Imperial Gift Approved for Dominion and Indian Air Forces
On 29 May 1919, the War Cabinet approved the Imperial Gift, sending surplus RAF aircraft to dominions and…
29 May 2026 · 3 min read 22 July
On This Day, 1940: On 22 July 1940, an RAF Blenheim used airborne interception radar to shoot down a Dornier Do 17…
Read the entry →Formation & Interwar · 1918 – 1939
Formation & Interwar
The newly-formed RAF fought for its survival against those who wished to dissolve it. Colonial policing, record-breaking long-distance flights and the dawn of the monoplane era defined two decades of quiet but decisive transformation.
1 Operations
4 Aircraft
6 People
5 Squadrons
The interwar years were defined by two simultaneous struggles: the RAF's fight for institutional survival, and its search for a role that would justify that survival. Hugh Trenchard, the service's first Chief of the Air Staff, became the apostle of strategic bombing — the doctrine that air power could win wars independently, without the need for armies or navies. It was a controversial theory, but it kept the RAF alive.
Across the empire, the RAF policed vast territories at a fraction of the cost of ground forces. In Iraq, India and the Northwest Frontier, air control became the RAF's primary peacetime function — controversial in its methods, but effective in demonstrating the service's utility to a Treasury determined to cut defence spending.
"Air power is the most difficult of all forms of military force to measure, or even to express in precise terms." — Winston Churchill
Meanwhile, technology transformed. The biplane gave way to the monoplane. The wooden-and-canvas construction of the Great War was replaced by stressed-metal structures. By the late 1930s, the Hurricane and Spitfire were entering service, and Bomber Command was building the force that would eventually strike Germany. The RAF that went to war in 1939 was barely recognisable from the one that had been formed in 1918.
From the Archive — Formation & Interwar
Article
Article
RAF Operations Against Zeidi Tribes Begin in Aden Colony
On 21 February 1928, RAF operations began against Zeidi tribes in Aden, illustrating the inter-war use of air…
21 February 2026 · 3 min read Article
Pink’s War and RAF Air Control on the North-West Frontier
Pink’s War showed how the RAF used air power on the North-West Frontier in 1925, and why imperial…
5 May 2026 · 4 min read