RAF formation, service politics, and logistics

An independent air service was probably inevitable, although the Royal Flying Corps might have become the Royal Air Force without permanently absorbing the Royal Naval Air Service. The political case for separation drew partly on the image of the Army as a traditional horse-and-cavalry institution, even though that stereotype did not describe its real technical capacity. The claim that only a separate service could understand advanced machinery was harder to use against a Navy already seen as technically sophisticated. Wartime engine totals also depended on incompatible accounting: the Royal Navy treated complete spare engines and engine components as spares, while the RFC counted them toward engine production. That disagreement could distort production claims and logistical planning.