X-Nico

unusual facts about The Royal Air Force



United Arab Emirates national cricket team

The game spread during World War II, The Royal Air Force of Britain and other Commonwealth forces (which included first-class and club cricketers from Australia and New Zealand) stationed in the cities like Ajman, Al Ain, Dubai and Sharjah, continued their favourite pastime.


see also

Adastral Park

The Royal Air Force were prior residents of the site, as RAF Martlesham Heath.

Aerial reconnaissance in World War II

Sidney Cotton’s work found only grudging approval with the Royal Air Force, but eventually his work was incorporated into 1 Photographic Development Unit (PDU) at RAF Heston and then RAF Benson, a unit from which most later British air reconnaissance developed.

Alan Neilson

Neilson was born in Wegberg, Germany, where his father was serving in the Royal Air Force, but was qualified to play for Wales.

Alfred Morris

Alfred Drummond Warrington-Morris (1883–1962), senior officer in the Royal Air Force

Archibald McIndoe

He was cremated, and his ashes were buried in the Royal Air Force church of St Clement Danes just after helping set up AMREF in the UK.

Avro Andover

At the beginning of the 1920s, the Royal Air Force required a successor for the outdated Airco DH.10 that was used on the Cairo to Baghdad "Desert Air Route".

Bisham Woods

A memorial in Carpenters Wood commemorates the crash site of a Halifax Bomber from the Royal Air Force 578 Squadron, on 18 July 1944.

British air services

Fleet Air Arm (1924 - 1937 as part of the Royal Air Force, 1937 onwards as part of the Royal Navy)

Coningsby

The base is part of Britain’s heritage, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight formed in 1957 to commemorate the Royal Air Force's major battle honours, with a Lancaster, five Spitfires, two Hurricanes and a Dakota.

Crescent wing

It served with the Royal Air Force form many years, serving in a variety of roles besides bomber, including as an inflight refuelling tanker during the Falklands War.

Cyril Uwins

On 1 May 1919 he was demobilized from the Royal Air Force and formally joined the Bristol Aeroplane Company and the same day made the first post-war civil air flight in Britain when he flew the Bristol Company's general manager, Herbert Thomas, from Filton to Hounslow in a Bristol Tourer.

Daimler Dingo

Alvis had been in partnership with Nicholas Straussler and provided armoured cars to the Royal Air Force, Morris had participated in trials and production of armoured cars, and BSA Cycles -whose parent Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) was involved in armaments - had a small front wheel drive vehicle in production.

Edward Ellington

Edward Leonard Ellington, Marshal of the Royal Air Force, British Chief of the Air Staff

Geoffrey D. Stephenson

, the party of Air Commodore Stephenson, accompanied by 30 RAF and USAF officers, flew to Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama, for interment at the Royal Air Force plot there.

Gordon Olley

After leaving the Royal Air Force he worked as a pilot for Handley Page Air Transport, Imperial Airways and KLM.

Gordon Parry, Baron Parry

The procession was led by a full contingent of Welsh Guards, the streets were lined with silent well-wishers, and the Royal Air Force paid homage by a missing-man flyover at the cemetery.

Hawker Woodcock

The first aircraft to be delivered to the Royal Air Force entered service with 3 Squadron in May 1925 at RAF Upavon.

Keith Skues

Squadron Leader Skues was a member of the public relations team at RAF Marham for the 75th anniversary of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1993, an event which was attended by five members of the Royal Family.

Leslie Gossage

Following his retirement from regular service with the Royal Air Force, Gossage agreed to be re-employed to assume the role of Commandant Air Cadets after the retirement of Air Commodore John Adrian Chamier.

Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar

Among those killed were Air Vice-Marshal Wilfred Ashton McClaughry, CB, DSO, MC, DFC and Lady Rosalinde Tedder née MacLardy, wife of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Arthur William Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder, GCB.

Mount Pleasant Airport

RAF Mount Pleasant, a military base for the Royal Air Force in the British Overseas Territory of the Falkland Islands (IATA: MPN)

NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen

Surrounded by farmland and a natural woodland reserve, the base was originally built by the Royal Air Force after World War II and operated as RAF Geilenkirchen from 1953 onwards.

Neil Cameron

Neil Cameron, Baron Cameron of Balhousie (1920–1985), former Marshal of the Royal Air Force

No. 207 Squadron RAF

On the formation of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918 it became No. 207 Squadron, RAF, moving back to Netheravon in England for re-equipping with the more advanced version of the O/100, the Handley Page O/400, returning to France in July as part of 54 Wing, continuing to fly night raids against railway targets.

Peter Drummond

Sir Peter Roy Maxwell Drummond (1894–1945), Australian-born commander in the Royal Air Force

RAF Collyweston

Founded in 1917 as No. 5 Training Depot Station, the station was renamed RAF Collyweston following formation of the Royal Air Force, via merger of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) on 1 April 1918.

RAF Roborough

In 1942 the site was taken over by the Royal Air Force for Coastal Command Duties with No. 691 Squadron RAF forming at the airfield on 1 December 1943 flying Hurricane I's, Boulton Paul Defiant I's, Airspeed Oxford I's and Fairey Barracuda II's before leaving on 21 February 1945 moving to RAF Harrowbeer.

Ro Atherton

She was the first female Station Commander RAF Wittering and was charged with the radical reorganisation of the Royal Air Force's logistics organisation.

Robin Skynner

He was educated at St Austell County School and at Blundell's School, after which, at the age of 18, he volunteered for the Royal Air Force, and was selected as a prospective bomber pilot.

Scottish Aviation Bulldog

It was used extensively by the Royal Air Force as a basic trainer, in particular as the standard aircraft of the University Air Squadrons and, later, Air Experience Flights, providing flying training.

Sullom Voe

The Voe, the longest in Shetland, and partially sheltered by the island of Yell was used as a military airfield during World War II both by the Royal Air Force and the Norwegian Air Force as a location for flying boats.

Thomas Stephenson

Thomas Frederick Stephenson (1894-1917), World War I flying ace with the Royal Air Force

Thunder and Lightnings

Set in Norfolk, it features a developing friendship between two boys who share an interest in aeroplanes, living near RAF Coltishall during the months in 1974 when the Royal Air Force is phasing out its Lightning fighters and introducing the Jaguar.

Timeline of British military aviation

1 April - The Royal Air Force establishes its Fleet Air Arm, consisting of RAF units normally embarked on aircraft carriers and fighting ships

Wilfred Leigh Brintnell

A pilot, Brintnell instructed until his discharge in 1919, for the RFC at Fort Worth, Texas; the Royal Air Force at Camp Borden, Ontario; and the RAF in Upavon, England.

Windsor knot

The Windsor knot is the only tie knot that is to be used by all personnel in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Air Force Cadets (ATC and CCF(RAF)) in the UK when wearing their black tie while in uniform.