Military aviation in
Britain began in 1878 when the Royal Engineers formed a Balloon
unit. However, it was not until 1907 that a powered army airship
became operational. The first Air Battalion was established in 1911.
At first progress was slow and by 1912 the Air Battalion only had
eleven qualified pilots compared to 263 in the French Army Air Service
(Aéronautique
Militaire).
Great Britain founded
the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in May 1912. It was decided that initially
the BE-2 would be the main fighter plane. By the end of 1912 the
RFC had one squadron of airships and three of aircraft. Each squadron
had twelve machines.
At the beginning of the
war the RFC mainly used the BE-2, Farman MF-7, Avro 504, Vickers
FB5, Bristol Scout, and the F.E.2. By May 1915, the Royal Flying
Corps had 166 aircraft. Therefore the vast majority of the operations
on the Western Front was carried out by the Aéronautique
Militaire, which had 1,150 aircraft available.
In August 1915 Hugh Trenchard
became the new RFC field commander. Trenchard took a much more aggressive
approach and insisted on non-stop offensive patrols over enemy lines.
British casualties were high, and by 1916, an average of two aircrew
crew were lost every day. It became even worse the following year,
and in the spring of 1917 the RFC were losing nearly fifty aircraft
a week.
By the time the Battle
of the Somme started in July 1916 the RFC had a total strength of
twenty-seven squadrons (421 aircraft), with four kite-balloon squadrons
and fourteen balloons. The squadrons were organised into four brigades,
each of which worked with one of the British armies.
It was only with the
arrival of improved fighter planes such as the Bristol Fighter,
Sopwith Pup, Sopwith Camel, S.E.5 and Airco DH-2 that losses began
to decline. Britain also developed new bombers such as the Handley
Page and Airco DH-4. By the end of 1917 the British has established
their superiority over the German airforce.
General Hugh Trenchard,
the RFC field commander in France, was a strong supporter of strategic
bombing. Eventually, in January 1918, Trenchard was appointed chief
of staff to the Royal Air Force with the promise of being able to
create a mass bombing fleet of aircraft. By the end of the war the
RAF operated 4,000 combat aircraft and employed 114,000 people.
