Created on 28 September 1917, in Lisbon, the Naval Aviation Centre (NAC) soon revealed several shortcomings that compromised its operability, namely the small size of the Bom Sucesso dock and the lack of space to expand its facilities.
The first studies and opinions on transferring the NAC from Lisbon to Montijo date back to 1933, but this only happened in 1952, precisely in the year in which Naval Aviation was extinguished.
As part of the cooperation agreement between Portugal and France in force during the 1st World War, an aviation centre was created in Aveiro with the aim of ensuring the aerial surveillance of the Portuguese coast and protecting the access to the port of Leixões. After the War, the Center was handed over to the Portuguese Navy, which expanded it and started training future Naval Aviation pilots there from 1935 onwards.
The Naval Aviation Center, in Azores, initially based in Horta and transferred to Ponta Delgada in 1919, was created after the end of the 1st World War. It closed down only two years later.
It was reactivated in 1941, during World War II, and closed again on 31 July 1946. Before that, in 1928, the Macao Naval Aviation Center was also activated with the aim of assisting in surveillance and combating smuggling and piracy in the Pearl River.
Its activity was interrupted in 1933 and resumed in 1937 in the context of the Japanese military offensive against China and the need to maintain Portuguese sovereignty in the territory. The Macao NAC was eventually extinguished in January 1942.
training
During the early years of Naval Aviation, pilots were trained at foreign military aeronautical academies, mostly in France, but also in England, the United States, and Italy. The 'Almirante Gago Coutinho' Naval Aviation Academy was created by Decree No. 10780, of 20 May 1925, and was provisionally set up at the Bom Sucesso premises, while the works to accommodate it at the Aveiro Center were being completed.
Portuguese Navy officers could now specialise as Naval Aviation pilots on national territory, at an academy specifically created for that purpose, with advantages in terms of cost, but also in terms of the standardisation of procedures and, above all, in terms of fostering a team spirit among those who had received identical training.
In 1934, the 'Almirante Gago Coutinho' Academy was definitively transferred to the facilities of the Aveiro Naval Aviation Centre, in S. Jacinto, training several generations of pilots until 1952.