Reconnaissance aircraft
By February 1916, however, there was no apparent sign of any unusual military activity in the Sinai itself, when the British began construction on the first stretch of standard gauge railway and water pipeline from Kantara to Romani and Katia. Reconnaissance aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps and seaplanes of the Royal Naval Air Service found only small, scattered Ottoman forces in the Sinai region and no sign of any major concentration of troops in southern Palestine.