The RNAS's broad wartime success was much larger than its carrier component. Much of the service had defended Britain, supported operations in Flanders, and built an effective technical supply system rather than operated from carriers. Rivalry with the Royal Flying Corps and expectations about strategic bombing helped produce the unified Royal Air Force in April 1918. Because the Navy then possessed too few carriers and embarked aircraft to sustain a convincing separate case, the maritime capability most worth protecting was long-range patrol rather than a mature carrier arm that did not yet exist.
Chapter · 29:50-31:50
Why the RNAS could not preserve a separate carrier force in 1918
The creation of the Royal Air Force absorbed a technically effective naval air service whose carrier component was still too small to justify institutional independence.