The position of Chief of Air Staff was created in 1936, when Apolinar Sáenz de Buruaga y Polanco was promoted to
colonel and appointed Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Sáenz de Buruaga y Polanco was not what is today the JEMAE, because at that time, the JEMA was subordinated to a higher rank called Chief of the Air. The position was not institutionalized until the creation of the Air Ministry in 1939, creating in turn the Air Staff. According to the Air Force Act of that year, the command of the air force belonged to the Head of State, and he delegated it to the Minister of the Air. With this ministry it was wanted to give the air weapon (which had been so important to win the
Civil War) the same level that the Army or the Navy had. The Air Staff was made up of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Second Chief of Staff of the Air Force, a private secretariat for the JEMA and a general one for the Air and Space Staff, and 5 sections: Organization, instruction and mobilization; Information; Operations; Services and Cartography. At that time, the JEMA exercised its powers over all the aerial resources of the Armed Forces, both those of the Air Force and the aerial means of the
Army and the
Navy, but always coordinating with the other Chiefs of Staff, although in practice the commanders of the air forces of the Army and of the Navy were of those respective branches, reason why the influence of the JEMA was null. The JEMA was part, together with the Under Secretary of Air and other ministerial officials, of the Administrative Technical Board, permanent advisory body of the Armed Forces Command on the election of prototypes of aircraft and engines, contracts, infrastructure programs, acquisitions, etc., and of the
High Command (AEM) (that acted as a simple coordinating body). The JEMA depended on the Ministry of the Air until the disappearance of this in 1977. Since then, the JEMA has depended on the
Ministry of Defence. ==List of officeholders==