Flying the Atlantic : 405 



machine-gun fire. This gave an impetus to the use of larger and 

 larger bombs and better methods of carrying and dropping them. 



The carrying and management of larger bombs soon showed the 

 need for an airplane especially designed for this service. What was 

 needed in such a plane was not so much speed and maneuverability 

 as large size, driven by an engine that had great power and reliability. 

 Weight-carrying capacity and endurance were the bomber's virtues. 



Thus, the war brought about rapidly great divergencies in the size, 

 speed and equipment of two radically different forms of airplane 

 and intermediate forms also developed for special purposes. While 

 the war speeded up the development of different types of machines, 

 it also speeded up the development of aviators. In all the combatant 

 countries, thousands of young men suddenly became aviators and 

 learned to fly many different kinds of machines propelled by many 

 different kinds of motors. Their life literally depended upon their 

 ability to acquire experience and skill rapidly and they crowded into 

 months or even weeks of military flying knowledge and experience 

 that it would have taken them years to acquire in times of peace. 



At the close of the war many of the military planes were retired 

 and scrapped and many of the World War I aviators returned to ci- 

 vilian pursuits, but a number of the planes, motors and men found 

 a place in the early development of commercial civilian flying. Imme- 

 diately after the war nearly all the European countries made efforts 

 to establish national commercial air lines and these utilized the expe- 

 rience and sometimes the very ships that had come out of the war. 

 In England this was the experience of companies like Handley-Page 

 and Armstrong- Whitworth. In Holland there was Anthony (Tony) 

 Fokker and the various machines he had developed for sale during 

 the war. In Germany there were various ships based on Dr. Junker's 

 war experiences including the use of low-wing all-metal machines 

 and also the Dornier ships. 



The United States had been slow in the development and deliv- 

 ery of fighting planes but it had trained and supplied many aviators. 

 In 191 8 air-mail service commenced with the establishment of flights 

 between Washington and Philadelphia. The air-mail system enjoyed 

 a fairly rapid growth but the transport of passengers by air was slow 

 to develop in the United States in contrast with the number of 

 routes that were rapidly established in Europe. 



By 1919 aviation was ready to make an assault on the transatlantic 

 flight. The United States Navy was the first to make the attempt. 

 The navy had adopted a design of a seaplane produced for it by 



