sentences:  The squadron motto is "Per ardua ad aethera tendo" - 'I strive through difficulties to the sky'.Formed at Gosport on 30 April 1916, barely a month had passed before the unit and its Morane-Saulnier N's were despatched to France.The squadron's initial pilot officers included Harold Balfour and Peter Portal, later Under-Secretary of State for Air and Chief of the Air Staff respectively, while Robert Smith-Barry, later to revolutionise British pilot training, was a flight commander and (from July to December 1916), the squadron's commanding officer.