Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_. Additional notes will be found near the end of this ebook. The Daily Telegraph WAR BOOKS AIRCRAFT IN WAR [Illustration: [_Topical Press._ A FARMAN ARMED SCOUTING BIPLANE, showing gun mounted in position, Gnome motor, ailerons on upper plane, rudders at rear (see Chapter VII.).] AIRCRAFT _in_ WAR _By_ ERIC STUART BRUCE, M.A. Oxon. _Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society; late Honorary Secretary and Member of Council Aëronautical Society of Great Britain; Vice-President of the Aërial League of the British Empire; Membre d’Honneur of the Aëro Club of France_ ILLUSTRATED HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MCMXIV TO MY WIFE, _who during the eight years of my Honorary Secretaryship of the Aëronautical Society of Great Britain incessantly and most materially aided me in my efforts to secure the united interest of the British nation in the mastery of the air, I dedicate this little volume_. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION ix I. THE EARLIER AËRIAL SCOUTS 1 II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AIRSHIP 11 III. TYPES OF MODERN AIRSHIPS: BRITISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, RUSSIAN, AUSTRIAN, AND BELGIAN 18 IV. THE GERMAN AIRSHIP FLEET 37 V. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF AIRSHIPS 50 VI. THE ADVENT OF THE AËROPLANE 78 VII. TYPES OF AËROPLANES: BRITISH, FRENCH, ITALIAN, RUSSIAN, AUSTRIAN, BELGIAN, AND BULGARIAN 91 VIII. GERMANY’S AËROPLANE EQUIPMENT 123 IX. THE FIRST USE OF THE AËROPLANE IN WAR--TRIPOLI--THE BALKANS 137 X. THE NEW ARM IN ARMAGEDDON 144 XI. PRESENT DEFICIENCIES AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES OF THE MILITARY AËROPLANE 166 INTRODUCTION When years ago we read in Tennyson’s “Locksley Hall” the following lines:-- Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue--