1908 – Birth of British Naval Aviation

 
In 1908, the British government recognised that the use of aircraft for military and naval purposes should be investigated.

On 21 June 1910, Lt. George Cyril Colmore became the first qualified pilot in the Royal Navy, after paying for training out of his own pocket.

In November 1910, the Royal Aero Club, offered the Royal Navy two aircraft with which to train its first pilots. The Club also offered its members as instructors and the use of its airfield at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey. The airfield became the Naval Flying School, Eastchurch. Two hundred applications were received, and four were accepted:

Lieutenant C. R. Samson,
Lieutenant A. M. Longmore,
Lieutenant A. Gregory and
Captain E. L. Gerrard, RMLI. [Royal Marine Light Infantry]

These four pilots were the genesis of what became the Royal Navy Air Service and later the Fleet Air Arm.

A (Very) Short History of British Naval Aviation

The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was constituted by Royal Warrant on 13 April 1912. It consisted of two wings: the Military Wing making up the Army element and Naval Wing, under Commander C. R. Samson.

On 1 July 1914, the Naval Wing became the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).

By the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the RNAS had 93 aircraft, six airships, two balloons and 727 personnel. The Navy maintained twelve airship stations around the coast of Britain from Longside, Aberdeenshire in the northeast to Anglesey in the west. The RFC had several hundred airfields around the country.

Before techniques were developed for taking off and landing on ships, the RNAS had to use seaplanes in order to operate at sea. Beginning with experiments on the old cruiser HMS Hermes, special seaplane tenders were developed to support these aircraft. It was from these ships that a raid on Zeppelin bases at Cuxhaven, Nordholz Airbase and Wilhelmshaven was launched on Christmas Day of 1914. This was the first attack by British ship-borne aircraft.

On 1 August 1915 the Royal Naval Air Service officially came under the control of the Royal Navy.

On 1 April 1918, the RNAS was merged with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to form the Royal Air Force.

At the time of the merger, the Navy’s air service had 55,066 officers and men, 2,949 aircraft, 103 airships and 126 coastal stations.
The RNAS squadrons became the Fleet Air Arm of the new structure, individual squadrons receiving new squadron numbers by effectively adding 200 to the number so No. 1 Squadron RNAS (a famous fighter squadron) became No. 201 Squadron RAF.

The Royal Navy regained its own air service in 1937, when the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force (covering carrier borne aircraft, but not the seaplanes and maritime reconnaissance aircraft of Coastal Command) was returned to Admiralty control and renamed the Naval Air Branch. In 1952, the service returned to its pre-1937 name of the Fleet Air Arm.