Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, either from warships that can embark aircraft (e.g. aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships and aircraft cruisers) or from coastal naval air stations. It often involves navalised aircraft, specifically designed for naval use. Seaborne aviation encompasses similar activities not restricted to navies, including marines and coast guards, such as in U.S. naval aviators. As with most army aviation units, naval aviation units are generally separate from a nation's dedicated air force.

Naval aviation operations are typically projected by way of carrier-based aircraft, which must be sturdy enough to withstand the demands of shipborne operations at sea. They must be able to take off from a short runway (typically the flight deck of an aircraft carrier) and be sturdy and flexible enough to come to a sudden stop when landing; they typically have robust folding or swinging wings that reduce the occupied space and thus allow more of them to be stored in below-decks hangars and limited parking spaces on flight decks. These aircraft are designed for many tactical purposes, including aerial combat, airstrike/close air support, anti-submarine warfare, early warning, search and rescue, matériel transport, weather observation, patrol and reconnaissance, and wide-area command and control duties.

Naval aviation first started in the mid-19th century with the use of aerostats such as balloons tethered to balloon tenders, later the use of powered ship-launched airships, for both observation and firebombing, until these were superseded by propeller-powered seaplanes launched from seaplane carriers during the First World War. By the end of the Second World War, aircraft carrier-launched fixed-wing aircraft such as dive bombers and torpedo bombers had dramatically changed the nature of naval warfare, leading to the decline of gun-oriented battleships as fleet capital ships. Nowadays, naval helicopters are used ubiquitously as VTOL aircraft by most navies and perform many of the same missions as fixed-wing aircraft, although the latter have the advantages of significantly faster airspeed, longer operational ranges and heavier payloads. However, helicopters and other VSTOL aircraft (tiltrotor, autogyros and thrust-vectoring jump jets) can be readily operated from aircraft carriers, helicopter carriers, amphibious warfare ships and aviation-capable surface combatants equipped with stern helipad such as cruisers, destroyers, frigates and even some corvettes, while fixed-wing aircraft can only be operated from large carriers with a sufficiently long flight deck and mandatorily also STOL-assisting devices such as ski-jump/catapults, arresting gears and optical landing systems.

Early experiments on the use of kites for naval reconnaissance took place in 1903 at Woolwich Common for the Admiralty. Samuel Franklin Cody demonstrated the capabilities of his 8-foot-long black kite and it was proposed for use as either a mechanism to hold up wires for wireless communications or as a manned reconnaissance device that would give the viewer the advantage of considerable height.

In 1908 Prime Minister H. H. Asquith approved the formation of an "Aerial Sub-Committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence" to investigate the potential for naval aviation. In 1909 this body accepted the proposal of Captain Reginald Bacon made to the First Sea Lord Sir John Fisher that rigid airships should be constructed for the Royal Navy to be used for reconnaissance. This resulted in the construction of Mayfly in 1909, the first air component of the navy to become operational, and the genesis of modern naval aviation.

The first pilots for the Royal Navy were transferred from the Royal Aero Club in June 1910 along with two aircraft with which to train new pilots, and an airfield at Eastchurch became the Naval Flying School, the first such facility in the world. Two hundred applications were received, and four were accepted: Lieutenant C R Samson, Lieutenant A M Longmore, Lieutenant A Gregory and Captain E L Gerrard, RMLI.

The French also established a naval aviation capability in 1910 with the establishment of the Service Aeronautique and the first flight training schools.

U.S. naval aviation began with pioneer aviator Glenn Curtiss who contracted with the United States Navy to demonstrate that airplanes could take off from and land aboard ships at sea. One of his pilots, Eugene Ely, took off from the cruiser USS Birmingham anchored off the Virginia coast in November 1910. Two months later Ely landed aboard another cruiser, USS Pennsylvania, in San Francisco Bay, proving the concept of shipboard operations. However, the platforms erected on those vessels were temporary measures. The U.S. Navy and Glenn Curtiss experienced two firsts during January 1911. On 27 January, Curtiss flew the first seaplane from the water at San Diego Bay and the next day U.S. Navy Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson, a student at the nearby Curtiss School, took off in a Curtiss "grass cutter" plane to become the first naval aviator.