in form and conception. There was still a great deal to be
learnt in finding the best form of wing section, and performances
were still low; but it had become definitely possible to say that
flying had emerged from the chrysalis stage and had become a
science. The period which now began was one of scientific
development and improvement--in performance, manoeuvrability,
and general airworthiness and stability.

The British Military Aeroplane Competition held in the summer of
1912 had done much to show the requirements in design by giving
possibly the first opportunity for a definite comparison of the
performance of different machines as measured by impartial
observers on standard lines--albeit the methods of measuring were
crude. These showed that a high speed--for those days--of 75
miles an hour or so was attended by disadvantages in the form of
an equally fast low speed, of 50 miles per hour or more, and
generally may be said to have given designers an idea what to aim
for and in what direction improvements were required. In fact,
the most noticeable point perhaps of the machines of this time
was the marked manner in which a machine that was good in one
respect would be found to be wanting in others. It had not yet
been possible to combine several desirable attributes in one
machine. The nearest approach to this was perhaps to be found
in the much discussed Government B.E.2 machine, which was
produced from the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, in the
summer of 1912. Though considerably criticized from many points
of view it was perhaps the nearest approach to a machine of
all-round efficiency that had up to that date appeared. The
climbing rate, which subsequently proved so important for
military purposes, was still low, seldom, if ever, exceeding 400