Transcript Slide 1

THE EARLY PIONEERS
In October 1911 the first four Naval Officers
selected for flying training gained their wings
at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey with
aircraft lent to the Navy by the Royal Aero
Club. The first successful flight from water
took place at Lake Windermere in November
1911. The first take off from a ship was from
HMS Africa at anchor in Sheerness harbour
and the first from a ship underway from HMS
Hibernia during a Fleet Review attended by
King George V in Weymouth Bay.
In May 1912 the Royal Flying Corps was
founded consisting of a Naval and Military
Wing and a Central Flying School although the
Navy maintained a parallel system of training
at Eastchurch. In 1914 the Navy effectively
left the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal
Naval Air Service was born.
The Royal Aero Club 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 the offer.
Photograph flightglobal.com
Eastchurch Flying Ground opened by the Royal Aero Club 1909.
These are the four men who were accepted, it is believed over two hundred had applied:
Lieutenant Arthur Murray Longmore.
Lieutenant Charles Rumney Samson.
Photographs flightglobal.com
Lieutenant Reginald Gregory .
Lieutenant Eugene Louis Gerrard of the
Royal Marine Light Infantry.
The pilots were trained by George Betram Cockburn (left) and
gained their wings very quickly.
Photograph Grace’s Guide,
British Industrial History
Lieutenant Arthur Longmore (in dark coat walking toward camera on right) on 1 December 1911 immediately after he
became the first person in the United Kingdom to take off from land and make a successful water landing using the
aircraft behind him, an Short Improved S.27 bearing Admiralty number 38, later often called the "Short S.38."
Crown Copyright
This event took place on the Medway near Sheerness, airbags were used for flotation.
Crown Copyright
HMS Africa
(early 20th Century)
Lieutenant Charles Samson flies Short Improved S.27 No. 38
from a platform constructed over the deck of battleship
HMS Africa . It was the United Kingdom's first ‘flight’
by an airplane from a ship.
Lt. Samson became the first pilot in the world to take-off
from a ship underway. He was again flying a Short S38 from
HMS Hibernia steaming at 15 knots in Weymouth Bay during
the Royal Review of the Fleet
HMS Hibernia, Crown Copyright
During 1912, a formal Naval Air Service seaplane base was established on the Isle of Grain, Kent, and in 1913, aircraft
from the Naval Air Service formally took part in naval manoeuvres for the first time with ships from the Royal Navy.
‘HMS Hermes’ was used as a seaplane tender.
Crown Copyright
Short Folder seaplane, type 81 being hoisted into the water from HMS Hermes
H.M.S. Hermes was torpedoed and sunk in November of 1914. However at the outbreak of the war the Navy
requisitioned three cross-channel packet boats and converted them as seaplane tenders.
These were the Engadine, Riviera and Empress.
Engadine
Empress
Photograph source: Wikipedia
Photograph source: Wikipedia
Riviera
Photograph source: Lairds Isle
These converted ‘seaplane
tenders’ were returned to
their respective owners in
1919 at the end of the First
World War.
The Naval Air Service had been the Naval Wing of the RFC since 1912. July 1914 it became Royal Naval Air Service
becoming completely independent of the RFC on August 1st, 1915, when the RNAS was put under the sole
control of the Royal Navy.
The RNAS aircraft patrolled the UK’s coastline. But attacks on German coastal positions in Belgium were not unknown
and it also had two squadrons fighting on the Western Front, the Middle East and the east coast of Africa.
The RNAS was also for a short time given the task of defending London from bombers and Zeppelins.
Photographic source unknown.
Google Maps
On Christmas Day 1914, several RNAS seaplanes launch attacks against German Zeppelin bases at Cuxhaven, and
Wilhelmshaven, Northern Germany. It’s though this was the first attack by ‘ship-borne’ aircraft.
An armoured car detachment belonging to the RNAS operated in the Middle East and Belgium.
In the summer of 1915 the Armoured Car Division was disbanded. For a time the RNAS possessed the UK’s only
mechanised land forces under the command of Commander C. R. Samson (one of the first Naval Pioneers).
Crown Copyright
Crown Copyright
RNAS armoured cars during the Battle of Gallipoli, 1915.
Commander C. R. Samson
Crown Copyright
Crown Copyright
Battle of Jutland, 1916, saw the RNAS provide the first
proper aerial reconnaissance of an enemy battle fleet at sea.
The pilot was Flight Lieutenant F.J. Rutland (who would be
forevermore be known as Rutland of Jutland) along with his
Observer, Assistant Paymaster
G.S. Trewin .
They were flying a Short 184 type plane from HMS Engadine,
although hampered by low-cloud and intense anti-aircraft
fire Rutland came down below 1,000ft and a signal was sent
back reporting the positions of both the German light cruiser
screen and heavy units it protected.
Although this sighting had no marked effect on the conduct
of the battle, Admiral Beatty was to write that the sighting
did, "indicate that seaplane under such circumstance are of
distinct value.”
Crown Copyright
Flight Sub-Lieutenant R.A.J. Warneford becomes the first
RNAS pilot to be awarded the Victoria Cross in June 1915.
Short type 184 seaplane
On 2 August 1917, while performing trials a Pup flown by Sqn Cdr Edwin Dunning became the first aircraft to land
aboard a moving ship, HMS Furious. The crew ready to help slow him down so as to not go into the sea.
Crown Copyright
Sadly Dunning was killed on his third landing when the Pup fell over the side of the ship.
In 1918, RNAS and RFC amalgamated to create the RAF.
First true aircraft carrier, Argus was commissioned.
Crown Copyright
HMS Argus c1918
In 1924 the ‘ship borne’ element of the RAF was given the name the ‘Fleet Air Arm,’
it remained under the control of the Air Ministry.
As war loomed large on the horizon the Admiralty once again vied for control of the Fleet Air Arm. Sir Thomas Inskip
headed the committee set up to arbitrate in 1937. The Inskip Award•returned full control of training, organisation
and equipping back to the Admiralty. The next two years were devoted to the development of the small service
into a force ready for war
On the 24th May 1939 the ‘Fleet Air Arm’ came under the full control of the Admiralty, the term Fleet Air Arm stuck.
It was only officially adopted as the name of the service in 1953.
SOURCE & CREDIT
FLEET AIR ARM
ALL IMAGES
CROWN COPYRIGHT
700 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
1940 – 1944
1944 – 1949
1955 – 1961
1998 –2008
2009 – present
LOCATION:
RNAS Yeovilton
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
702 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
1936 -1952,
1978 - present
LOCATION:
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
Experientia docet
Experience teaches
Introductory unit Lynx Wildcat. Responsible for bringing
the aircraft into service.
***The squadron reformed as 700W NAS in May 2009.
ROLE:
703 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
1942 - 1944
1945 – 1955
1972 - 1981
2003 – present
LOCATION:
RAF Barkston Heath,
Berkshire
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
RNAS Yeovilton
Cave ungues felis
Beware the Claws of the
Cat
Training Lynx aircrew and maintainers.
705 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
MOTTO:
ACTIVE:
1936 - 1940
1947 – present
LOCATION:
RAF Shawbury, Berkshire
Expertam Docemus Artem
Experientia docet
Experience teaches
Conducts Elementary Flying Training for the Royal
Navy, part of the Defence Elementary Flying School.
ROLE:
Single-engine advance training for all
three services.
727 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
1943
1946
1956
2001
LOCATION:
RNAS Yeovilton
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
750 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
- 1944
– 1950
- 1960
– present
Regite mare,
regere caelum
To rule the sea, one
must rule the sky
Grading young RN and RM officers to assess
suitability for further training with the FAA.
ROLE:
771 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
1939 - 1955
1961 – 1964
1967 - present
LOCATION:
RNAS Culdrose
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
ACTIVE:
1939 - 1945
1952 – present
LOCATION:
RNAS Culdrose
MOTTO:
Teach and strike
Flight Observer Officer Training.
GANNET
ACTIVE:
1943 - 1959
1971 - present
LOCATION:
Prestwick
(South-West Scotland)
Non nobis solum
Not unto us alone
Search and Rescue (SAR), military and civilian.
ROLE:
Search and Rescue (SAR), military and civilian.
814 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
1938
1944
1973
2001
LOCATION:
RNAS Culdrose
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
815 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
- 1942
– 1970
– 2000
- present
ACTIVE:
In hoc signo vinces
In this sign you will conquer
Anti-submarine protection. Additional tasks include
surveillance, troop and tactical transport, replenishment,
casualty evacuation.
LOCATION:
MOTTO:
ROLE:
820 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
LOCATION:
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
RNAS Yeovilton
Strike deep
Provides Lynx helicopters for the frigates and destroyers
of the Royal Navy.
824 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
April 1933 – Nov 1933
Oct 1944 – Mar 1946
Jul 1951 – Dec 1957
Nov 1959 – Oct 1960
Sep 1964 - present
RNAS Culdrose
ACTIVE:
1933 – 1989
2001 - present
LOCATION:
RNAS Culdrose
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
Tutamen et Ultor
Safeguard and Avenger
Anti-submarine protection. Additional tasks include
surveillance, troop and tactical transport, replenishment,
casualty evacuation.
Oct 1939 – Nov 1939
Nov 1939 – Nov 1944
Dec 1944 – 1945
1947 – Jul 1958
Sep 1958 – Aug 1959
Sep 1959 – Dec 1960
Jul 1961 – Oct 1966
Jan 1981 - present
ROLE:
Spectat ubique spiritus
Behold the wind from all
around
Anti-submarine warfare; additional tasks include antisurface warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance, troop
and tactical transport, replenishment, casualty evacuation,
search and rescue.
845 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
829 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
LOCATION:
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
1940 - 1942
1943 - 1944
1964 - 1993
2004 – present
RNAS Culdrose
RNAS Yeovilton
Audio hostem
I hear the enemy
ACTIVE:
1943 - present
LOCATION:
RNAS Yeovilton
Semper instans
Always threatening
Commando support - 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines
with tactical transport and load-lifting helicopters. Five
independent flights that may be sent to any theatre of
operations anywhere in the world at short notice.
Commando support - 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines
with tactical transport and load-lifting helicopters. Five
independent flights that may be sent to any theatre of
operations anywhere in the world at short notice.
847 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
846 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ROLE:
LOCATION:
Non effugient
They shall not escape
To provide Merlin Flights to Type 23 frigates.
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
January 1943 - present
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
ROLE:
ACTIVE:
ACTIVE:
1960s
1982
LOCATION:
RNAS Yeovilton
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
Ex alto concutimus
We strike from on high
Commando support – providing armed reconnaissance and
direction of supporting arms capability, mainly for
3 Commando Brigade RM.
848 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
1943 - present
LOCATION:
RNAS Yeovilton
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
849 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
Accipe hoc
Take that
Commando helicopter training – training Sea King
Commando helicopter aircrew also providing support for
counter terrorism operations.
1943 – 1945
1952 – 1978
1984 – present
LOCATION:
RNAS Culdrose
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
Primus video
The first to see
Provides airborne surveillance and control training
HQ Squadron.
857 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
854 NAVAL AIR SQUADRON
ACTIVE:
1944 - 1945
2006 - present
ACTIVE:
1944 - 1945
2006 - present
LOCATION:
RNAS Culdrose
LOCATION:
RNAS Culdrose
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
ACTIVE:
Audentes fortuna juvat
Fortune helps the daring
Provides airborne surveillance and control.
MOTTO:
TRANSLATION:
ROLE:
Aminis opibusque parati
Prepared in minds and
resources
Provides airborne surveillance and control.
‘Wings’ photographed at the FAA Museum
© the2xilesteam
Although the role of the’ ‘Naval Air Service’ has changed since it was formed at the beginning of the 20th century,
it has and still does play an important part in the ‘defence of the nation.’
PRESENTATION
© the2xislesteam