considerable improvements had been made in the design of wing
sections, which had greatly increased the efficiency of
aeroplanes by raising the amount of 'lift' obtained from the
wing compared with the 'drag' (or resistance to forward motion)
which the same wing would cause. In the same way the shape of
bodies, interplane struts, etc., had been improved to be of
better stream-line shape, for the further reduction of
resistance; while the problems of stability were beginning to be
tolerably well understood. Records (for what they are worth)
stood at 21,000 feet as far as height was concerned, 126 miles
per hour for speed, and 24 hours duration. That there was
considerable room for development is, however, evidenced by a
statement made by the late B. C. Hucks (the famous pilot) in
the course of an address delivered before the Royal Aeronautical
Society in July, 1914. 'I consider,' he said, 'that the present
day standard of flying is due far more to the improvement in
piloting than to the improvement in machines.... I consider
those (early 1914) machines are only slight improvements on the
machines of three years ago, and yet they are put through
evolutions which, at that time, were not even dreamed of. I can
take a good example of the way improvement in piloting has
outdistanced improvement in machines--in the case of myself, my
'looping' Bleriot. Most of you know that there is very little
difference between that machine and the 50 horse-power Bleriot
of three years ago.' This statement was, of course, to some
extent an exaggeration and was by no means agreed with by
designers, but there was at the same time a germ of truth in it.
There is at any rate little doubt that the theory and practice
of aeroplane design made far greater strides towards becoming an
exact science during the four years of War than it had done