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Royal Naval Air Service

The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914[1] to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force (RAF), the world's first independent air force.

Not to be confused with Royal Naval Air Station, used for the Fleet Air Arm's bases.

It was replaced by the Fleet Air Arm, initially consisting of those RAF units that normally operated from ships, but emerging as a separate unit similar to the original RNAS by the time of the Second World War.

History[edit]

Background[edit]

On 21 July 1908 Captain Reginald Bacon, who was a member of the Aerial Navigation Sub-Committee, submitted to the First Sea Lord Sir John Fisher that a rigid airship based on the German Zeppelin be designed and constructed by the firm of Vickers. After much discussion on the Committee of Imperial Defence the suggestion was approved on 7 May 1909.[2] Though Bacon had been intended as the Superintendent of Construction, his departure from the Royal Navy in November 1909 saw the role fall to his protegee at the Naval Ordnance Department, Captain Murray Sueter. Consequently Sueter was the first Royal Navy officer assigned to a naval air project.[3]


On 21 June 1910, Lt. George Cyril Colmore became the first qualified pilot in the Royal Navy. After completing training, which Colmore paid for out of his own pocket, he was issued with Royal Aero Club Certificate Number 15.[4]


In November 1910, the Royal Aero Club, thanks to one of its members, Francis McClean, 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 Admiralty accepted and on 6 December the Commander-in-Chief, The Nore promulgated the scheme to the officers under his jurisdiction and requested that applicants be unmarried and able to pay the membership fees of the Royal Aero Club. The airfield became the Naval Flying School, Eastchurch.[5] 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.[6]

– aviation pioneer

John Alcock

– mechanic – oldest man in the world from June to July 2009 and the last surviving member of the RNAS

Henry Allingham

– 3 Squadron – awarded the Victoria Cross

Richard Bell-Davies

– aviator, inventor, publisher and Member of Parliament.

Noel Pemberton Billing

– aviation pioneer and joint managing director of Blackburn Aircraft

Norman Blackburn

– Naval 8 – longest surviving First World War fighter pilot (he died 3 January 2003 at age 106)

Henry John Lawrence Botterell

– Squadron commander in Wing 2, later Commander-in-chief Transport Command RAF. Air Chief Marshal

Frederick Bowhill

– Naval 9 – ace, officially credited with shooting down the Red Baron (although this is now generally discredited)

Arthur Roy Brown

– credited with shooting down two Zeppelin over the North Sea

Egbert Cadbury

DSC – Naval 4 ace on two types of aircraft: Sopwith Pup and Sopwith Camel

Arnold Jacques Chadwick

– author of The Riddle of the Sands and famous Irish republican, later executed by the Irish Free State for his service in the Anti-Treaty IRA. Father of Erskine Childers, fourth President of Ireland.

Erskine Childers

– Naval 10 – top RNAS ace, with 60 victories

Raymond Collishaw

– Commanding Officer of No. 1 Squadron RNAS, ace with over 32 victories.

Roderic Dallas

– International rugby player and Air Marshall

David Grahame Donald

Grahame Donald – Aviator at Jutland

– 3 Wing 6 Naval, Naval 8 – "The Mad Major"

Christopher Draper

– the only RNAS junior officer to later serve as either Chief of the Air Staff or Chief of the Defence Staff

Sir William Dickson

- MI5 British double agent "CELERY" 1941-1943

Walter Dicketts

– landed a Sopwith Pup on the deck of HMS Furious in 1917, to become the first person to land an aeroplane on a moving ship.

Edwin Harris Dunning

– commanded No. 5 Squadron, ace with ten victories, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Service Cross, later to become Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Australian Air Force

Stanley Goble

comedian, mainly known for the BBC radio programme It's That Man Again ("ITMA").

Tommy Handley

– held rank of Temporary Commander RNVR while commanding 2 Squadron, RNACS[27]

Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster

– Officer Commanding No. 1 Squadron RNAS

Robert Marsland Groves

– Australian aviation pioneer

Bert Hinkler

– Canadian pilot who became an Air Marshal in the Royal Canadian Air Force

Robert Leckie

– Australia's top scoring ace of the First World War, with 47 victories

Robert A. Little

– Conservative Member of Parliament, commanded 15 Squadron (armoured cars) and led the Russian Armoured Car Division

Oliver Locker-Lampson

– early Naval aviator, Officer Commanding No. 3 Squadron RNAS, and Officer Commanding No. 1 Squadron RNAS

Arthur Longmore

– British aeronautics pioneer and early flying instructor. Designer of the Vickers F.B.5. and Vickers E.F.B.1.. Served on HMS Engadine and HMS Ben-my-Chree 1915 to 1916

Archie Low

– aviation pioneer, Officer Commanding the Captive Balloon Detachment

Edward Maitland

– awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for services over Turkey

Anthony Jacques Mantle

– later Professor of Experimental Medicine, Cambridge University

Robert McCance

– Irish civil engineer and pioneer aviator

Francis McClean

– Liberal MP, youngest son of Lord Aberconway

Francis McLaren

– playwright and author

Edgar Middleton

– aviation pioneer, awarded the DSO. Forced landing in East Africa, led to capture by German forces[28]

Edwin Moon

– entertainer

Ivor Novello

– later Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Peirse, KCB, DSO, AFC, AOC Palestine/Trans Jordan 1933–36, C-in-C Bomber Command 1940–42, C-in-C RAF India 1942–44, C-in-C SEAC air forces from creation until 1944.

Richard Peirse

– aviation pioneer and aircraft designer, Station Commander Hendon Aerodrome and RNAS Felixstowe.

John Cyril Porte

– initial commandant of the RFC Naval Wing, led the first armoured car units on the Western Front, later Air Officer Commanding RAF units in the Mediterranean

Charles Rumney Samson

– air pioneer

William Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill

flying ace of Naval 4 and recipient of the Distinguished Service Order, Distinguished Service Cross, Air Force Cross and Croix de Guerre

Alexander MacDonald Shook

– industrialist

Ivan Stedeford

– pioneer of naval aviation

Murray Sueter

Sir – initial commander of RFC Military Wing, officer commanding RNAS at Gallipoli & later, controller-general of Civil Aviation and Governor of Bombay

Frederick Sykes

flying ace of Naval 4, winner of two Distinguished Flying Crosses

Adrian Tonks

– credited with bombing a U Boat off Middelkerke and was awarded the D.S.O.

Taunton Elliott Viney

engineer, designer of the R9 and R80 airships, famed for the bouncing bomb

Barnes Wallis

– awarded the Victoria Cross

Reginald Alexander John Warneford

– awarded the D.S.O., commanded the machine guns on the SS River Clyde

Josiah Wedgwood

– South Africa's first aviator. First World War service in France, Eastern Mediterranean (Mudros, Lemnos) and with British Naval Mission to Greece [29]

John Weston

– aviation pioneer

Claude Grahame White

– Naval 8 – ace

James White

– New Zealand World number 1 tennis player for 1912 and 1913; later an RNACD armoured car commander, killed on the Western Front in 1915

Tony Wilding

a light cruiser converted into a seaplane carrier.[30] Sunk by German U-boat U-27 on 31 October 1914.[31]

HMS Hermes

HMS Engadine, HMS Riviera, HMS Vindex and HMS Manxman, all converted Channel ferries. The first three ships each carrying three seaplanes were the "striking force" of the first naval air attack, the raid on Cuxhaven on 25 December 1914. HMS Vindex had a take-off ramp fitted and was the first operational ship to launch a wheeled aircraft.

HMS Empress

a fast Isle of Man ferry converted to a seaplane carrier that served in the Gallipoli Campaign. Ben-My-Chree supplied the aircraft that made the first successful aerial torpedo attack against ships. A Short seaplane flown by Flt Cdr C. H. K. Edmonds carried a 14-inch torpedo between the floats which was dropped from a height of 15 feet, hitting and sinking a Turkish ship. Ben-my-Chree was sunk by Turkish artillery in 1917, but without loss of life.

HMS Ben-my-Chree

also served at Gallipoli, and continued service after 1918. She was renamed Pegasus in 1934, to release the name for the new modern aircraft carrier Ark Royal.

HMS Ark Royal

was an ex-Cunard liner.[32] Although she was much larger than those before her, the 120 foot take-off ramp was not sufficient for wheeled aircraft to take off. She sank in the Firth of Forth 5 November 1918, after a collision[33] with HMS Royal Oak.

HMS Campania

a converted tramp steamer equipped with the Navy's first kite balloon observation platform for gunnery spotting during the Dardanelles campaign.

HMS Manica

a converted passenger ship with a take-off ramp. [34]

HMS Nairana

a converted battlecruiser, with an 18-inch gun aft and a flying-off deck forward. She was rebuilt as a through-deck carrier after 1918 and served in World War II.

HMS Furious

laid down as the Italian liner Conte Rosso in 1914, was completed as a carrier with a full flight deck in September 1918.

HMS Argus

Wing 1 was on both sides of the in 1914.

English Channel

Wings 2 and 3 were sent to the for the Gallipoli Campaign, but Wing 3 was disbanded when the campaign finished and was absorbed into Wing 2 for service in Salonika.

Dardanelles

Wing 3 was reformed in 1916 for , disbanded in 1917.

strategic bombing

Wings 4 and 5 were expanded from Wing 1, the former being fighters and the latter having bombing duties.

Wing 6 was formed for patrolling the , but was expanded to Malta by 1918.

Adriatic Sea

Unlike the RFC, the RNAS was organised on a non-central basis so there were several No 1 Squadrons. Even wings numbers were not consistently given to the same unit, so there are many exceptions in historic data.


At the start of the war there were three wings 1, 2 and 3. As the war progressed, other wings were formed.


Squadrons serving in France were given numbers from 1 to 17. At the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918, they became 201 to 217 squadrons of the RAF.


Squadrons serving in the Eastern Mediterranean were given letters (A to G, and Z).


In 1918, Squadron A became Squadron 222; Squadron B became Squadron 223; Squadron C became Squadron 220; and Squadron D became Squadron 221, all of the RAF. Squadron Z was transferred to the Royal Greek Navy.

Ranks[edit]

Officer ranks[edit]

In the RNAS both pilots and observers held appointments as well as their normal Royal Navy ranks, and wore insignia appropriate to the appointment instead of the rank. The insignia consisted of standard Royal Navy cuff stripes corresponding to their normal ranks, surmounted by an eagle (for pilots) or a winged letter "O" (for observers). In addition, Squadron Commanders and Squadron Observers with less than eight years' seniority had their insignia surmounted by two eight-pointed stars, one above the other, while Flight Commanders and Flight Observers had their insignia surmounted by one such star.

List of aircraft of the Royal Naval Air Service

Number 2 Armoured Car Company RAF

Category:Royal Naval Air Service aviators

Bartholemew, E. (1988), Early Armoured Cars, Shire Publications

(1941), The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War, 1914–1918, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, vol. VIII (11th ed.), Canberra: Australian War Memorial, OCLC 220899617

Cutlack, F. M.

Duncan, Major-general N. W. Early Armoured Cars. AFV Profile No 9. Windsor: Profile Publishing.

(1989), The Impact of Air Power on the British People and Their Government, 1909–14, Stanford: Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-1591-2

Gollin, Alfred

Layman, R.D. (2002), Naval Aviation and the First World War: Its Impact and Influence, London: Caxton Editions,  1-84067-314-1

ISBN

Popham, Hugh (1969), Into Wind, London: Hamish Hamilton

Roskill, Stephen Wentworth (1969), Documents Relating to the Naval Air Service: 1908–1918, vol. I, London: Navy Records Society

Barber, Mark (2010), Royal Naval Air Service Pilot 1914-18, Osprey Publishing,  9781846039492

ISBN

Lardas, Mark (2016), World War I Seaplane and Aircraft Carriers, New Vanguard 238, Osprey Publishing,  9781472813787

ISBN

Archived 26 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine

Armoured Cars in Action by Peter Lewis, Rolls-Royce Owner, Issue No.1, October 1963