On This Day, 1999: On 5 June 1999 RAF Tornados flew their first combat missions from Solenzara in Corsica during Operation Allied…
Read the entry →Explore RAF history by era — from the service’s birth to the present day.
The RFC and RNAS forged air power over the Western Front, the Middle East and the North Sea. The Royal Air Force itself was born on 1 April 1918 — the world's first independent air arm — with just seven months of war remaining.
The newly-formed RAF fought for its survival against those who wished to re-absorb it into the Army and Navy. Colonial policing, record-breaking long-distance flights, and the dawn of the monoplane era defined two decades of quiet transformation.
The RAF's defining chapter. The Battle of Britain, Bomber Command's strategic offensive, the desert war, the long-range fight over the Atlantic — six years that tested the service to its absolute limits and produced its greatest generation of aircrew.
From the Berlin Airlift to the Falklands, from the V-bombers on four-minute alert to the Tornado over the Iraqi desert. Four decades of technological transformation, nuclear deterrence and the occasional hot war in unexpected places.
The post-Cold War RAF — leaner, more expeditionary, battle-hardened by Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. The Typhoon, the F-35, the return to carrier operations. A smaller force than at any point in its history, yet one of the most capable and combat-experienced in the world.
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