The triplane is by far the best type for these giant raiders that fly by night. Their requirements are great lifting power and great stability, and these, the triplane with its extra lifting surface, best fulfills. Equipped with two or three engines so that its power-plant can be absolutely relied upon in every emergency, with accurate bomb-sighting instruments and with a compass, searchlight and other apparatus necessary for traveling by night, the triplane can be depended upon to inflict gigantic blows upon enemy bases. The British have a big bombing triplane that was heard from in Germany: the _Sopwith_. Its three planes are equal in span, and have only one strut at each side of the fuselage, with the wiring also greatly simplified, in order to reduce the head-resistance to a minimum. [Illustration: _SIDE VIEW OF A SOPWITH TRIPLANE_] [Illustration: _TOP VIEW OF THE "TAIL" OF THE SOPWITH_] The _Sopwith_ was one of the first triplanes to be used for bombing and general service over the lines. Those at the front early in 1918 were equipped with a 110 horsepower Clerget rotary engine. A round metal hood or "cowl" surrounding the motor formed the front of the fuselage, overhanging the body slightly at the bottom in order to form an air outlet for the engine. America has not actually developed any big bombing planes of the type of the _Sopwith_, although we have one enormous triplane,--the _Curtiss_ triplane air-cruiser, built for service over the sea. And although Russia abandoned the good cause for which she was fighting, we cannot pass over the subject of big bombing triplanes without mentioning the giant _Sikorsky_, one of the largest and most remarkable weapons of destruction that were employed in the war against the Hun.