For the splendid work which he had accomplished, Lieutenant Sido received promotion, and his pilot, Adjutant Menard, was presented with the Cross of the Legion of Honour. Lieutenant Sido, explaining afterwards how he succeeded in setting out such terse and informing reports, made several interesting observations regarding the work of a military observer. At first, he said, the man who attempted aerial scouting could not distinguish things below him with sufficient clearness. He himself had found that quite a number of flights were necessary before he could make anything like satisfactory or accurate observations. But practice, he added, was everything. Granted plenty of this, and sharp eyesight, he considered that an aerial observer should make few mistakes in reporting what he saw when in an aeroplane. A military correspondent of _The Times_, who went through these manœuvres in Picardy, and thus had ample opportunity of studying the work of the air-scouts, declared afterwards: "In my belief the aeroplane, given a trained pilot, and a skilled observer, must revolutionise the whole service of reconnaissance." No statement could be more definite. This, as has been said, was the first practical revelation of what an air-scout might accomplish in time of war. France was not slow to profit by the lesson. Without delay, she began to create an efficient aeroplane fleet. If feats such as those recorded in the Picardy manœuvres could be carried out with a few aeroplanes, what could not be achieved with highly-organised squadrons of machines? This, in effect, was the question which France asked herself. [Illustration: READY FOR A SCOUTING FLIGHT. Here a latest-type reconnoitring monoplane, with its observer in the front seat and the pilot behind him, is seen just about to start upon an aerial voyage. The machine is a British-built Bristol, such as will be used in the forthcoming military trials.] THIRD SECTION THE GROWING AIR-FLEETS OF FOREIGN NATIONS I. Activity in France—Two hundred machines at the end of 1911; a thousand promised by the year 1914. Practically all leading nations, with the exception of Great Britain, are now equipping themselves, on an adequate scale, with the war aeroplane. At the time of the autumn manœuvres in 1910, France possessed about a dozen aeroplanes. But she soon increased this number, being full of enthusiasm, and determined upon a strong aerial policy. Thus, an official report, which was presented at the end of 1910, showed that the French authorities had increased their fleet of machines, in two or three months, from a dozen to thirty-two. The list of the French war aeroplanes at this time was, it is interesting to note, made up as follows:—