The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-08-30

landing place, such as a shore or
 beach. Flights may be made over
 bodies of water If the machine IS equipped to float in case of a forced
 descent on the surface of the water. The importance of this development of the powers of the aeroplane in naval
 use is too clear to need pointing out. The great difficulty about the con- Struction of a machine to rise out of
 the water is to carry the additional weight of floats or a boat of sufficient size to provide flotatton for the ma chine, and to place them so that they will neither interfere with the balance of the machine nor offer lateral sur faces that might cause it to upset if it should slide down sideways through the air.
 The recent demonstrations of the value of the aeroplane for naval pur
 poses follow along the line of action
 taken almost from the first of present day flying-machine development by military authorities. These demon ciently proved the present undoubted value of the aeroplane for military purposes. The aeroplane is used in military manoeuvreS, for purposes of observation, for making maps of the country, for carrying messages and practical uses already acknowledged after demonstration. But much re- mains to be done by the army before the aeroplane takes its place in the new warfare of the wOrfd-menY ex- periments that will determine its use fulRess as an element of attack. Then, too, an entirely new line of military training must soon be entered upon not only must men be taught so as to become sldllful in handling machines in the air. but the man on the ground must be trained to estimate correctly the altitude and the speed of flying machine, and other data obtainable needed to convince the world that the aeroplane really does usher-in new era, it is a glance into the manifold activities developing, one from an- other, in the great system of modern warfare on land and sea, offensive and defensive.
 In my own case, I find that the ex- perience gained from the motorcycle has been of great service to me in connection with the aeroplane. But l think the one thing more than another that has been of the greatest service to me in aviation is that I have been able to wait until the conditions are just right It is a hard thing to do, but it is absolutely necessary at this stage in the development of mechan- ical flight. It is a matter of-what shall I call it?-discretion. I do not SO dI the IITSC Call OIl lIlc IHSC impulse. After I start, anyone could do what I do, with little practice.
 You can do great stunts with a fly ing machine; generally speaking. 1t is possible to do a great many things, but it is almost always uncertain in advance just what you can do, because there are so many conditions that you cannot fix in flying. There is more luck about navigating the air than there is in travelling on the ground. Air, though unseen, is our best friend and our worst enemy, and it is so be- cause Of that very quality, for we are working in an element that we can not see. That is why men will have to be educated to know when the weather conditions are right for fly ing, and when to go and when not to go-and this last, as I have already inferred, is often the most important There is a weather instinct: animals have it, especially birds-think Of the birds that forecast storm and wait for it to carry them on a long flight They actually get on board the wind And their homilng- g-sense./ mysterious as it is, is a matter that interests us all the more now. One who studies the question of-bird- ght comes al- most to believe that birds see the air. Men will have to develop more of these instincts than they have needed here tofore: but the new coalitions will bring the senses, as they always do. into new activities