2 Beginnings

Once powered aircraft had taken to the air in the early 20th century, it did not take long for their potential as a military instrument to be realized. The First World War demonstrated that aeroplanes would indeed be war machines, and very formidable ones. ‘Beginnings: the First World War 1914–1918’ explains that whilst it was never a decisive arm on any WW1 front, all the elements of aircraft’s future deployment were present with the exception of its mobility potential. By the end of the war, the combatant nations had thousands of aircraft in their inventories with their attendant administrative and logistical structures. The world’s first independent air arm, the Royal Air Force, had been formed.