The Royal Flying Corps origins

From THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS A HISTORY by Geoffrey Norris.
March 4th 1912 Colonel Seely, Under-Secretary of Stat for War, rose to present the Army Estimates, he announced that he had appointed a committee, of which Lord Haldene was chairman. This committee was to set up a Royal Flying Corps to embrace “soldiers, sailors and civilians” . No one would hold executive rank unless he were an expert flyer. The present air battalion would cease to exist and would be absorbed into the new corps. The head-quarters would be at Netherton (should this read Netheravon?) on Salisbury plain, and a large tract of land had to be purchased for this purpose for the sum of £90,000.
The Royal Flying Corps was constituted on 13th May 1912.

I supose it’s too obvious to ask the museum of Army flying at Middle Wallop seeing as the Army Air Corps claims the RFC as one of its origins.

Thanks everybody!- the mans name must be forgotten i suppose!- just have to wait until 2012- there should be a few more books out then!

In his Autobio ‘Flight Path’…. Frank T Courtney(hope spelling correct,am not home to check) describes his entry to the RFC by a somewhat convoluted route.Basically he got his pilots ‘wings’ whilst still an Air Mechanic 2nd Class.
and without any military flying training.
He became a freelance test pilot after the war and amongst many other things he was Ciervas test pilot for a while on autogiros !! … interesting reading!!

This area is covered very well in Peter G Cooksley’s newly published book ‘The Royal Flying Corps Handbook 1914-1918’. Although it does focus primarily on the war years, it gives ample background to the RFC’s formation in the first two chapters.

http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/id/The_Royal_Flying_Corps_Handbook_1914_18/9780750947725

The origins of the RFC go right back to 1878 when the War Office bought a balloon for the princely sum of £150. Their second balloon was actually privately funded by an officer in the Royal Engineers.

Anyway, moving forward to 1912, the Army held a competition (at Larkhill IIRC) to find the most suitable aeroplane for it’s needs. There were 32 entries, all of them privately owned but not all of them flew in the competition which was won by the Cody V biplane. One or two of the other entries were also purchased off their owners for Army use.

Hope this helps.