The stream-lining of aircraft and the development of the Mercedes and Benz gasoline motors under the incentive to win the Kaiser’s prize was the big factor in this aeronautic progress. Not only did the Germans make new aviation records, but they also won the Grand Prix race in Paris, 1913, with engines the details of which were most jealously guarded, defeating the best English and French machines. Indeed, the Mercedes motor used on Zeppelin, aeroplane, and automobile was the same in fundamentals. To Americans who are familiar with the difficulties we experienced in the early days of our entrance into the World War in getting quantity production with the Liberty motor, it is evident from the fact that the Germans had three large factories filled with tools, dies, gigs, etc., for quantity production of the Benz, Mercedes, and Maybach engines, that Germany believed that she had control of the air in June, 1914. She had already broken all the world’s records in road-racing, as well as in the air, and she had more than a score of Zeppelins and over 500 standardized planes. Naturally, the preparations of the Germans did not fail to attract attention in France. Races and aeronautic contests at military manœuvres, besides aero expositions, were held by the French, and the success of the Paris-Madrid and Paris-Rome race in 1911 influenced the French Chamber of Deputies to appropriate 11,000,000 francs for military aviation. The Kaiser’s prize and Prince Henry of Prussia’s recommendation of $7,500,000 appropriation for German aviation caused the Paris _Matin_ to start a national subscription by donating 50,000 francs for an aeronautic fund similar to that subscribed by Germany. In 1911 Mr. Robert J. Collier loaned his aeroplane to the United States Government to be used for scout duty on the Mexican frontier. In February, 1912, during the Italian-Turkish War, the Italians used one aeroplane for locating the position of the Arabs, and several bombs were dropped without any attempt to do any more than guess at the place where they would land. As a matter of fact, they fell far from their objectives, and served no military purpose further than to frighten the horses. In locating the distribution of troops, however, this aeroplane was most valuable. For that reason many military men even thought that the aeroplane, because of the velocity at which it moved, could not be of much value other than for scouting, and as no guns had been successfully mounted on aircraft before the World War, the aeroplane was not regarded as an offensive weapon. Indeed, that was one of the developments of the war. The first attempts to mount a machine-gun on an aeroplane were made in France on a Morane monoplane. In order to shoot over the propeller a steel scaffolding was erected, and the pilot was supposed to stand up to sight his gun. This was impracticable, and the structure retarded the vision of the pilot and the speed of the aeroplane.