Royal Aircraft Establishment

Royal Aircraft Establishment
Royal Aircraft Establishment
Farnborough, Hampshire
	Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) c.1915
Coordinates	51°16′46″N 0°47′17″W / 51.279475°N 0.787926°W
Type	Research establishment
Site information
Owner	War Office (1904–1906) ; Ministry of Defence (1964–1991)
Controlled by	British Army (1904–1906)
Site history
In use	1904–1991
Battles/wars	First World War ; Second World War ; Cold War

The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.

The British Army Balloon Factory was established on Farnborough Common in the early 1900s. By 1912 it had come under civilian control and was the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) In 1918 it was renamed Royal Aircraft Establishment to prevent confusion with the newly created Royal Air Force.

The first site was at Farnborough Airfield ("RAE Farnborough") in Hampshire to which was added a second site RAE Bedford (Bedfordshire) in 1946.

On 1 May 1988 it was renamed the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE) before merging with other research entities to become part of the new Defence Research Agency in 1991.