Editing Air Ministry (section)

===The Joint War Air Committee===
By 1916 the lack of co-ordination of the [[British Army|Army]]'s Royal Flying Corps and the [[Royal Navy|Navy]]'s [[Royal Naval Air Service]] had led to serious problems, not only in the procurement of aircraft engines, but also in the air defence of Great Britain.{{Citation needed|date=October 2008}}  It was the supply problems to which an attempt at rectification was first made. The [[War Committee]] meeting on 15 February 1916 decided immediately to establish a standing joint naval and military committee to co-ordinate both the design and the supply of materiel for the two air services. This committee was titled the Joint War Air Committee, and its chairman was [[Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby|Lord Derby]].<ref>[http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/british_military/1916.html British Military Aviation in 1916] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070318172634/http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/british_military/1916.html |date=18 March 2007 }}, ''[[RAF Museum]]''. Retrieved on 19 January 2007.</ref> It was also at the meeting on 15 February that [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Lord Curzon]] proposed the creation of an Air Ministry. As with the pre-war Air Committee, the Joint War Air Committee lacked any executive powers and therefore was not effective. After only eight sittings, Lord Derby resigned from the Committee, stating that "It appears to me quite impossible to bring the two wings closer together ... unless and until the whole system of the Air Service is changed and they are amalgamated into one service."<ref>{{cite book |last=Boyle |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Boyle (journalist) |title=Trenchard Man of Vision |year=1962 |publisher=Collins |location= St. James's Place London |pages=173|chapter=Chapter 8}}</ref>

====Membership====
The Joint War Air Committee was composed as follows:
*Chairman – [[Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby|Lord Derby]]
*Director of Air Services (Admiralty) – Rear Admiral [[Charles Vaughan-Lee|C L Vaughn Lee]]
*Superintendent of Aircraft Design (Admiralty) – Commodore [[Murray Sueter|M F Sueter]]
*Squadron Commander W Briggs
*Director of Military Aeronautics (War Office) – Major-General Sir [[David Henderson (British Army officer)|David Henderson]]
*Lieutenant-Colonel [[Edward Ellington|E L Ellington]]

Advisory Members were also appointed as required.