History of Aviation in the Royal Navy

In 1912 a Royal Navy aircraft took off from a platform built for the purpose over the forecastle of HMS HIBERNIA in Weymouth Bay, the first time an aircraft had ever taken off from a ship under way at sea.

Since then, the Royal Navy has operated airships, seaplanes, flying boats and tens of thousands of aeroplanes and helicopters. It has built and deployed over a hundred aircraft-carrying ships and commissioned over a hundred air stations ashore for training and support operations.

Most of the innovative ideas that made the operation of aircraft from ships at sea possible at all have been British; many of them designed by officers serving in the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy invented many of the concepts and tactics used by air forces throughout the world.

It may surprise casual visitors to this web site to learn that the Royal Navy is, and always has been, one of the world's largest and most technically advanced air forces. The Centre for Naval Aviation Records and Research, within the Curatorial Department of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm Museum exists to collect records, photographs and other heritage material relevant to the people, aircraft and ships of Britain's flying Navy.

The armoured cars operated by the RNAS in World War 1 might also cause a little surprise. Innovation was not limited to the aircraft and their operation.

We do our best to make this information available to all.
If you would like to make a research enquiry, please click here.

For History on the Fleet Air Arms Memorial Church St Bart's please click here

For History on the current Royal Naval Air Stations click here