machine-gun, and protected by light armour from attack from below. Possibly also there will be a type more especially designed for lending support to ordinary military operations, on the lines already foreshadowed, protected beneath by heavier armour or by point-blank-proof shields, and mounting a multiple machine-gun, or a mitrailleuse having three or four barrels, and capable of firing 2,000 to 3,000 rounds per minute. Further than this, there will without doubt be machines expressly constructed for bomb-dropping, in addition to specialised naval types; these, however, do not require particular consideration, since, in view of the weight they have otherwise to carry, their power of offence against hostile aircraft (as measured by their gun-power) will of necessity be feeble.
In the absence of any organised air fleet intended for the destruction of the types as above defined, there will take place, indeed as is already the case, a certain amount of desultory fighting of a local character; at one point the aircraft of one belligerent will secure the advantage, and at some other point the reverse may be the case. So long as neither air force possesses any marked superiority in the matter of speed, and so long as neither army has at its disposal more machines than are reasonably necessary for the reconnaissance and other services mentioned, we cannot anticipate that the results of such aerial combat will be decisive in any sense. We may assume that numbers may combine in order to overweight the enemy locally, and drive him out of action; the advantage obtained, however, will only be temporary. In such desultory air warfare there will be a continual wastage of men and machines, but these losses can be made good by new units and new formations.
In order to effect anything decisive, an organisation of an entirely new character is required: an air fleet
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