it was a mode of service which had gone thoroughly out of fashion in the last century among most aviators , who increasingly preferred to better preserve the spirit of their partners ; the government did not always agree , however , and rankin was of an ancient dragon-keeping family , who had preserved their own habits and methods and passed these along to the scions sent into the corps , at an age sufficiently delayed for these to be impressed upon them firmly , along with a conviction of their own superiority to the general run of aviators .