The Royal Air force
Copyright All Rights Reserved 1998
Orville and Wilbur Wright, the forefathers of powered aviation, althought 'the first 'free flight' to part some 50 years befor in the Englan. The Wright brothers took it in turns to fly their 'Flyer I' in four sustained flights. This took place on December 17th, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA. The fourth and longest flight lasted 59 seconds at a distance of 852 feet.

British Military flying started in 1878 when a balloon was built at Woolwich Arsenal. The Balloon section was merged with the Royal Engineers in 1890. The Royal Flying Corps was formed on April 13th 1912 shared by both the Militray and Navy. In 1914 the RFC was split and the Royal Naval Air Service was formed separately. The Royal Air Force was not formed until 1st, April 1918.

In the very begining, flying was only for those who could afford it. There were no regulations, guidelines or training. It was just a matter of finding out 'what did what' and then 'Fly by the seat of one's pants'. Accidents of one sort or another were common. Aviators would fly low, frightening the public and, in quite a few cases, killing livestock, damaging property and so on.

Both the de Havilland 9A and the Sopwith Snipe, in use in 1918, had speeds up to 100 m.p.h and piston engines of up to 400 h.p. They could reach ceilings of 20,000 feet.