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Chief Of The Air StaffThe Chief of the Air Staff is the professional head of the Royal Air Force and a member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. The post was established with the formation of the RAF in 1918, and its first occupant, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Hugh Trenchard, was key in the establishment of the RAF as a separate service. After Lord Trenchard retired in 1929 his successors still had to fight to keep the RAF separate from the Royal Navy and the British Army, but Trenchard's foundations proved to solid. By the time World War II broke out in 1939, the then occupant of the post, Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall, had a service that had been undergoing the most rapid of expansions during the British rearmament programs of the late 1930s. Newall gave way in 1940 to Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, who lead the service for the rest of the war. Portal was a tireless defender of the RAF and extremely able in administration and strategy. Postwar the RAF was reoriented to perform the dual roles of defending the shrinking British Empire and possibly fighting against the Soviet Union in a Warsaw Pact vs NATO war over Germany and the United Kingdom. The Chiefs of the Air Staff of the day had to fight a constant battle to keep the British aircraft industry alive. In the end only minimal success was achieved, with only a rump aviation industrial base left by the 1970s. The present air threat to the United Kingdom itself is minimal compared with any time since the early 1930s. The RAF has therefore had to be reoriented to be an expeditionary force. The struggles against cuts continue, with many feeling that the RAF and the Chief of the Air Staff go too far in their zealous defence of air power and control over air assets. Nevertheless, the Chief of the Air Staff is a secure post for the foreseeable future. Chiefs of the Air Staff Since 1918 * May 2006 - Air Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy (planned)
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