The Portuguese Naval Aviation () 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. History 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 (), the navy's section of the Army's School of Military Aeronautics (, 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 (). In late 1916, due to the threat