So far as personal comfort is concerned, a point certainly worth consideration in long flights, the latest-type reconnoitring machine reveals interesting features. Pilot and observer are, for example, screened so far as is possible from the rush of wind. Their seats are comfortably placed. Map-holder, compass, engine-revolution indicator, and other fitments are neatly arranged. Dual control has become almost a standard device, thus enabling either occupant of the machine to take charge, while in flight, without change of seats. Of two-seated, military monoplanes at the Paris exhibition, it is probable that the Nieuport, Blériot, and Deperdussin attracted most serious attention; and genuine interest was also aroused by the lonely prominence of one British exhibit—that of the Bristol passenger monoplane. As definite evidence of the capabilities of this machine, Mr James Valentine had, a day or so prior to the exhibition, piloted, in a flight over Paris, a sister monoplane to that which was shown. Military authorities, who visited the Paris salon, directed very serious attention to the single-seated, high-speed war monoplanes which were on view. Here is to be found the emergence of a machine of a very definite and important type. It was with great interest, and some surprise, during the progress of the French military trials, in October, 1911, that those interested in airmanship read of the ordering, by the French authorities, of a large number of single-seated monoplanes. The surprise, it should be mentioned, was occasioned by the fact that single-seated machines should have been purchased just at a time when passenger monoplanes were arousing most interest. But the French military experts knew their own needs. They had mapped out, for the single-seated, almost racing-type machine, an important field of activity in war-time. They saw that, under actual service conditions, there would be definite demand for a scouting aeroplane which would make a very rapid, general survey of the position of the enemy’s troops. [Illustration: MILITARY BIPLANE WITH TWO ENGINES. This exceedingly interesting machine, which possesses especial significance from the military point of view, is equipped with two Gnome motors. One drives two propellers placed in front of the main-planes, and the other actuates a single rear propeller. Normally, both engines run at easy speed; but, should one fail in flight, the other, by being accelerated, will maintain the machine in the air. Its designers and builders are Messrs. Short Brothers.] In such a machine, they decided, speed would be the all-important requirement; and, seeing that the survey to be made would be comprehensive, and not detailed, it was reckoned that the pilot would be able to do all that was required, thereby saving the carrying of a passenger, and enabling greater pace to be obtained.