The Royal Navy has always required a means of gathering intelligence of enemy warship movements and was prominent in the use of tethered balloons and dirigibles in the early 20th century. The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was an early user of aeroplanes and in the 1960s and early 1970s the Royal Naval School of Photography was based at RNAS Lossiemouth, Moray. It was from here that Fleet Air Arm crews were trained in aerial reconnaissance until fixed-wing aircraft were withdrawn from RN service in 1977.
