ordinary conditions, irregular almost beyond conception,
and it is with such great irregularities in the force of the air streams
that airmen have constantly to contend.

CHAPTER XLIX. The Future in the Air

Three years before the outbreak of the Great War, the Master-General of
Ordnance, who was in charge of Aeronautics at the War Office, declared:
"We are not yet convinced that either aeroplanes or air-ships will be of
any utility in war".

After four years of war, with its ceaseless struggle between the Allies
and the Central Powers for supremacy in the air, such a statement makes
us rub our eyes as though we had been dreaming.

Seven years--and in its passage the air encircling the globe has become
one gigantic battle area, the British Isles have lost the age-long
security which the seas gave them, and to regain the old proud
unassailable position must build a gigantic aerial fleet--as greatly
superior to that of their neighbours as was, and is, the British Navy.

Seven years--and the monoplane is on the scrap-heap; the Zeppelin has
come as a giant destroyer--and gone, flying rather ridiculously before
the onslaughts of its tiny foes. In a recent article the editor of The
Aeroplane referred to the erstwhile terror of the air as follows: "The
best of air-ships is at the mercy of a second-rate aeroplane". Enough to
make Count Zeppelin turn in his grave!

To-day in aerial warfare the air-ship is relegated to the task of
observer. As the "Blimp", the kite-balloon, the coast patrol, it
scouts and takes copious notes; but it leaves the fighting to a tiny,
heavier-than-air machine armed with a Lewis gun, and destructive attacks
to those big bomb-droppers, the British Handley Page, the German Gotha,
the Italian Morane tri-plane.

The war in the air has been fought with varying fortunes. But, looking
back upon four years of war, we may say that, in spite of a slow
start, we have managed to catch up our adversaries, and of late we have
certainly dealt as hard knocks as we have received. A great spurt of
aerial activity marked the opening of the year 1918. From all qua