Air transportation.—Heavier-than-air machines were suc cessfully driven through the air over a measured course before military authorities by the Wright Brothers in 1908. Steady development of the airplane took place until 1914, when, with the outbreak of the great world-war, it became a deciding factor in military supremacy on the battlefield. On the entrance of the United States into the world-war in 1917 two aviation camps were established in Illinois: Chanute Field at Rantoul, Champaign County, and Scott Field at Belleville, St. Clair County. Here hundreds of young men received training for service with the American Expeditionary Forces on the battle fields of Europe. In their practice flights these aviators flew over all parts of the state, and within a radius of fifty miles of the aviation camps airplanes were a common sight to thousands of spectators. During the world war every effort was put forth to develop the airplane as a military machine, and the progress in air navigation has been marvelous indeed. With the coming of peace this new method of transportation will find a large place in the daily work of Illinois and the world.
A century of transportation.—In the year ISIS, when Illinois attained statehood, the canoe and the flatboat were in general use; the river steamboat traffic was only seven years old on western rivers, and the people of the state eagerly forecast the wonderful possibilities of the changed conditions of travel. In the year 191S, as Illinois was celebrating her first Cen tennial, the inhabitants of the state looked back and considered the story of the rapid rise and more rapid decline of the river steamboat traffic as one of the great chapters in the develop ment of Illinois. We now contemplate the innumerable advantages of steam and electric railroads over river and canal, and contrast the automobile with the "prairie schooner" of pioneer days. We now look forward as eagerly as did our forefathers of a century ago to the possibilities of improved public highways constructed at state expense. The people of 1818 contemplated the future possibilities of steamboat navigation on the rivers of the state. We of a century later are contemplating the future possibilities of air navigation as an everyday method of transportation.