History of R. F. C.

Is some or all of the following true.
The R. F. C. aws established in 1911 as a batallionof the Royal Engineers. Those wishing to join took flight training at a civilian flying school at their own expense; on their acceptance by the battalion the training fees were supposedly to be reimbursed, although this rarely happened in practice. At the outbreak of WW1 the RFC had only four squadrons, with a total of sixty three aircraft. They were so fragile that early in 1915 a heavy rainstorm damaged thirty aircraft as they sat parked on an airfield, and of these sixteen were wrecked beyond repair.
(Info believed to be taken from letters from that time)
Cheers
Ken McKenzie
www.starapex.com

[Graeme]

In 1910 the War Office built a shed at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain for use by the Hon Charles Rolls for the instruction of army officer; Rolls was killed in a crash at Bournemouth in July. Despite the work carried out by Rolls and his successors, Capt Fulton and Mr G B Cockburn, “The Government were not as yet prepared to undertake large expenditure upon aeroplanes;...that they had been advised by the Committee of Imperial Defence that the experiment with aeroplanes... should be discontinued, but that advantage should be taken of private enterprise in this branch of aeronautics.”

In practice only the RNAS sought public funding; Mr Francis McClean loaned two of his aeroplanes while Mr G B Cockburn gave much of his time to train three naval officers and a Royal Marines officer to fly. The only fees paid by the Admiralty was £20 per officer to Short Brothers for six months’ technical instruction.

An Army Order issued on 28 February 1911 created the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers and the new unit came into being on 1 April 1911. The RFC was created by a Royal Warrant dated 13 April 1912, the necessary regulations were set up in an Army Order dated 15 April and the RFC absorbed the Air Battalion on 13 May.

The RFC was split into Army and Naval wings, the latter using the title Royal Naval Air Service which was officially recognised on 23 June 1914 when the RNAS was established as a separate service.

At the time it was created, the RFC comprised Nos 1, 2 and 3 Squadrons with no 4 being created on 16 May. No 1 Sqn operated both aeroplanes and airships until the airships were passed to the RNAS in June 1914.

According to the "War in The Air" Volume 1, the RNAS had 39 land aeroplanes, 52 seaplanes and seven airships on strength on 4 August 1914. Other sources (such as The Story of A North Sea Air Station) say 40 aeroplanes, 31 seaplanes and 7 airships.

At the time of mobilisation for transfer to France, the RFC and RNAS could muster 113 aeroplanes and seaplanes, 63 being RFC machines, and six airships for front-line use. The RFC strength was apparently 105 officers and 755 men.

No 2, 3 and 4 Sqns went to France on 13 August and 5 Sqn on 15 August. 1 Sqn’s training did not finish until February 1915 and the unit moved to France the following month; 6 Sqn went to Belgium on 7 October 1914 but within a week had been forced to retire over the French border; 7 Sqn, which had formed on 1 May 1914, didn’t get to France until April 1915 being joined in that month by No 8 Sqn. These eight units were listed in the RFC’s Order of Battle dated 10 March 1915.

The storm occurred during the night of 28/29 December 1914 and was of such violence that 16 machines, left out in the open, were wrecked beyond repair and another 14 were damaged.

Sources: Air Aces of the 1918-1918 War, The Guinness Book of Air Facts and Feats, The Squadrons of The Royal Air Force and The Sky Their Battlefield.

Graeme

Thanks Graeme
Its hard to imagine that the storm damaged planes were state of the art designs at that time. We look back at history with different eyes than those when they were there at the time. Seeing the best of the day with the blind closed on the future.

Cheers
Ken McKenzie
www.starapex.com

Ken: From the series on famous regiments: "The Royal Flying Corps" by Sir Robert Thompson published by Hamish Hamilton in 1968. The first Royal Aero Club certificate to a military officer went to a captain Fulton. He, captain Dickson and lieutenant Gibbs became the three pioneers of military aviation at Larkhill. Dickson resigned from the service and joined The British and Colonial Airplane Company. This company sponsored pilot training at Larkhill where the War Office was allowing officers to learn to fly at their own expense. Thompson also points out that the company sent three airplanes (box kites) to India in 1911 and these impressed then chief-of-staff Douglas Haig with their reports on opposing forces and their movements. He goes on to say that it was public agitation that got the War Office to enlarge the scope of the Balloon Factory at Farnborough to give officers interested in flying some experience. Early in 1911 an air battalion was established to create a body of expert airmen. It would consist of 14 officers and 150 other ranks organized into a headquarters and two companies. One would be for kites and balloons and the other for airplanes. The men would be from the Royal Engineers and the officers would be drawn from any arm. Hope this helps.

DD

[Graeme]

Ken

The aeroplanes of the time might have been state of the art but in comparative terms they were very light and still made of canvas-covered wood. Without being staked down, a good gust of wind under the wings would be enough to tip a machine up, breaking a few spars. If that machine was thrown against another you can see how the damage was done.

Graeme

The date of the storm, 28/29 December might lead one to think it more than just a rain storm.

Steve

Even today, windstorms are known to seriously damage aircraft - and a Piper Cherokee or Cessna 195 is a lot more sturdy than the aircraft of 1914.

Military air forces grew out of existing service branches - usually the engineers (Britain) or signals corps (U.S.A.)

If you are talking about the great storm of 1914. I have a few photographs taken at Netheravon which shows major damage to various aircraft types. Email me if you wish copies.

[Droops]

A thread this old rarely gets reviewed again. May I suggest that you e-mail the person to whom you were responding and make the offer again? Otherwise, I fear he'll never see this post.

Regards,

John