Another of the important military experiments has been the equipping of aeroplanes with wireless apparatus so that a wireless operator in the machine with the aviator could send and receive brief messages such as would describe the position and strength of an enemy in war time. Also many aviators have taken up with them photographers who have taken accurate photographs of both the still and motion variety of the country over which they were passing. Of course the armies of the world are building guns which will carry to a great altitude as a defence from aerial attack. Although the first country to adopt aeroplanes for use by its army, the United States is now far behind other nations in its aviation squads. The United States Signal Corps owns only a few Wright and Curtiss biplanes, with only a small number of officers who know how to fly them. France has an extensive fleet of several hundred aeroplanes and a small army of aviators, while Germany has established a school for aviation where sixty or seventy officers are always being instructed in flying the various types of machines. The German Army has now more than one hundred aeroplanes, besides many dirigible balloons. The British Government has not gone so far, but has conducted some interesting experiments in which Claude Grahame-White was one of the leaders. The latest things in the aeroplane, however, are always expected to be brought out at the French Army tests, and several machines that were first exhibited in this way will be described a little later on. But not only in war is the aeroplane being developed, but also in the greater work of peace, because the aeroplane enthusiasts expect that in the near future the art will be developed to such a degree of safety that regular systems of passenger traffic can be installed. Besides this, the aeroplane is the fastest mode of travelling now known, and it may be used for the carrying of mail. It was only in the summer of 1911 that the first aeroplane mail route of the United States was established between the aviation field in Garden City, L. I., and the United States post-office at Mineola, several miles away. Daily throughout the meet at Garden City Captain Beck and Earle L. Ovington carried a sack of officially stamped and sealed mail from the post-office on the field to the postal station at Mineola. The first sack was handed to Beck by Postmaster-General Hitchcock. Before this, mail had been carried by aeroplane in England, but not on a regularly established route.