Edward Mannock VC Killed After 61st Victory in July 1918
On 26 July 1918, Major Edward Mannock VC was killed near Lestrem after claiming his final victory as…
26 July 2026 · 3 min read 5 September
On This Day, 1940: On 5 September 1940, Bromide jamming was used operationally against German navigation beams, marking the practical beginning of…
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.
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The War Office Purchases the de Havilland No.2 (FE1)
On 14 January 1911, the British War Office purchased the de Havilland No. 2 biplane, later designated the…
14 January 2026 · 3 min read Article
James McCudden Awarded the Military Cross in March 1917
On 12 March 1917, James McCudden received the Military Cross, recognising a pilot whose skill and discipline made…
12 March 2026 · 3 min read