Royal Australian Air Force — 90 Years of Royalty

The Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force (RAAF) will tomor­row mark 90 years since the title of ‘Roy­al’ was bestowed.

“The his­to­ry of the RAAF’s found­ing is quite inter­est­ing; it involves sev­er­al dates that could be con­sid­ered the RAAF’s birth­day,” said RAAF his­to­ri­an Dr Chris Clark 

“Dur­ing World War I, the squadrons of the Aus­tralian Fly­ing Corps (AFC) were part of the Aus­tralian Impe­r­i­al Force and were attached to the larg­er British for­ma­tions of the Roy­al Fly­ing Corps and from 1918 the Roy­al Air Force. 

“On 1 Jan­u­ary 1920, the AFC was replaced by the Aus­tralian Air Corps, which was itself offi­cial­ly suc­ceed­ed on 31 March 1921 by the ‘Aus­tralian Air Force’. 

“Although the RAAF cel­e­brates its birth­day on 31 March 1921, the date from which the ser­vice was offi­cial­ly known as the Aus­tralian Air Force, in Feb­ru­ary of the same year the deci­sion had already been made to ask the King to grant the ‘Roy­al’ title. 

“On 18 August 1921, the Com­mon­wealth Gazette print­ed the order signed by the Gov­er­nor-Gen­er­al on 13 August, approv­ing of the ‘Roy­al’ title,” Dr Clark said. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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