see, from a hill on the Aisne, one of these first airplane combats,
which ended by the enemy falling on the outskirts of the village of
Muizon on the left bank of the Vesle. The French champion bore the fine
name of Franc, and piloted a Voisin. At that date it was not unusual to
pick up messages dropped within our lines by enemy pilots, substantially
to this effect: "Useless for us to fight each other; there are enough
risks without that...."

Meanwhile, strategic reconnaissance was perfected as the line of the
front became firmly established, and more and more importance was
accorded to the search for objectives. Remarkable results were attained
by air photography from December, 1914; and after January, 1915, the
regulation of artillery fire by wireless telegraphy was in general
practice. It was necessary to protect the airplanes attached to army
corps, and to clean up the air for their free circulation. This rôle
devolved upon the most rapid airplanes, which were then the
Morane-Saunier-Parasols, and in the spring of 1915 these formed the
first _escadrilles de chasse_, one for each army. Garros, already
popular before the war for having been the first air-pilot to cross the
Mediterranean, from Saint-Raphael to Bizerto, forced down a large
Aviatik above Dixmude in April, 1915. A few days later a motor breakdown
compelled him to land at Ingelminster, north of Courtrai, and he was
made prisoner.[18] The aviators, like the knights of ancient times,
sent one another challenges. Sergeant David--who was killed shortly
after--having been obliged to refuse to fight an enemy airplane because
his machine-gun jammed, dropped a challenge to the latter on the German
aërodrome, and waited at the place, on the day and hour fixed, at
Vauquois (noon, in June, 1915, above the German lines), but his
adversary never came to the rendezvous.