The Portuguese Naval Aviation (Portuguese: Aviação Naval Portuguesa) constituted the air component of the Portuguese Navy, from 1917 to 1957. The Portuguese Air Force maritime patrol units and the Navy's Helicopter Squadron (EHM, Esquadrilha de Helicópteros da Marinha) are the present successors of the former Portuguese Naval Aviation.
Although generically referred as "Naval Aviation", the air component of the Navy was officially successively designated "Navy's Aviation Service" (1917–1918), "Naval Aeronautics Service" (1918–1952) and "Aeronaval Forces" (1952–1958). In 1958, the Aeronaval Forces, which were already part of the Air Force - although still under the Navy's operational control and operated by naval personnel - were disbanded and its assets fully integrated in the Portuguese Air Force.
In 1993, an air component was reactivated in the Portuguese Navy, in the form of the Navy's Helicopter Squadron, to operate its new shipborne helicopters entering service with the Vasco da Gama-class frigates. The remaining aviation activities which were once performed by the Naval Aviation, including the maritime air patrol, anti-surface warfare and air-sea rescue, continue however to be performed by the Portuguese Air Force.
The origins of the Portuguese Naval Aviation date back to 1916, when two Navy officers were sent to France to undergo flight training as part of a larger effort started in 1913 to create a military aviation school capable of serving as the basis for the creation of both the Army's and Navy's aviation services. These two Navy officers — 1TEN Artur de Sacadura Cabral and GMAR AN António Joaquim Caseiro — underwent basic flight training at Chartres and flying boat flight training at Saint-Raphaël, Var.
During Sacadura Cabral's stay in France, he was also appointed by the Navy Ministry to establish contact with the French aviation industry to study the existing hydroplane models to equip a future Portuguese naval air service.
Upon their return, both were appointed flight instructors at the Military Aviation School of Vila Nova da Rainha (Portuguese: Escola de Aviação Militar de Vila Nova da Rainha), the navy's section of the Army's School of Military Aeronautics (Portuguese: Escola de Aeronáutica Militar, EAM), with Sacadura Cabral being appointed instruction director. Meanwhile, Navy personnel started receiving flight training and aircraft maintenance instruction at the school and abroad, in France.
Also upon his return to Portugal, Sacadura Cabral was asked by the War Minister to designate an appropriate location for a future hydroplane naval air station, which later became the Bom Sucesso Naval Air Station (Portuguese: Centro de Aviação Naval do Bom Sucesso).
In late 1916, due to the threat posed by the submarines of the Imperial German Navy to the merchant ships sailing along the Portuguese coast during World War I, the French government asked Portugal permission to install a naval air station in Portugal. 1st Lieutenant Maurice Larrouy, of the French Navy, elaborated a study which proposed the installation of an airship and hydroplane base in Lisbon, and two additional hydroplane bases in the north and south of Portugal. However, due to the logistics costs of operating airships, Sacadura Cabral opposed the plan of installing an airship base in Lisbon and instead the decision was made to equip Bom Sucesso with anti-submarine flying boats and to build a hydroplane base for the French Naval Aviation in Aveiro.
Creation of the Navy's Aviation Service
On 28 September 1917 the Navy's Aviation Service (Portuguese: Serviço de Aviação da Armada) was created with its personnel, material and aviation school being separated from the Army's EAM. The service was then installed at the Bom Sucesso Naval Air Station in the Lisbon docks.
Two F.B.A. flying boats, received in March 1917 and stored at EAM, arrived at Bom Sucesso by December 1917, marking the beginning of the Navy's independent flight operations.
For the centennial, on 28 September 2017, citizens and tourists near the Torre de Belém in Lisbon were treated to a short afternoon air show of planes and helicopter over the Tagus River plus an anniversary ceremony on the riverbank including a military band.
On 5 January 1918 the naval aviation was renamed to Naval Aeronautics Service (Portuguese: Serviço da Aeronáutica Naval).
In April 1918 the first flying boats of the French Navy arrived at São Jacinto, in Aveiro. Together with the Portuguese aircraft at Bom Sucesso naval air station, this allowed them to perform anti-submarine patrols and cover the coastal Portuguese waters and the main ports.
This same year the United States Navy started operating Curtiss HS-2L hydroplanes from Horta, Faial Island.
With the end of the war the French Navy left São Jacinto and handed over the naval air station to the Portuguese Navy as well as 18 Donnet-Denhaut D.D.8 and two Georges Levy G.L.40 flying boats as a gift. On 28 December 1918 a Portuguese Navy officer took command of the São Jacinto Naval Air Station (Portuguese: Centro de Aviação Naval de S. Jacinto).
The United States Navy left as well their base at Horta and offered to the Portuguese Navy four Curtis HS-2L. These aircraft were transported and ship to Lisbon and started operating from Bom Sucesso in 1923.
In 1919 aircraft of the Portuguese Naval Aviation operating from São Jacinto were used against the pro-monarch movement Monarchy of the North, during the political instability in Portugal that resulted from the assassination of President Sidónio Pais.