In the winter of 1913-14 Mr. Rodman Wanamaker gave Glenn H. Curtiss a
commission to build a flying boat which would fly across the Atlantic.
Commander Porte was brought from England, and he, with Mr. Curtiss,
worked out the designs for a flying boat much larger than any previously
built, and fitted with two motors instead of one. As entirely separate
power plants would be used, one motor would naturally run somewhat
faster than the other, and it was freely predicted that the machine
could not be handled. The first trial, however, proved that it would not
only fly, but that after it was once in the air, one motor could be
slowed down and even stopped and the machine continue to fly. This
machine was the forerunner of the seaplane, used by the American,
British and other navies in the war, although somewhat changed in
detail. The beginning of the war stopped the transatlantic experiments
and this machine found its way into the British navy. It was christened
the "America," and the larger flying boats or seaplanes which are now
being built and used by the British and American navies are still known
as the "America" or super-American type.
At first fighting operations were carried out by individual aviators or
comparatively small squadrons, but the battles of March, 1918, witnessed
the definite development of larger squadrons, maneuvering as effectively
as bodies of cavalry, and in massed formation attacking infantry
columns.
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