ellicoe, the
Second Sea Lord of the Admiralty, became its vice-chairman. The officers
in command of the Central Flying School, of the Naval Wing, and of the
Military Wing had seats on it. So had the Director of Military Training,
the Director of the Air Department, and the Superintendent of the Royal
Aircraft Factory. The committee proved its value as a place of
conference, where those who were responsible for aerial development in
its various branches might compare their ideas. But it had no executive
powers, so that its success in promoting an active policy automatically
diminished its own importance. It could consider and advise, but the
decision rested with the Admiralty and the War Office. It was useful at
an early stage; then, like the Ghost in _Hamlet_, having prompted others
to action, it faded away.

The need for a central controlling body, that is to say, for an Air
Ministry, was soon to be acutely felt. The naval and military air forces
were friends, but they were also rivals. In so far as this rivalry
prompted them to compete in skill and valour, it was wholly good. But
rival orders for munitions of war, and especially for aeroplanes, given
to manufacturing firms by two branches of one service, are not so good.
The output of the factories was not unlimited, and only a central
authority could determine how that output might be best used for the
nation's need.

The activities of the Naval Air Service, from the time it came into
being until the outbreak of war, were very largely experimental. Those
who were responsible for naval operations had at first no complete,
definite, and practical scheme for the employment of aircraft in naval
warfare. It would have been difficult for them to produce such a scheme;
opinion was fluctuating and divided, and the progress of aeronautical
science supplied improved machines and opened out new possibilities
every month. The time of the service was spent in demonstrating these
new possibilities, rather than in organizing and training their forces
for the needs of a definite programme. Nevertheless, this experimental
period witnessed rapid growth and prepared the way for surprising
achievements by the Naval Air Service during the war.

The uses of the Military Wing, on the other hand, were definitely
conceived from the first. It was brought into being to fulfil a certain
purpose. Its officers knew when and where and how their services would
be required. They knew, that is to