On 10 July, as many as 100 aircraft will take part in an historic flypast over The Mall and Buckingham Palace in London, to commemorate the centenary of the Royal Air Force's formation.
The milestone – which was formally marked on 1 April – is the subject of a major series of events taking place throughout this year, dubbed RAF100, and intended by the service to "commemorate, celebrate and inspire".
Today's inventory of jet fighters, transports, surveillance aircraft, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles are a world away from the equipment fielded by the RAF in the latter stages of the First World War, when it was created through an amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service.
But in numerical terms, its early strength was astonishing, with approaching 23,000 aircraft and 290,000 personnel assigned to it by the time the Armistice was signed in November 1918.
Two of the UK's three Cold War strategic V-bombers, the Handley Page Victor (bottom),
and Vickers Valiant (centre), flanked by an English Elecric Canberra (top right)
Since the RAF is a comparative youngster in comparison to Flight – which was published for the first time in 1909 – our report on its first 100 years delves into the riches of our online archive, to see how the events were reported at the time.
In the editorial comment piece for our 4 April 1918 issue, the historic nature of the first independent air force's establishment was not lost on our scribe.
"It is certainly not too much to say that the 1st of April, 1918, marks an epoch in the history of the fighting forces of the British Crown," he wrote. "It has seen called into active being a new service which, we are fully convinced, will in time to come rival in magnitude the older services from which it has sprung, even if it does not dwarf them into comparative insignificance."
Clearly, as the focus of this title's reporting was the new discipline of heavier-than-air flight, it could be expected to have been "on message" about the RAF's creation, but even so, its summary was strikingly direct.
"It is thus impossible to look into that future without being forced to the irresistible conclusion that, while armies as we know them now – and even fleets – may disappear as a means of practical war, our aerial navies must and will continue to increase and multiply until the millennium."
PERSPECTIVE
Perhaps some of this title's broader expectations look less robust due to the passing of time, including a supposition that "in the very near future aircraft will render impossible the employment of masses of men on the ground". But the significance of an air force being established as a standalone entity was hard to play down, as was the dawning importance of military air power.
"The simple fact that in less than four years the aerial arm has grown from a veritable toy adjunct to our field armies into a gigantic separate service whose activities are in all human probability destined to be decisive of the issues of the greatest war in history, is earnest enough of still greater developments to come," our writer opined.
Established partly as a means of halting German attacks on the east coast of England using Zeppelin airships, the RAF was swiftly called upon to support efforts to thwart its foe's Spring Offensive on the Western Front. "Day by day and night after night our air squadrons are making every moment hideous to the enemy," Flight reported.
"They have searched his bivouacs and concentration areas with bombs and machine gun fire." Before the war was over, the RAF's Handley Page 0/400s deployed externally carried SN bombs weighing 750kg (1,650lb) and measuring some 3.1m (10.1ft) in length.
The post-war period was marked by technological advances, including the first all-metal fighter – the Armstrong Whitworth Siskin III, fielded from 1925 – and the training-optimised de Havilland Tiger Moth, first flown in 1931.
As tensions again mounted in Europe, arguably the service's most iconic aircraft of all time – the Supermarine Spitfire – was developed and placed into service in 1938.
Quoted in Flight in 1939, as the service "came of age" at 21, its first chief of the air staff – and then Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Viscount Trenchard – said: "I feel certain that the spirit that was created in the Great War of 1914-1918 is not only alive to-day, but is the source of its strength. The whole world is now anxiously watching this service, and I hope that by its strength it will help to prevent that appalling catastrophe, war. May its life in the future be more peaceful than in the past." Sadly, this was not to be the case.
July through October 1940 cemented the Spitfire's historic status, as it excelled during the Battle of Britain alongside other types, including the Hawker Hurricane in particular. The Spitfire left its operational use only in 1954, during reconnaissance service over Malaya, but is still flown today by the RAF's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which was formed in 1957.
Fighter evolution, 1960-style (left to right): Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire, in formation with Gloster Meteor,
Hawker Hunter, Gloster Javelin, and English Electric Lightning
Recent months have also brought the 75th anniversary of the Dambusters raid mounted against strategically vital infrastructure in Germany's Ruhr Valley by the Avro Lancasters of 617 Sqn in May 1943. "The raid was a feat of complex planning, ingenuity, and consummate flying skill to deliver a revolutionary weapon precisely and at great range," the RAF notes, in reference to the Barnes Wallis-developed bouncing bomb.
On 17 May 2018, the BBMF paid tribute to the bravery and skill of the crews involved, by flying the last survivor – Sqn Ldr George 'Johnny' Johnson – aboard its Lancaster over the dams of the Derwent Valley, where 617 Sqn had trained prior to mounting Operation Chastise.
At the end of 1943, as war continued to rage, the RAF had a strength of almost 500 squadrons and approaching 1 million personnel.
DOWNSIZING
Following the end of the Second World War, the service's scale was reduced, while the jet fighter age took off, delivering types including the Gloster Meteor, and from the early 1950s the English Electric Canberra, Supermarine Swift and the Hunting Percival Jet Provost trainer. These would later be followed by other models, such as the Gloster Javelin, English Electric Lightning, Hawker Hunter and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom.
A half-century ago, Flight International ran a major report in its 28 March 1968 issue to mark the RAF's 50th anniversary. "A dozen pages will tax this journal's resourcefulness (though happily not its resources) in epitomising the rise, triumphs and tribulations of the Royal Air Force, founded in 1918 and continuing today lustrous in status if diminished in stature," our editorial stated. Its rather downbeat view was the consequence of savage budget cuts that had earlier in the decade led to the cancellation of the BAC TSR-2 development programme and the abandonment of plans for the RAF to acquire the General Dynamics F-111.
Looking towards the following decade, our writers summed this up as a near future "fraught with confusion and frustration", with a restructuring to also cut the air force's personnel strength from 121,000 to 97,000 and end its presence in "regions east of Suez".
"While doing all this it will also complete by 1971 the introduction into service of 10 new types, with one of which, the V/STOL Harrier, it will be pioneering for the world an entirely new tactical aircraft concept." This technological marvel entered service with the 233 Sqn operational conversion unit in April 1969; 51 years after the RAF's formation.
New airlift stalwarts were also entering use around this time, with the UK's first Lockheed C-130 Hercules arriving in 1966, the Bristol Britannia already in use and the Vickers VC10 to follow. A trio of nuclear missile-armed V-bombers – the Avro Vulcan, Handley Page Victor and Vickers Valiant – carried the UK's strategic deterrent, before this subsequently moved to the Panavia Tornado and later Royal Navy submarines only.
In a swansong for the Vulcan force, the type was employed in a series of "Black Buck" raids on the runway and infrastructure at Port Stanley airfield in April 1982, while Argentinian forces occupied the Falkland Islands. The first of these – which required 18 Victor tanker sorties to support it – comprised a combat sortie totalling 15h 45min.
As the RAF marked its 75th anniversary in 1993, then chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon – writing in the RAF Benevolent Fund-produced book Brace-by-wire to fly-by-wire – noted: "throughout its history, the Royal Air Force has proven itself capable of adapting to change. The outstanding quality of our servicemen and women, their loyalty, courage and professionalism have sustained the service through a turbulent history and resulted in the effective force it is today. But at times, this has been at great personal cost."
Speaking during a lecture at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London in late March, current chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier hailed the RAF's founders – including Trenchard – for establishing a set of "beliefs, ethos and institutions to survive and flourish after the war". He also cited the example set by its early pilots, and notes:
"The Sopwith Camel wasn't a 'stringbag' at the time – it was their [Eurofighter] Typhoon or [Lockheed Martin] F-35."
ON MESSAGE
Hillier is adamant that the current focus on RAF100 should not wither as 2018 nears its conclusion. Some £2 million ($2.6 million) has been invested for this year to enable the service to engage with more than 2 million students, and the activity is also linked to the year of the engineer. His goal is for the commemorate, celebrate and inspire theme to endure beyond 2018; "That's how you establish a legacy."
For Hillier, the importance of air power is greater than ever, but air supremacy cannot be assured as ever present. "The world has changed: in any future conflict, control of the air will have to be fought for," he contends.
"We are currently busier than we have been for at least a generation, in the middle of our most sustained period of high-intensity warfighting operations since the Second World World," says Hillier. As of late March, the service was involved in 13 operations in 21 countries on five continents, he says.
Conflict in the Middle East continues, with the UK's Operation Shader contribution over Iraq and Syria having seen more than 3,700 precision-guided weapons released since 2015. The RAF's Panavia Tornado force has marked 28 years of continuous deployed operations since the first Gulf War in Iraq in 1990-1991, with other commitments having included service in Afghanistan and Libya.
Other milestones have seen the service's General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Reaper remotely piloted air systems accumulate more than 100,000h of operational flight time, its Raytheon Systems Sentinel ground surveillance aircraft spend more than 1,000 days on deployment and Raytheon Shadow reconnaissance assets having spent 10 years "with only a couple of months not on operations".
Hillier speaks of the need for "capable, adaptable, flexible forces" for the future, with investment in space, cyber, artificial intelligence and remotely operated technologies to be key enablers. Examples include a £4.5 million investment to develop and launch the Surrey Satellite Technology-produced Carbonite-2, which is capable of relaying real-time video from low Earth orbit.
Senior RAF commanders also point to the importance of non-kinetic influence, alluding to Russia's use of social media to influence opinion over its involvement in supporting the Assad regime inside Syria.
The service's current chief also refers to a "centennial reset", which places great emphasis on bursaries, scholarships and apprenticeships to attract the personnel which will be pivotal to its continued success.
Of equal importance will be new-generation equipment like the short take-off and vertical landing F-35B recently delivered to the modern-day 617 Sqn at RAF Marham in Norfolk, and its incoming Boeing P-8 maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.
"Our focus has always been on the future, and the legacy of RAF100 must be to build a launchpad for flight into our second century," Hillier says. He also wants to see increased resilience, access to more affordable complex technology and more critical mass, noting that the RAF's current strength is "already at too low a level".
Whether such aspirations can keep in formation with budget holders during a continuing period of budgetary austerity in the UK – not to mention the potential adverse implications of its divorce from the EU – will take the next few years to be determined.
But referring to the RAF's founding fathers' likely views of the contemporary service, Hillier says: "I think they would have been pleased. They built the foundations, and over the next 100 years we have completed the castle. The spirit, ethos and character: they would recognise that."
Source: FlightGlobal.com
