Interservice rivalry and the Royal Air Force

Letters between Royal Flying Corps generals and naval officers reveal deep frustration over access to promising manufacturers. By the time Army officers identified a useful supplier, the Navy had often secured preferential terms first. The experience helped make a single air service attractive to officers who feared losing every procurement contest with the Royal Navy. Their later resistance to an independent naval air arm was therefore rooted partly in money and industrial influence rather than in a purely abstract theory of air power. A company linked to Vickers had strong reasons to favor the customer buying battleships as well as aircraft. This institutional rivalry helps explain why control of British naval aviation remained politically charged long after the technology itself had matured.