CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



boat and flying-machine. But the boat must be of 

 such shape that it will skim through the water with 

 the least possible resistance, and equipped with a 

 powerful motor. 



At the present time two types of hydroaeroplanes 

 are popular, one of which might be described as a 

 flying-machine with floats, the other as a boat with 

 wings. In the first of these, the floats, two in num- 

 ber, are in the form of a catamaran, the operator oc- 

 cupying a seat in the same position as on the aero- 

 plane. In the other, the single hull serves as a seat 

 for the operator as well as a float, and the craft, if 

 shorn of its wings, would resemble the racing type 

 of motorboat. These single hull hydroaeroplanes 

 are kept from cap-sizing by small auxiliary floats 

 placed beneath the tips of the wings, and it is claimed 

 by the advocates of this type that it has manifest 

 advantages over the catamaran in rising more readily 

 from rough water. 



PRACTICAL USES OF THE AEROPLANE 



As yet little practical use has been found for the 

 aeroplane except in military and naval operations. 

 But in these it is proving revolutionary. Thus far its 

 success has lain largely in the field of scouting one 

 of the most important features of military maneuvers. 

 How successful the army scouts have proved them- 

 selves is shown .by the fact that in England the au- 

 tumn army maneuvers of 1912 were terminated be- 

 cause the movements of the opposing armies could not 

 be concealed from the airmen, and the commanders 

 found the hitherto accepted tactics impractical. 



303 



