In the war zone the aeroplane has been put to the most astonishing uses. It has spied out the most hidden secrets of the enemy; it has dropped spies behind his lines; it has photographed thousands of square miles of European and Asiatic terrain; it has directed the fire of artillery and the march of hundreds of thousands of troops; it has scattered cigarettes over advancing soldiers; it has dropped cans of tomatoes to thirsty and hungry men in isolated stretches of the desert; it has carried food to besieged camps; it has bombed trains, concentrations of soldiers, ammunition-dumps and ammunition-factories, gas-plants, and innumerable other military and manufacturing objectives. It has performed more manœuvres in the air than the tumbler pigeon. It has fought the most extraordinary battles. It has descended so low as to rake soldiers in the trenches, transports on the highways, trains on the railroads, and even officers in their automobiles. Indeed, by bombing manufacturing cities over a belt of a hundred miles along the Rhine it has done more to break down the morale of the German people than any other factor. Truly this new engine of man has developed, under the intense necessity of war, farther in this short space of time than any other mechanical device—not excepting the automobile—which man has ever invented or fostered. But with all the wonderful things the aeroplane has accomplished and with all the stupendous advance it has made as a carrier of man and his chattels, even though it does travel the shortest distance between any two points on this planet with the greatest speed, nevertheless, much must yet be done to make the aeroplane a safe, comfortable, popular, and inexpensive means of aerial transportation. Therefore, before we attempt to demonstrate how this fastest engine of flight can be made to do man’s will as easily and comfortably as the powerful steam-engine, the mysterious electric dynamo, and the subtle gasoline motor, let us first examine in detail what has already been accomplished in aeroplane transportation. Then, with our feet firmly planted on the ground but with our heads up in the clouds so that we may see over the highest mountains, let us look down the corridors of the ages and discern through the mists of time some of the transportation feats which this new invention of man will most certainly perform.