Air Ministry
Department overview | |
---|---|
Formed | 1918 |
Dissolved | 1964 |
Superseding agency | |
Jurisdiction | Government of the United Kingdom |
Headquarters | Air Ministry Building Whitehall London |
Department executive | |
Parent Department | HM Government |
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. 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
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.[citation needed] It was the supply problems to which an attempt at rectification was first made. 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. This committee was titled the Joint War Air Committee, and its chairman was Lord Derby.[1] It was also at the meeting on 15 February that Lord Curzon proposed the creation of an Air Ministry. As with the pre-war Air Committee, the Joint War Air Committee lacked any executive powers and therefore was not effective. After only eight sittings, Lord Derby resigned from the Committee, stating that "It appears to me quite impossible to bring the two wings closer together ... unless and until the whole system of the Air Service is changed and they are amalgamated into one service."[2]
Membership
The Joint War Air Committee was composed as follows:
- Chairman – Lord Derby
- Director of Air Services (Admiralty) – Rear Admiral C L Vaughn Lee
- Superintendent of Aircraft Design (Admiralty) – Commodore M F Sueter
- Squadron Commander W Briggs
- Director of Military Aeronautics (War Office) – Major-General Sir David Henderson
- Lieutenant-Colonel E L Ellington
Advisory Members were also appointed as required.
The Air Board
The first Air Board
The next attempt to establish effective co-ordination between the two air services was the creation of an Air Board. The first Air Board came into being on 15 May 1916 with Lord Curzon as its chairman. The inclusion of Curzon, a Cabinet Minister, and other political figures was intended to give the Air Board greater status than the Joint War Air Committee. 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
The Air Board initially met in the
Establishment of the Air Ministry
Despite attempts at reorganization of the Air Board, the earlier problems failed to be completely resolved. In addition, the growing number of German air raids against Great Britain led to public disquiet and increasing demands for something to be done. 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. Because of its potential for the 'devastation of enemy lands and the destruction of industrial and populous centres on a vast scale', he recommended a new air service be formed that would be on a level with the
- Lord Rothermere, Air Ministerand President
- Lieutenant-General Sir David Henderson, Additional Member and Vice-President
- Major-General Sir Hugh Trenchard, Chief of the Air Staff
- Major-General (formerly Rear-Admiral) Mark Kerr, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff
- Major-General (formerly Commodore) Godfrey Paine, Master General of Personnel
- Major-General Sefton Brancker, Controller-General of Equipment
- Ministry of Munitions
- Sir John Hunter, Administrator of Works and Buildings
- Major J L Baird Permanent Under-Secretary
The Air Ministry continued to meet in the Hotel Cecil on the Strand. Later, in 1919, it moved to
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. The battle was kickstarted by the resignation in December 1918 of
This led the Prime Minister,
This combination under one person by was criticised in both the press and Parliament. However, Churchill re-iterated that the continued "integrity, the unity, the independence of the Royal Air Force will be sedulously and carefully maintained". 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.[10]
The Army and the
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.[12]
Throughout 1919 Churchill persistently supported an independent air force. He presented the White Paper, largely written by
1921–1927
In February 1921
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,[14] and Hoare remained in the post until January 1924, when a Labour government took power. Lord Thomson was made Secretary of State for Air. 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.[13]
After the fall of the MacDonald government in November 1924 Hoare returned to the Air Ministry. He was interested in developing air links to the Empire and Dominion countries, particularly India and South Africa. He negotiated a subsidy from the Treasury for Imperial Airways to start a service from Cairo to India. 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. The air route to Cape Town, after much negotiation, was finalised in 1929, before he left office, but only commenced in 1932.[15]
1927–1929
His time at the Air Ministry was marked by several important developments that were to confirm the status of the Royal Air Force as a separate entity, play a part in the growth of civil aviation and to develop the awareness of the public about aviation.
An early priority for
Trenchard had conceived the idea of a university air officer training corps, a sort of Territorial Army for the R.A.F. Hoare and particularly his well connected Parliamentary Private Secretary the academic Sir Geoffrey Butler, then created
The Air Ministry was also responsible for civil aviation. Early on Hoare set up the Civil Air Transport Subsidies Committee under the Chairmanship of Sir Hubert Hambling to look at the system of subsidies to competing air lines. They reported in February 1923, favouring a single commercial company to run Britain's air routes. In March 1924 Imperial Airways was created from a merger of the four largest airlines.[18]
The third aspect of Hoare's time at the Air Ministry (after the R.A.F. and civil airlines) was to make public opinion sympathetic to air power and air travel. His much publicised flight to India in 1926-7 was part of this. He also realised the importance of the Schneider Trophy and was instrumental in making sure that the R.A.F was involved. Britain's winning entries in 1927, 1929 and 1931 were flown by R.A.F. pilots and the teams partially subsidised by the Air Ministry.[19]
Activities
Aircraft production
The Air Ministry issued specifications for aircraft that British aircraft companies would supply prototypes to. These were then assessed, if ordered the Ministry assigned the aircraft name. (see List of Air Ministry specifications).
The ordering procedure used I.T.P. (Intention to Proceed) contract papers; these specified a maximum fixed price, which could (after investigation) be less. But when
In later years the actual production of aircraft was the responsibility of the
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Research and development
In the 1920s and early 1930s research and development was more than 20% of the Air Ministry’s total expenditure on aircraft and equipment, making it the largest research and development spending institution in Britain, until it was outstripped by private industry in the later 1930s.[21]
Weather forecasting
The Air Ministry was responsible for weather forecasting over the UK, from 1919 it being the government department responsible for the Meteorological Office.
As a result of the need for weather information for aviation, the Meteorological Office located many of its observation and data collection points on
World War II technology
In the 1930s, the Air Ministry commissioned a scientific study of propagating electromagnetic energy which concluded that a death ray was impractical but detection of aircraft appeared feasible.[22] Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated a working prototype and patented the device in 1935 (British Patent GB593017).[23][24][25] The device served as the base for the Chain Home network of radars to defend Great Britain.
By April 1944, the ministry's
Abolition
In 1964 the Air Ministry merged with the
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2008) |
See also
References
- RAF Museum. Retrieved on 19 January 2007.
- ^ Boyle, Andrew (1962). "Chapter 8". Trenchard Man of Vision. St. James's Place London: Collins. p. 173.
- ^ The evolution of an Air Ministry Archived 15 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation. Retrieved on 19 January 2007
- ISBN 0-85052-980-8.
- ^ Grey, C. G. (1940). A History Of The Air Ministry. London: George Allen & Unwin. pp. 66–67.
- ^ Joubert de la Ferté, Philip (1955). The Third Service. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 61.
- ^ "History of the Ministry of Defence and the Old War Office". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
- ^ The organisation and function of the War Office Archived 8 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Long, Long Trail – The British Army in the Great War of 1914–1918. Retrieved on 19 January 2007.
- ^ John Sweetman 1984: "Crucial Months for Survival: The Royal Air Force 1918–19", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 19 No.3 (July 1984) p.529
- ^ John Sweetman 1984: "Crucial Months for Survival: The Royal Air Force 1918–19", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 19 No.3 (July 1984) p.531
- ^ John Sweetman 1984: "Crucial Months for Survival: The Royal Air Force 1918–19", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 19 No.3 (July 1984) pp.531–33
- ^ John Sweetman 1984: "Crucial Months for Survival: The Royal Air Force 1918–19", Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 19 No.3 (July 1984) p.538
- ^ a b Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ISBN 0-333-39949-8pp.12–15
- ISBN 0-224-01350-5p.101
- ISBN 0-224-01350-5pp.99–100
- ISBN 0-224-01350-5p.99
- ISBN 0-224-01350-5p100
- ISBN 0-224-01350-5pp.104–105
- ^ Slide Rule by Nevil Shute (1954, William Heinemann, London) page 235
- ^ David Edgerton (historian) (2013) England and the Aeroplane Militarism, Modernity and Machines London Penguin ISBN 978-0-141-97516-0 pp56-7
- ^ "Radar". Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
- ^ "Copy of Patents for the invention of radar" (in French). radar-france.fr. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009.
- ^ British man first to patent radar Archived 19 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine official site of the Patent Office
- ^ GB 593017 Improvements in or relating to wireless systems
- ISBN 0-241-89746-7.