In the discussion following my reading of the Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture, before the Royal Aeronautical Society, on June 6th, 1916, Lord Northcliffe drew attention to the attempt which had been made to rob the Wright Brothers of the credit of inventing the aeroplane.

“ We have not heard much of that in England,” said Lord Northcliffe, “ but ‘ a prophet is not without honour save in his own country,’ and in the United States there have been long and persistent attempts to belittle the work of Wilbur and Orville Wright. I have closely read and followed the history of the hundred years of aeroplane experiments, and I am convinced that the credit of the first flying machine is due to the Wright Brothers, and from the point of practical flying to nobody else. As an Englishman I am in an independent position, and I know that these words of mine will go across the Atlantic, and I believe they will assist in stopping the spread of the insidious suggestion that the Wrights did not invent the aeroplane.”

1. 1. I have recently paid a visit to Egypt and Mesopotamia with the object of finding out the particular troubles that are experienced with aeroplanes and engines in tropical climates. My stay in those countries only lasted for a total of 41/2 weeks in July and August, and that, of course, is quite an insufficient time to get complete knowledge of the subject. In many cases I am afraid the information I shall give will be somewhat indefinite, but my main object is to indicate the troubles and leave their solution to other people.

2. 2. First as regards the climatic conditions. The general impression I got was that, as regards the effect on aircraft materials, Mesopotamia was very nearly as much worse than Egypt as Egypt is than England, so that although one may get a solution for a particular difficulty in Egypt, it does not necessarily follow that the same solution will get over the difficulty in Mesopotamia.

When the aeroplane came into being ten years ago the parachute had no place in the practical politics of aeronautics.

The extensive use of observation balloons, throughout the war, brought the life-saving capabilities of the parachute to the front.

In pre-war days the parachute was regarded almost exclusively as a medium for daring displays.

Public interest has been aroused by the fact that the lives of over 800 men were saved from balloons by parachute and many more might have been saved from aeroplanes by the provision of this simple appliance.

For the last six months of the war the Germans were using a comparatively crude type of parachute in nearly all their aeroplanes. This equipment was entirely optional. Nine out of ten pilots elected to carry them. According to the best information I can get, of the pilots who had occasion to use them, nine out of ten saved their lives.

It has been supposed that meteorology must necessarily be of very great importance to aeronautics, and that important as it may be to, say, marine work, the services which it can render to aviation are still greater. It may not be without interest, therefore, to discuss in what ways it can be of most assistance; how an ideal meteorological service might be organised, and how far it is likely to satisfy the demands made upon it. We do not propose to discuss what should be done in the immediate future, since this is complicated by so many considerations, such as the financial outlay which is justified by the existing volume of aerial traffic. But to simplify our question, let us imagine a time when the amount of aerial traffic will be so great that the financial considerations involved would justify any outlay that we are likely to propose. Such a time may be supposed to be many or few years ahead, according as one feels, pessimistic or optimistic, regarding the future of commercial aviation.