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United Kingdom: History of the Royal Air Force

by Martin Grieve

History of the RAF

See also:

History of the RAF

British military aviation started on 10 September 1907 when the British Army Dirigible (steerable airship) No.1 'Nulli Secundus' makes its first flight at Farnborough. Other significant dates include:

16 October 1908, British Army Aeroplane No.1 is flown (By an American - Samuel Franklin Cody).
28 February 1911 - An Army Order is signed, authorising the formation of the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers.
13 April 1912 - The Royal Flying Corps is formed. Constituted by Royal warrant it is to include a naval wing, military wing, a central flying school at Upavon and an aircraft factory at Farnborough.
1 July 1914 - the naval wing of the RFC was re-formed as the Royal Naval Air Service.
1 April 1918 - The RFC and RNAS were combined to form the RAF
1 April 1924. The Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force was formed under mixed Air Ministry and Admiralty control.
24 May 1939 Admiralty re-gained full control of naval aviation which officially became the Air Branch of the Royal Navy. However the name Fleet Air Arm stuck, and was officially adopted in 1953.

The following text comes from the RAF website, with comments in square brackets.

The origins of the Royal Air Force roundel come from the First World War. The need to be able to identify aircraft soon became apparent and orders were issued at the end of August 1914 for the Union Flag to be painted on the under-surface of the lower wings. [Cochrane & Elliott (1998) show only a flag only on the rudder on 14 August at this page and also on the fuselage and wing since 26 October at this page.] This was satisfactory at low level but was confusing when the aircraft was higher as only the cross was visible. This was often mistaken for a German cross so the French system of concentric circles was adopted in October 1914. The main differences between the French and British systems was that the colours were reversed to read blue, white and red and the Union Flag was retained in miniature between the circles and the wing tips. This miniaturised Union Flag was also painted on the rudder.....The Union Flag on the rudder was replaced by red, white and blue stripes in May 1915 and in June of the same year, the Roundel, or 'Target' as it was now known, was painted on the top surface of the upper wings. The Union Flag on the aircraft was abolished altogether. [Cochrane & Elliott (1998) show an image at this page as 1915-1937