The United Kingdom (UK) can claim to have founded the very first independent air force in the world. Before the end of the First World War, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) were formed in to an independent air force, the Royal Air Force (RAF). On April 1, 1918 the RAF was officially commissioned and was put under control of a new ministry, the so-called Air Ministry (founded on 2. January 1918). The first aviation minister was Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere – actually a newspaper magnate and publisher of the Daily Mail as well as the Daily Mirror. The former RFC’s Chief of Staff, Sir Hugh Trenchard is considered to be the military “father of the RAF” – interestingly, he resigned from his designated post, before the RAF was officially founded, only to accept the very same position as Chief of the Air Staff a year later. Accordingly the first chief of staff of the RAF was Air Vice Marshall Sir Frederic Sykes.