ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a direct link between the theorising of 1910 and 1911 and the policy that resulted in the birth of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). It includes an examination of lectures, articles and speeches produced by Britain's early air power community, which influenced the shaping of RFC policy during this period. The chapter argues that control of the air was an inherent aspect of early British air power theory, doctrine and policy before the First World War. It highlights five key roles upon which British military air power should focus during its embryonic period. They are reconnaissance, prevention of enemy's reconnaissance, inter-communication, observation of artillery fire and infliction of damage on the enemy. However, members of the British army with an interest in aviation were instinctively drawn to the application of air power in a battlefield sense.
