The naval aviation cost of 1918

By 1918 the Royal Naval Air Service had developed bases, factories, bombing operations, and responses to Zeppelin attacks. Its transfer to the new Royal Air Force removed direct naval control over that aviation organization. The RAF's emphasis on heavy bombers reflected its conception of national defence, but left Fleet Air Arm requirements competing with other priorities. Retaining a naval air engineering office and institutional control could have changed the aircraft and expertise available to the fleet in 1939. That counterfactual depends on continuity of naval requirements and engineering work, rather than a different individual aircraft purchase.