The British Army can justifiably lay claim to be the first branch of the nation’s military to dabble with flight. Experiments with gas balloons began as early as 1863 and the War Office created a dedicated Balloon Section in 1890. The first of the ‘flying soldiers’ to qualify as a pilot of a powered aircraft was Capt Bertram Dickson (in April 1910) and British Army pilots formed the foundations of what would become the Royal Flying Corps before and during the Great War. This 100-page publication looks at the birth of British Army flying and examines the current makeup of the service.