Timeline of the Royal Air Force

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Royal Air Force

Components Royal Air Force RAF Regiment RAF Police University Air Squadron History History of the Royal Air Force Timeline of the Royal Air Force Aircraft List of RAF aircraft Structure Strike Command No. 1 Group No. 2 Group No. 3 Group Personnel and Training Command Training Group List of stations

Contents

1 1900-1918 2 1918-1939 3 1939-1945 4 1945-1990 5 1990-present 6 References

1900-1918

• 1908 - Samuel Cody completes the first powered flight in the UK at Farnborough.
• 1911
  • 1 April - Air Battalion, Royal Engineers formed at Larkhill.
  • December - The Royal Naval Flying School formed at Eastchurch, Kent.
• 1912
  • 13 April - Royal Flying Corps (RFC) formed.
  • 13 May - RFC assume control of Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers and the Naval Air Service.
  • 19 June- Central Flying School (CFS) is formed at Upavon
• 1914
  • 1 July - Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) formed by splitting airship squadrons away from the RFC
  • September - The first RNAS aircraft squadrons formed. 1 Squadron RNAS at Antwerp, 2 Squadron RNAS at Eastchurch, 3 Squadron RNAS at St. Pol, France.
• 12 December 1916 - RFC expands to 106 front-line squadrons and 95 reserve and training squadrons.
• 29 November 1917 - The Air Force (Constitution) Act passed, providing for creation of an Air Force and an Air Ministry.
• 1918
  • 2 January - The Air Ministry comes into being with Lord Rothermere as Secretary of State for Air. Major-General Sir Hugh Trenchard becomes the first Chief of the Air Staff (CAS).
  • 1 April
    • The Royal Air Force is formed by amalgamating the RFC and RNAS.
    • First operational mission by the RAF carried out by 22 Squadron
    • Womens Royal Air Force (WRAF) formed.
  • 13 May - The Independent Force, RAF is created as the worlds first air force not controlled by an army or navy.
  • 3 June - The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), Air Force Cross (AFC), Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM), Air Force Medal (AFM) are constituted.
  • June - Princess Marys Royal Air Force Nursing Service formed.
  • 11 November - At the end of the First World War, the RAF was the largest Air Force in the world with 27,333 officers, 263,837 other ranks, 22,647 aircraft, 103 airships, 133 front-line squadrons, 15 flights and 270 aerodromes overseas, 55 front-line squadrons, 75 training squadrons/depots, 401 aerodromes at home and 25,000 WRAF members.

1918-1939

1939-1945

1945-1990

1990-present

References

Royal Air Force website timeline (http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/timeline.html)

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) Timeline_of_the_Royal_Air_Force (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Royal_Air_Force) version history (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timeline_of_the_Royal_Air_Force&action=history) GNU Free Documentation Lizenz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License) CC-by-sa (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/)

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