THE use of a camera in the air dates back many years, and some attempts wereactually made as early as 1858, when Mons Nadar successfully took photographs ofParis from a balloon From these initial attempts the taking of air photographshas always made an appeal to the Services both from a Military point of view andfrom the map making aspect

The development of air photography in the British Air Service dates from theformation of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912 Very little progress was made untilthe outbreak of war in August, 1914 At this time the British Air Service wasequipped with a few press type cameras and some simple portable developingequipment From these small beginnings, however, grew the Photographicorganisation of the Royal Air Force which towards the end of the War wasproducing thousands of negatives and prints every day The equipment in use wasnecessarily designed under War conditions, and the personnel handling thisequipment had often to forsake the camera for the machine-gun Thus as a naturalconsequence the equipment, excellent though it was, had not all the refinementand accuracy which is desirable or demanded for survey purposes