Formed on 8 September 1958 at
White Waltham Airfield, the squadron moved to
RAF Abingdon in 1973 and then to
RAF Benson in 1992. From 26 November 1995 it was parented by
London University Air Squadron but when London UAS moved to
RAF Wyton, 6 AEF remained at RAF Benson with parenting being taken over by Oxford University Air Squadron, both units being equipped with
Grob Tutor T Mk 1s. The unit previously operated the
de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk T.10.
June 2009 air collision incident At approximately 2.30pm on Sunday, 14 June 2009, an
RAF Grob Tutor (G-BYXR) and a civilian
Standard Cirrus glider (G-CKHT) collided above
Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire. The two-seater Grob Tutor, took off from
RAF Benson in Oxfordshire and was part of No 6 AEF's fleet of planes. Flight Lieutenant Michael Blee was a retired
Wing Commander with 38 years' service in the
RAF before becoming a
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Officer at 6 Air Experience Flight in 2005, where he assumed the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He was killed in the crash along with
CCF cadet Nicholas Rice. Nicholas Rice, who was 15 years old, was a student of the
Elvian School in
Reading, and was from
Calcot,
Reading, Berkshire. The pilot of the glider survived, having bailed out before his aircraft crashed.
Current operations The Air Experience Flight is currently commanded by a Flight Lieutenant on Full-Time Reserve Service and like the University Air Squadron, comes under
No. 6 Flying Training School. ==See also==