ABSTRACT
The outbreak of war in 1914 found the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) Naval Wing, at a paradoxical stage in its development. With the enthusiastic backing of Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who had a vision of a third air service, the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) continued to develop as a factor in air warfare but not in ways that much enhanced its value to the fleet at sea. The Admiralty shed one or two of their more extraneous roles but this did nothing to solve the problems of providing a fleet air arm. The airmen chafed under firm Admiralty control and regarded the setting up of a fully independent air service in 1918 as something of a liberation. The stage was set for the inter-service strife that would see the birth of a formally constituted Fleet Air Arm', albeit still a part of an independent Royal Air Force (RAF).
