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The Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force training and education academy which provides initial training to all RAF personnel who are preparing to be commissioned officers. The College also provides initial training to aircrew cadets and is responsible for all RAF recruiting along with officer and aircrew selection. Originally established as a naval aviation training centre during World War I, the College was established as the world's first air academy in 1919. During World War II, the College was closed and its facilities were used as a flying training school. Reopening after the War, the College absorbed the Royal Air Force Technical College in 1966. In recent years it has incorporated the Air Power Studies Division of Portsmouth Business School. The Royal Air Force College is based at RAF Cranwell near Sleaford in Lincolnshire, and is sometimes titled as the Royal Air Force College Cranwell. ==History== Cranwell was first established in 1916 as the Royal Navy air training centre and airships were operational there until the end of World War I. In December 1915, after the Royal Naval Air Service had broken away from the Royal Flying Corps, Commodore Godfrey Paine was sent to Cranwell to start a naval flying training school in order that the Royal Navy would no longer need to make use of the Central Flying School. The Royal Navy's Central Depot and Training Establishment opened on 1 April 1916 at Cranwell under Paine's leadership. In 1917 Paine was succeeded by Commodore Luce and in 1918 following the foundation of the Royal Air Force in April, Brigadier-General Briggs took over. As a Royal Air Force establishment, Cranwell became the headquarters of No. 12 Group for the last few months of the war. After the cessation of hostilities in November 1918, the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Hugh Trenchard was determined to maintain the Royal Air Force as an independent service rather than let the Army and Navy control air operations again. The establishment of an air academy, which would provide basic flying training, provide intellectual education and give a sense of purpose to the future leaders of the service was therefore a priority. Trenchard chose Cranwell as the College's location because, as he told his biographer: "Marooned in the wilderness, cut off from pastimes they could not organise for themselves, the cadets would find life cheaper, healthier and more wholesome."In practice this meant that (unlike RMC Sandhurst cadets) Cranwell cadets could not reach the temptations of London in their free time. When first occupied, the site was largely empty fields: it is now ornamented by several avenues of mature trees, many commemoratively marked with plaques naming the distinguished guests who planted them 1920–1970. The Royal Air Force College was formed on 1 November 1919 as the RAF (Cadet) College under the authority of its first commandant Air Commodore Charles Longcroft.〔Phillips-Evans, J. ''The Longcrofts: 500 Years of a British Family'' (Amazon, 2012)〕 On 5 February 1920 the College was raised to command status. It is the oldest military air academy in the world. On 20 June 1929, an aeroplane piloted by Flight Cadet C J Giles crashed on landing at the College and burst into flames. A fellow flight cadet, William McKechnie pulled Giles, who was incapable of moving himself, from the burning wreckage. McKechnie was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal for his actions. In 1936 the College was reduced from command to group status within Training Command〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=RAF Commands formed between 1918 - 1919 )〕 and the commandant ceased to hold the title of Air Officer Commanding RAF Cranwell.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Other Establishments - Schools and Staff Colleges )〕 Just before the outbreak of World War II, the Air Ministry closed the College as an initial officer training establishment. With the need to train aircrew in large numbers it was redesignated the RAF College Flying Training School and it did not return to its former function until 1947. It was also in 1947 that the Equipment and Secretarial Branch cadets were admitted to the College alongside the traditional flight cadets. The postwar restoration of the College was a period of change and uncertainty. Recruiting often failed to find enough qualified candidates to fill each entry (50 pilots, two or three times a year, with 10 to 20 navigator and non-flying officers as well.) The pilot washout rate approached 50 per cent, so RAF authorities debated whether flying training to professional levels (pilot wings standard) should be separated from a (shorter) officer training course. Cranwell cadets were in 1950 equipped and treated as airmen, i.e. had to clean their own quarters and uniforms impeccably, while undergoing both flying training and college-level courses in engineering. By 1960 they lived and were dressed as officers, served by batmen. In the same period the 1957 Defence White Paper suggested the RAF would replace human pilots by guided missiles, at least for home defence of the UK. These vicissitudes are documented in Haslam's narrative〔Haslam, E.B.Haslam, ''History of RAF Cranwell'' (HMSO 1982)〕 and the personal memoir of a New Zealand cadet 1951-53. 〔Hancock, Rutherford M.Hancock, Rutherford M., ''Flight Cadet: Royal Air Force College, Cranwell,'' (Pentland Press, 1996.)〕 In 1952 a College Memorial Chapel was established within College Hall.〔Haslam, p. 83〕 Ten years later it was relocated to the then new College Church, St Michael and All Angels,〔Haslam, p. 96〕 which is situated nearby to the south-east of College Hall. In 1966 the Royal Air Force Technical College at RAF Henlow, a similar cadet college for engineering officers, was merged with the College at Cranwell.〔 〕 The College functioned 1919-71 as a cadet college (like RMC Sandhurst) graduates receiving permanent RAF commissions after a residential course of two to three years. These trainees now include women, and the Royal Air Force College Cranwell is today the RAF's only initial officer training establishment. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Royal Air Force College Cranwell」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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