ABSTRACT
In 2009, the Royal Navy celebrated 100 years of British naval aviation. During the first 100 years of naval air power, the Royal Navy has arguably been the leading pioneer. The Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps began the First World War as the largest naval air service in the world but was paradoxically rather unprepared for naval warfare. The creation of a unified Royal Air Force led, perhaps unsurprisingly, to an often fractious relationship with the older services, as well as to disputes over roles, responsibilities and resources. The Mediterranean theatre of the Second World War offers a fascinating case study of the use of naval aviation, overshadowed by the life-or-death struggle of the Battle of the Atlantic and the epic carrier battles of the Pacific campaign. The sterling performance of British naval aviation in a series of post-Cold War crises and conflicts influenced the course of the Strategic Defence Review of 1997-98.
