The German Taube was yet another development of 1912. This plane is so called because the wings are swept back and curved up at the tips like those of a dove. The builders were Herr Wels and Herr Etrich, of Austria, in 1908. Herr Etrich took the design to Germany, where it was adopted by Herr Rumpler. This machine was designed to be inherently stable, that is, uncapsizable, and it was successful to a great degree. If it had altitude enough it generally succeeded when falling in recovering its proper position before striking the ground. Other builders had striven for inherent stability, but had failed to get beyond a certain point. Owing to the greater financial support obtainable in Germany the 1912 type Taube lasted, with small changes, far into 1915, when it was succeeded by the large German biplanes, which had greater speed and carrying power. Several machines in Britain and the United States have attained a considerable reputation as having inherent stability. THE 1913 SOPWITH TABLOID T. O. M. Sopwith, Harry G. Hawker, the Australian pilot who first went to Newfoundland to fly the Atlantic, and Mr. Sigrist, Mr. Sopwith’s chief engineer, turned out early in 1913 an extremely small tractor biplane, equipped with an 80 horse-power Gnome engine, which surprised the aeronautical world by doing a top speed of 95 miles per hour and a climb of 15,000 feet in ten minutes, while it could fly as slowly as 45 miles per hour. It was achieved by skilfully reducing the weight, paying close attention to the designing of the wings, and by carefully stream-lining external parts. All the modern high-speed fighting-biplanes, such as the “Camels,” “Snipes,” “Kittens,” “Bullets,” “Hawks,” and others, are descended from the original “Tabloid,” so called because it had so many good points concentrated in it. Because of its fast-climbing ability it was used for the defense of such cities as London and Paris against the Zeps and aeroplanes. THE 1914 VICKERS GUN BUS The first genuine gun-carrying biplane, designed and built by Vickers, London, came early in 1914. Clearly of Farman inspiration, it had an especially strong nacelle to stand the working of a heavy gun. Equipped with a 100 horse-power Gnome engine it made over 70 miles an hour. It was known everywhere as the “Gun Bus,” and the name stuck to the whole class. THE 1914 GERMAN ALBATROSS BIPLANE Meanwhile the Germans were busy developing machines, so that another development of 1914 was the Albatross tractor biplane, with a six-cylinder vertical water-cooled Mercedes engine of 100 horse-power. This engine was the ancestor of the Liberty engine and of all the big German tractor biplanes. The plane resembled the French Breguets and British Avros of 1910. THE 1915 TWIN CAUDRON