Much farmland in the area was bought by the
War Office around 1898 for military training. Along with nearby
Upavon and
Larkhill, the airfield was part of the formative phase of military flying. The
Royal Flying Corps was established in April 1912; in May its
Central Flying School was formed at Upavon, and its Military Wing was formed from the
Air Battalion, which flew aircraft at Larkhill. The Netheravon site near Choulston Farm was selected towards the end of 1912, and at first was called Choulston Camp. The airfield used a road which extended from Netheravon across farmland, to serve two 19th-century groups of farm buildings. Until the site was ready, service personnel were housed in tents or at the former cavalry school at Netheravon House, south of Netheravon village.
Flight magazine reported "upwards of 700 officers and men" and published photographs showing lines of tents for the visiting squadrons. In August, following the declaration of war, 3 and 4 squadrons left for France to support the
British Expeditionary Force. They were replaced by
No. 1 Squadron which had a training role. Netheravon became a forming-up point for new squadrons; an example is
No. 11 Squadron, formed here in February 1915 and deployed to France in July. It was also the home of No. 8 Training Depot Station which trained aircrew, groundcrew, specialist signallers and fitters. ==Royal Air Force, 1918–1963==