It may, indeed, be reasonably thought that the knowledge of the vast utility of aircraft in the present conflict will dispel the last remnant of prejudice in this country against the development of aërial navigation, and the grudging of a liberal national expenditure on the service of the air. It was, perhaps, this ignoring of practical utility, so vigorously combated by the pioneers in this country, that caused Great Britain to be the last of the Great Powers to seriously take up aircraft for military and naval use. Our delay had been a wonder to many, since theoretically in the past this nation had been to the fore. Nearly half a century ago it led the way of the air by being the first country in the world to found a society for the encouragement of aërial navigation--the Aëronautical Society of Great Britain. It is no exaggeration to say that many of the great principles of human flight were formulated and discussed at the earlier meetings of that society. The late Mr. Wilbur Wright, when he came to this country to receive the gold medal of the society, in his speech testified to the substantial help he had received from the study of the transactions of the oldest aëronautical society in the world. As the pioneer in laying the foundations of aërial science, this country is not without honour amongst the nations. CHAPTER I THE EARLIER AËRIAL SCOUTS Patriotism has been the most powerful factor in developing aërial navigation. Montgolfier experimented with his paper balloons filled with heated air in the desire that his invention might be of use to France in her wars, and throughout the history of both balloons and flying machines we find that it has been the desire to employ them as instruments of war that has most fostered their progress. Very soon after Charles invented the gas balloon the latter was pressed into military service for the very same purpose of reconnaissance for which airships and aëroplanes are now being used. At the time of the French revolutionary war an aëronautical school was founded at Meudon under the control of Guyton de Morveau, Coutelle, and Conté, and a company was formed called Aërostiers. Captive balloons were used by the armies of the Sambre and Meuse, of the Rhine and Moselle. Just before the battle of Fleurus, 1794, two ascents were made, and the victory of the French was attributed to observations made by Coutelle. At that time several ascents were made from Liége with a spherical balloon and one of cylindrical shape. This latter appears to have anticipated the well-known German kite-balloon. There is a tradition that in those early days of the balloon the French were possessed of a varnish which satisfactorily held the hydrogen gas, but that the secret was lost--a grave loss indeed, if the tradition has truth in it. The secret was never refound. A really gas-proof varnish is unknown. In the course of the American Civil War of 1861 captive balloons were again employed with important results.