Sir Frederick Sykes and the Air Revolution 1912-1918

This is a long-overdue study of Sir Frederick H. Sykes Chief of the Air Staff of Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) during the First World War. Historians for the most part have either overlooked Sykes or misinterpreted him leaving a gap in the story of British flying. Contrary to previous images of Sykes we now see that he was not a secretive intriguer or a tangential subject in RAF history. Rather he played a fundamental part in organizing and leading British aviation from 1912 to the end of 1918. He provided organization visionary guidance and efficient administrative control for the fledgling service that tried to survive infancy in the heat of battle.