It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State for Air. ==Organisations before the Air Ministry== ===The Air Committee=== On 13 April 1912, less than two weeks after the creation of the Royal Flying Corps (which initially consisted of both a naval and a military wing), an Air Committee was established to act as an intermediary between the Admiralty and the War Office in matters relating to aviation.
The increasing separation of army and naval aviation from 1912 to 1914 only exacerbated the Air Committee's ineffectiveness and the Committee did not meet after the outbreak of the First World War. ===The Joint War Air Committee=== By 1916 the lack of co-ordination of the Army's Royal Flying Corps and the Navy's Royal Naval Air Service had led to serious problems, not only in the procurement of aircraft engines, but also in the air defence of Great Britain.
The increasing separation of army and naval aviation from 1912 to 1914 only exacerbated the Air Committee's ineffectiveness and the Committee did not meet after the outbreak of the First World War. ===The Joint War Air Committee=== By 1916 the lack of co-ordination of the Army's Royal Flying Corps and the Navy's Royal Naval Air Service had led to serious problems, not only in the procurement of aircraft engines, but also in the air defence of Great Britain.
The increasing separation of army and naval aviation from 1912 to 1914 only exacerbated the Air Committee's ineffectiveness and the Committee did not meet after the outbreak of the First World War. ===The Joint War Air Committee=== By 1916 the lack of co-ordination of the Army's Royal Flying Corps and the Navy's Royal Naval Air Service had led to serious problems, not only in the procurement of aircraft engines, but also in the air defence of Great Britain.
The War Committee meeting on 15 February 1916 decided immediately to establish a standing joint naval and military committee to co-ordinate both the design and the supply of materiel for the two air services.
The first Air Board came into being on 15 May 1916 with Lord Curzon as its chairman.
In October 1916 the Air Board published its first report which was highly critical of the arrangements within the British air services.
The report noted that although the Army authorities were ready and willing to provide information and take part in meetings, the Navy were often absent from Board meetings and frequently refused to provide information on naval aviation. ====The second Air Board==== In January 1917 the Prime Minister David Lloyd George replaced the chairman Lord Curzon with Lord Cowdray.
As a result, Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, established a committee composed of himself and General Jan Smuts, which was tasked with investigating the problems with the British air defences and organizational difficulties which had beset the Air Board. Towards the end of the First World War, on 17 August 1917, General Smuts presented a report to the War Council on the future of air power.
The new air service was to receive direction from a new ministry and on 29 November 1917 the Air Force Bill received Royal Assent and the Air Ministry was formed just over a month later on 2 January 1918.
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964.
The new air service was to receive direction from a new ministry and on 29 November 1917 the Air Force Bill received Royal Assent and the Air Ministry was formed just over a month later on 2 January 1918.
The creation of the Air Ministry resulted in the disestablishment of the Army Council's post of Director-General of Military Aeronautics. ==History – from 1918== ===1918–1921=== In 1919 the RAF and the Air Ministry came under immense political and inter service pressure for their very existence, particularly in a climate of significantly reduced military expenditure.
Later, in 1919, it moved to Adastral House on Kingsway.
The creation of the Air Ministry resulted in the disestablishment of the Army Council's post of Director-General of Military Aeronautics. ==History – from 1918== ===1918–1921=== In 1919 the RAF and the Air Ministry came under immense political and inter service pressure for their very existence, particularly in a climate of significantly reduced military expenditure.
During 1919 it was also decided that civil aviation was to be brought into the Air Ministry rather than being dealt with by either the Board of Trade or the Foreign Office. The Army and the War Office had largely agreed to the continued existence of the RAF due, in part, to the enthusiasm for the air service by the Army's political leader Winston Churchill.
However, one of the main difficulties for the RAF and Air Ministry in 1919 was the opposition by the Royal Navy to losing their own air service and subsequent lobbying that personnel for naval air purposes afloat be naval officers and ratings – this would have led to a recreation of the now disbanded Royal Naval Air Service.
Throughout 1919 there were discussions between Sir Hugh Trenchard Chief of the Air Staff and Sir Rosslyn Wemyss First Sea Lord as to the nature of the relationship between the Air Force and Air Ministry and the Navy and the Admiralty. In 1919 the Air Ministry formally took control of supply, design and inspection of all aircraft (aeroplanes and airships) from the Ministry of Munitions.
This helped put the existence of Air Ministry on a firmer footing. Throughout 1919 Churchill persistently supported an independent air force.
He presented the White Paper, largely written by Sir Hugh Trenchard, on the future of the RAF on 12 December 1919.
It was this White Paper that was to be the effective charter for the RAF and Air Ministry in subsequent years. ===1921–1927=== In February 1921 Lloyd George appointed Churchill to the Colonial Office and appointed his Chief Whip, Frederick Guest as Secretary of State for Air on 1 April.
More importantly in the long term he was also responsible for the appointment of Sir Sefton Brancker to develop civil aviation. With the fall of Lloyd George Sir Samuel Hoare became the Secretary of State for Air in October 1922 under Bonar Law.
On Law's death Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister and gave the position Cabinet status in May 1923, and Hoare remained in the post until January 1924, when a Labour government took power.
They reported in February 1923, favouring a single commercial company to run Britain's air routes.
On Law's death Stanley Baldwin became Prime Minister and gave the position Cabinet status in May 1923, and Hoare remained in the post until January 1924, when a Labour government took power.
A supporter of airships, Thomson was responsible for the Imperial Airship Scheme, which involved the construction of R101 at the Royal Airship Works at Cardington. After the fall of the MacDonald government in November 1924 Hoare returned to the Air Ministry.
In March 1924 Imperial Airways was created from a merger of the four largest airlines. The third aspect of Hoare's time at the Air Ministry (after the R.A.F.
Hoare and particularly his well connected Parliamentary Private Secretary the academic Sir Geoffrey Butler, then created University Air Squadrons, at Cambridge University then at Oxford University in October 1925, without, however the militarism of the Officer Training Corps and in close collaboration with scientific and engineering work of the Universities. The Air Ministry was also responsible for civil aviation.
Hoare, with his wife Lady Maud, flew on the inaugural 13-day flight to Delhi, leaving Croydon on 26 December 1926 and arriving on 8 January 1927.
His much publicised flight to India in 1926-7 was part of this.
Hoare, with his wife Lady Maud, flew on the inaugural 13-day flight to Delhi, leaving Croydon on 26 December 1926 and arriving on 8 January 1927.
Britain's winning entries in 1927, 1929 and 1931 were flown by R.A.F.
After much resistance Hoare managed to include a provision for permanent buildings in his estimates for 1929.
The foundation stone of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell was laid in 1929 and formally opened in 1934. Trenchard had conceived the idea of a university air officer training corps, a sort of Territorial Army for the R.A.F.
Britain's winning entries in 1927, 1929 and 1931 were flown by R.A.F.
Britain's winning entries in 1927, 1929 and 1931 were flown by R.A.F.
The foundation stone of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell was laid in 1929 and formally opened in 1934. Trenchard had conceived the idea of a university air officer training corps, a sort of Territorial Army for the R.A.F.
Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated a working prototype and patented the device in 1935 (British Patent GB593017).
So the aero engine project was abandoned in 1936, see Airspeed.
The device served as the base for the Chain Home network of radars to defend Great Britain. By April 1944, the ministry's air Intelligence branch had succeeded in its intelligence efforts regarding "the beams, the Bruneval Raid, the Gibraltar barrage, radar, Window, heavy water, and the German nightfighters" (R.V.
The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964.
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