Eighty years ago, on the 1st April 1918, the Royal Air Force was formed, just nine years after the first flight of an aeroplane in UK air space. The British military had been flying since 1911, but under the guise of the Army in the No1 (Airship) Company at Farnborough and No2 (Aeroplane) Company at Larkhill. However, this soon gave way to the newly formed Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1912 as the Government responded to the investment that Germany was pouring in to its military development, which further gave birth to the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in 1914 as the Royal Navy (RN) began to develop it's own air strategy.
In 1913 it became known that Germany was spending seven times more than Britain on the development of its air force, but despite this the RFC soldiered on and made advances in navigation, armament, bombing and night flight. At the outbreak of World War 1 (WW1) the RFC supported France with just 63 planes, whilst the RNAS was tasked with defending Britian.
During the war, the RFC and RNAS had competed for what little resources Britain has available and this was to the detriment of the war effort that neither service received the men and equipment they so vitally needed. In 1916 it was realised that some form of unity had to be instilled. So the RAF was formed, independent of the Army and the RN and it gave the new services the impetus to take the air war to Germany which, ultimately, had a major role to play in the surrender of German forces in November 1918.
Since then, the RAF has gone on to be a formidable force around the world and has played a major role in all the major conflicts since 1918.
| Notes | The history of the RAF can be found in an on-line book on the RAF web site. |
