So far the coast seems clear, but a small storm appears in the offing; can this two hundred and fifty pounds, or any considerable part of it, be dropped from a moving aeroplane without disturbing its equilibrium to such an extent as to render the machine unmanageable? Any weight can be dropped from the centre of lift without disturbing the equilibrium. Thirty-eight pounds have been dropped from one machine from a point three feet in front of the centre of lift without disturbing the equilibrium. Admitting that the necessary weight can be carried and can be dropped, we next encounter the highly important question, what can we hit from a height of, say, three thousand five hundred feet? At this point the problem becomes one of pure fire control, and is directly analogous to target practice in our sea-coast defences. Since the aeroplane is moving forward at a definite rate of speed at the instant of dropping the projectile, it follows that there is an initial velocity given to the projectile. This velocity is dependent upon the forward speed of the machine and varies with it. Gravity exerts an influence on the drop of the projectile, which influence increases the speed of drop as the altitude from which the shell is dropped increases. The direction and force of the wind currents through which the projectile must fall are variable and they all exert influences tending to cause the projectile to swerve from its original course to a degree dependent upon their strength and the thickness of each stratum of air. The size of the target and, if it be animals or men, the direction and rate of movement of the target, are all factors to a successful hit. Practice has shown us that the principal factors are the forward speed of the machine and the altitude. The variations due to wind currents through which the projectile must pass in falling are negligible. The only targets to be chosen will be sufficiently large and immobile to warrant an assumption that they can be hit. Aerial target practice will never degenerate to the sniping of individuals. It will be directed against ships, small boats, armies, cavalry, quartermaster and field artillery trains and similar large bodies of men or animals, or against the strategical and tactical points alluded to above. The problem then simmers itself down to a more or less accurate solution of a method for determining the forward speed of the machine and its altitude, which, with a suitable set of tables and suitable mechanical devices for releasing the projectile at the proper instant, will produce a reasonably good target practice.