No. 25 Squadron Deployed to France on the Western Front
On 20 February 1916, No. 25 Squadron was deployed to France, marking an early expansion of British air…
20 February 2026 · 3 min read 5 June
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 →First World War · 1914 – 1918
First World War
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.
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The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service went to war in 1914 as embryonic organisations, flying fragile aircraft with no clear doctrine and little understanding of what air power might achieve. Within four years they had developed every discipline that would define military aviation for a century: strategic bombing, air superiority, close support, reconnaissance, anti-submarine patrol.
On 1 April 1918, with seven months of war remaining, the RFC and RNAS were merged to form the Royal Air Force — the world's first independent air arm. The new service inherited 22,000 aircraft and nearly 300,000 personnel, and immediately began fighting for its own survival against those who believed air power should be subordinated to the older services.
"The aeroplane is useless for the purposes of war." — Field Marshal Haig, 1914
The cost had been severe. The life expectancy of a pilot on the Western Front in 1917 was measured in weeks. Aircraft technology advanced so rapidly that an aircraft could be obsolete within months of entering service. Yet from this crucible emerged the pilots, the doctrine and the institutional culture that would carry the RAF through the next two decades.
From the Archive — First World War
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RAF Intervention in North Russia Sanctioned by Allies
On 2 June 1918, Allied leaders approved intervention in North Russia, with RAF units intended to support key…
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Trenchard Resigns as Chief of the Air Staff in 1918
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