The technology of aviation advanced rapidly during the First
World War. Abundant resources and the continuing theatre of
battle allowed aircraft to be tested, refined, then tested again
by teams of pilots, engineers and industrialists.
In addition to being effective (if relatively inefficient)
purveyors of bullets and bombs, aircraft were useful
reconnaissance weapons. The planes of the First World War also
proved to be powerful psychological weapons in war, easily
disheartening an enemy.
The world’s first independent air force, the British Royal
Air Force was created in 1918 recognising the critical role of
aeronautics in warfare.
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