In connection with aerial navigation, a line of research, the importance of which cannot well be overestimated, are those investigations which deal with the motions of the medium of travel. Thanks to the indefatigable efforts of Dr. William Napier Shaw, the investigation of the upper air is forming a feature of the work of the Meteorological Office, and most important results have been obtained. Such investigations are all essential for the progress of meteorology ; but they are equally important for the advance of aerial navigation, and their continuance and extension is worthy of the heartiest national support.
It has been said that the ideal flying machine will be attained by a system of automatic stability. Since Mr. Brennan showed how a train could travel on a mono-rail and keep its stability by the application of the gyroscope, a new hope has arisen that the gyroscopic principle may be so applied to flying machines as to render them automatically stable. Simple experiments with the ordinary gyroscopic top shows us that rotary motion can annul the effects of forces other than gravity.
Though we are yet in a stage of experimental flight, and much has to be learnt in theory and practice before it can be adapted to the requirements of daily life, still even in its partially developed state the aeroplane may prove to be a potent factor of war. Under the cogent force of necessity the slenderest threads may have a power that in peace and prosperity would never be accorded them.
I will forebear the discussion of the much vexed question as to whether, when frontiers are obliterated and war made hideously terrible by the flying machine, there will come the end of strife. But at any rate we may hope that the common paths of the air that will unite nations will remove many prejudices and prolong the blest hours of peace.
PS I know there are corrections (proof reading) needed, but it's late and sleep calls.