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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 169, 22 August 1914, Page 8

Comparatively little has been heard on this side of the globe of aeroplane reconnaissance over the Westell theatre of war, and what information we have had savoured strongly of vivid romancing, feut a well;known flyer's name is mentioned to-day —that of the iiftrepid .Pegoud, .whose looping feats have astounded the world. Pegoud, according to report, flew a considerable distance ovey German, territory and blew dp.-.two:. bombs. The bomb-dropping feat may be accepted with some reservation. It is trua that in the Balkan struggle a Bulgarian aviator essayed to drtjp explosives on 'the. enemy—there is jno record of his having done serious damage. The warplane, as it is constituted at present, is an aerial scout, whose greatest means of offence against which from rifle fire. No doubt the- "French air wing has been buss[, of revealing to tlfe Coinmander-in-Chief of the French army the disposition of the enemy. There are a number of aeroplane stations along the frontier, from which some of the finest pilots in Europe would be released for reconnoitring purposes. Germany will be hardly so well served in this matter of aerial scouts. She has spent large sums of money on the rigid and semi-rigid dirigible^, with which it was hoped to revolutioriizie the fnetliods of aerial attack/ But misfortune dogged the Zeppelin, and several examples of this type met with shocking disaster. The one advantage the dirigible had over the scouting warplane was that it was able to 'remain suspended for an indefinite period over an object on the earth—a useful quality when it came to dropping bombs. But, as against the warplane, there its advantage ceased. The slim; monoplane can outfty, outmanoeuvre, and outgame the comparatively unwieldy airship, which is easily set ablaze or 'exploded.