Motorising An Air Force

Tim Gosling recounts the history of the RAF lorry and its role in World War One

Photographed at the end of the war are these stalwarts of the RAF, two Leylands, a Maudslay and a Crossley which is marked RAF on the windscreen
pictures Archive

On April 1, 1918, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) merged together to form the Royal Air Force (RAF) now the world’s oldest independent air force (that is, independent of army or navy control). It provided tangible benefits, not only in the creation of a single command structure but also in the procurement of equipment and aircraft.

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