Heavier-than-air military aircraft The first aviation force in the world was the
Aviation Military of the
French Army formed in 1910, which eventually became l'
Armée de l'Air. In 1911, during the
Italo-Turkish War,
Italy employed aircraft for the first time ever in the world for reconnaissance and bombing missions against Turkish positions on Libyan Territory. This was the first war in history that featured air attacks by airplanes and
dirigible airships. During
World War I France, Germany, Italy, the British Empire and the
Ottoman Empire all possessed significant forces of
bombers and
fighters.
Aviation in World War I also saw the appearance of
senior commanders who directed aerial warfare and numerous
flying aces.
Independent air forces An independent air force is one which is a separate branch of a nation's armed forces and is, at least nominally, treated as a military service on par with that of older services like navies or armies. of the Royal Air Force The British
Royal Air Force was the first independent air force in the world. The RAF was founded on 1 April 1918 by amalgamation the British Army's
Royal Flying Corps and the
Royal Naval Air Service. At its inception, the RAF comprised over 20,000 aircraft. It was commanded by a
Chief of the Air Staff with the rank of
major-general and was governed by its own government ministry (the
Air Ministry). Arguably, the
Finnish Air Force was the first independent air force in the world, formed on 6 March 1918, when the Swedish count,
Eric von Rosen gave Finland the second aircraft, a
Thulin Typ D. Some considered that the Finnish Air Force did not officially exist during the
Finnish Civil War (27 January – 15 May 1918), and the
Red Guards had its own air force. Over the following decades, most countries with substantial military capability established independent air forces. The
South African Air Force was formed on 1 February 1920 and the
Royal Australian Air Force was formed shortly thereafter, on 31 March 1921, although it was not until 1922 that the head of the Service was titled as
Chief of the Air Staff, placing him on a par with his
Australian Army and Navy counterparts. The
Canadian Air Force was formed at the end of World War I and was abolished and reorganized several times between 1918 and 1924. It became the permanent
Royal Canadian Air Force when it received the
Royal title by royal proclamation on 1 April 1924. It did not however become independent of the
Canadian Army until 1938, when its head was also designated as
Chief of the Air Staff. Similarly, the
Royal New Zealand Air Force was established in 1923 as the New Zealand Permanent Air Force, but did not become independent of the New Zealand Army until 1937. The
Royal Indian Air Force was also formed on 8 October 1932. Other British-influenced countries also established independent air forces. For example, the
Royal Egyptian Air Force was created in 1937, when Egyptian military aviation was separated from Army command. The Afghan Air Force was established on 22 August 1924, with support from the Soviet Union and Great Britain, but
a civil war destroyed most of the planes and it was not reestablished until 1937, when King
Mohammed Nadir Shah took power. Outside of the British Empire, the
Italian Royal Air Force was founded in 1923, the
Romanian Air Force was established as a force category on 1 January 1924, the
Finnish Air Force was established as a separate service on 4 May 1928, the
Chilean Air Force was founded in 1930 and the
Brazilian Air Force was created in 1941. Both the
United States Air Force and the
Philippine Air Force were formed as a separate branches of their respective armed forces in 1947, as did the
Argentine Air Force in 1945. The
Israeli Air Force came into being with the
State of Israel on 18 May 1948, but evolved from the pre-existing
Sherut Avir (Air Service) of the
Haganah paramilitary. The
Japan Air Self-Defense Force was not established until 1954; in
World War II Japanese military aviation had been carried out by the Army and Navy. Unlike all these countries, the
Mexican Air Force remains an integral part of the
Mexican Army.
The world wars played a vital role in British victory during the
Battle of Britain.
World War I Germany was the first country to organize
regular air attacks on enemy infrastructure with the
Luftstreitkräfte. In
World War I, its
zeppelins (
airships) dropped bombs on British cities. British warplanes mostly spotted for artillery and fought German planes, British airships were less advanced than the zeppelins and mostly hunted for German
U-boats (
submarines). Fixed-wing aircraft at the time were quite primitive, being able to achieve velocities comparable to that of modern automobiles and mounting minimal weaponry and equipment. Aerial services were still largely a new venture, and relatively unreliable machines and limited training resulted in stupendously low life expectancies for early military aviators.
World War II aircraft of the
Finnish Air Force during the
Continuation War By the time
World War II began, planes had become much safer, faster, and more reliable. They were adopted as standard for bombing raids and taking out other aircraft because they were much faster than airships. The world's largest military Air Force by the start of the Second World War in 1939 was the
Soviet Red Air Force, and although much depleted, it would stage the largest air operations of WWII over the four years of combat with the German
Luftwaffe. bombers during the
Battle of Britain Arguably the war's most important air operation, known as the
Battle of Britain, took place during 1940 over Britain and the
English Channel between Britain's Royal Air Force and Germany's Luftwaffe over a period of several months. In the end Britain emerged victorious, and this caused
Adolf Hitler to give up his plan to invade Britain. Other prominent air force operations during the Second World War include the
Allied bombing of Germany during 1942–1944, and the
Red Air Force operations in support of strategic ground offensives on the
Eastern Front. The aerial warfare in
Pacific Ocean theatre was of a comparable strategic significance to the Battle of Britain but was largely conducted by the US and Japanese naval aviation services and not by air forces.
Strategic bombing B-29 in flight The air force's role of
strategic bombing against enemy infrastructure was developed during the 1930s by the Japanese in China and by the Germans during the
Spanish Civil War. This role for the bomber was perfected during World War II, during Allied "Thousand Bomber Raid" operations. The need to intercept these bombers, both during the day and at night, accelerated fighter aircraft developments. The war ended when
United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers
dropped atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945.
Post World War II The
United States Air Force became an independent service in 1947. As the
Cold War began, both the USAF and the Soviet Air Force built up their nuclear-capable strategic bomber forces. Several technological advances were widely introduced during this time: the
jet engine; the
missile; the helicopter; and
inflight refueling. In 1954 the
Japan Air Self-Defense Force was founded as a separate service. Previously Japan had delivered its service aviation from within its Army and Navy. During the 1960s,
Canada merged the Royal Canadian Air Force with the army and the navy to form the unified
Canadian Forces, with air assets divided between several commands and a green uniform for everyone. This proved very unpopular, and in 1975 Canadian aviation units were reorganized under a single organization (
Air Command) with a
single commander. In 2011 the Canadian Forces Air Command reverted to its pre-1960s name, the Royal Canadian Air Force. ==Organization==