Australian Air Corps

The Australian Air Corps (AAC) was a temporary formation of the Australian military that existed in the interval between the disbandment of the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) of World War I and the establishment of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in March 1921. Raised in January 1920, the AAC was commanded by Major William Anderson, a former AFC pilot; many of the AAC's members were from the AFC and would go on to join the RAAF. Although part of the Australian Army, for most of its existence the AAC was overseen by a board that also included members of the Royal Australian Navy. The AAC's primary purpose was to maintain assets of the Central Flying School at Point Cook, Victoria, but several pioneering flights also took place under the corps' auspices. The AAC operated several types of aircraft, including some of the first examples of Britain's Imperial Gift to arrive in Australia. As well as personnel, the RAAF inherited Point Cook and most of its initial equipment from the AAC.

Establishment and control
In December 1919, the remnants of the wartime Australian Flying Corps (AFC) were disbanded, and replaced on 1 January 1920 by the Australian Air Corps (AAC), which was, like the AFC, part of the Australian Army. Australia's senior airman, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams, was in England, and Major William Anderson was appointed commander of the AAC, a position that also put him in charge of the Central Flying School (CFS) at Point Cook, Victoria. As Anderson was on sick leave at the time of the appointment, Major Rolf Brown temporarily assumed command; Anderson took over on 19 February. CFS remained the AAC's sole unit, and Point Cook its one air base.

The AAC was an interim organisation intended to remain in place until the establishment of a permanent Australian air service. By direction of the Chief of the General Staff, Major-General Gordon Legge, in November 1919, its prime purpose was to ensure that existing aviation assets were maintained, but he later added that it should also perform suitable tasks such as surveying air routes. The Chief of the Naval Staff, Rear-Admiral Sir Percy Grant, objected to the AAC being under Army control, and argued that an air board should be formed to oversee the AAC and any permanent Australian air force. A temporary air board first met on 29 January 1920, the Army being represented by Williams and Brigadier-General Thomas Blamey, and the Royal Australian Navy by Captain Wilfred Nunn and Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Goble, a former member of Britain's Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) then seconded to the Navy Office. Williams was given responsibility for administering the AAC on behalf of the board. A permanent Air Board overseen by an Air Council was formed on 9 November 1920; these bodies were made responsible for administering the AAC from 22 November.

Personnel
Most members of the AAC were former AFC personnel. In August 1919, several senior AFC pilots, including Lieutenant Colonel Oswald Watt, Major Anderson, and Captain Roy Phillipps, were appointed to serve on a committee examining applications for the AAC. Some of the staffing decisions were controversial. At least three officers at the CFS, including the commanding officer, were not offered appointment to the new service. Roy King, the AFC's second highest-scoring fighter ace after Harry Cobby, refused an appointment in the AAC because it had not then offered a commission to Frank McNamara, VC. In a letter dated 30 January 1920, King wrote, "I feel I must forfeit my place in favor (sic) of this very good and gallant officer"; McNamara received a commission in the AAC that April. Other former AFC members who took up appointments in the AAC included Captains Adrian Cole, Henry Wrigley, Frank Lukis, and Lawrence Wackett. Captain Hippolyte "Kanga" De La Rue, an Australian who flew with the RNAS during the war, was offered a commission in the AAC because a specialist seaplane pilot was required for naval cooperation work.

The corps' initial establishment was nine officers—commanding officer, adjutant, workshop commander, test pilot, three flying officers, and medical officer—and seventy other ranks. In March 1920, approval was given to increase this complement by a further seven officers and thirty-six other ranks, to cope with the imminent arrival of new aircraft and other equipment. The following month the establishment was increased by fifty-four to make a total of 160 other ranks. An advertising campaign was employed to garner applicants. According to The Age, applicants needed to be aged between eighteen and forty-five, and returned soldiers were preferred; all positions were "temporary" and salaries, including uniform allowance and rations, ranged from £194 to £450. As the AAC was an interim formation, no unique uniform was designed for its members. Within three weeks of the AAC being raised, a directive came down from CFS that the organisation's former AFC staff should wear out their existing uniforms, and that any personnel requiring new uniforms should acquire "AIF pattern, as worn by the AFC".

The AAC suffered two fatalities. On 23 September 1920, two Airco DH.9A bombers recently delivered from Britain undertook a search for the Amelia J., a schooner that had disappeared on a voyage delivering coal from Newcastle to Hobart. Anderson and Sergeant Herbert Chester flew one of the DH.9As, and Captain Billy Stutt and Sergeant Abner Dalzell the other. Anderson's aircraft landed near Hobart in the evening, having failed to locate the lost schooner, but Stutt and Dalzell were missing; their DH.9A was last sighted flying through cloud over Bass Strait. A court of inquiry determined that the aircraft had crashed, and that both DH.9As may not have had adequate preparation time for their task, which it attributed to the low staffing levels at CFS. The airmen's families were paid some compensation by the Federal government as they had been on duty at the time of their deaths. Wreckage that may have belonged to the Amelia J. was found at Flinders Island the following year.

Equipment
The AAC's initial complement of aircraft included twenty Avro 504K trainers and twelve Sopwith Pup fighters that had been delivered to CFS in 1919, as well as a Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 and F.E.2, and a Bristol Scout. Seven of the 504Ks and one of the Pups were written off during the AAC's existence, leaving thirteen and eleven on strength, respectively. The B.E.2 had been piloted by Wrigley and Arthur Murphy on their historic flight from Melbourne to Darwin in 1919, and was allotted to the Australian War Memorial in August 1920; the F.E.2 was sold in November 1920, while the Scout remained on strength and was still being flown by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1923. In February 1920, the Vickers Vimy bomber recently piloted by Ross and Keith Smith on the first flight from England to Australia was flown to Point Cook, where it joined the strength of the AAC.

In March 1920, Australia began receiving 128 aircraft and associated spares and other equipment as part of Britain's Imperial Gift to Dominions seeking to establish their own post-war air services. The aircraft included Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 fighters, Airco DH.9 and DH.9A bombers, and Avro 504s. Most remained crated for eventual use by the yet-to-be formed RAAF, but several of each type were assembled and employed by the AAC.

Notable flights
On 17 June 1920, Cole, accompanied by De La Rue, flew a DH.9A to an altitude of 27000 ft, setting an Australian record that stood for more than ten years. The effects of hypoxia exhibited by Cole and De La Rue intrigued the medical officer, Captain Arthur Lawrence, who subsequently made observations during his own high-altitude flight piloted by Anderson; this activity has been credited as marking the start of aviation medicine in Australia. Later that month, flying an Avro 504L floatplane, De La Rue became the first person to land an aircraft on the Yarra River in Victoria. On 22 July, Williams, accompanied by Warrant Officer Les Carter, used a DH.9A to make the first non-stop flight from Sydney to Melbourne. The same month, Williams and Wackett flew two DH.9s to the Royal Military College, Duntroon, to look at the possibility of taking some of the graduates into the air corps, a plan that came to fruition after the formation of the RAAF.

Between July and November 1920, trials of the Avro 504L took place on the Navy's flagship, HMAS Australia, and later aboard the light cruiser HMAS Melbourne. The trials on Melbourne, which operated in the waters off New Guinea and Australia's north, demonstrated that the Avro was not suited to tropical conditions, and Williams recommended the activity cease until Australia acquired a purpose-designed seaplane.

The AAC performed several tasks in connection with the Prince of Wales' tour of Australia in 1920. In May, the AAC was required to escort the Prince's ship, HMS Renown, into Port Melbourne, and then to fly over the royal procession along St Kilda Road. The AAC had more aircraft than pilots available, so Williams gained permission from the Minister for Defence to augment AAC aircrew with former AFC pilots seeking to volunteer their services for the events. In August, the AAC was called upon at the last minute to deliver the Prince's mail, which had arrived by ship in Fremantle, Western Australia, to Sydney before he boarded Renown for the voyage back to Britain.

During the Second Peace Loan for the sale of government bonds that commenced in August 1920, the AAC undertook a cross-country program of tours and exhibition flying. Again Williams enlisted the services of former AFC personnel to make up for a shortfall in the number of AAC pilots and mechanics available to prepare and fly the nineteen aircraft allotted to the program. Activities included flyovers at sporting events, leaflet drops over Melbourne, and what may have been Australia's first aerial derby—at Serpentine, Victoria, on 27 August. Poor weather hindered some of the program, and four aircraft were lost in accidents, though no aircrew were killed. The Second Peace Loan gave AAC personnel experience in a variety of flying conditions, and the air service gained greater exposure to the Australian public.

Disbandment and legacy
On 15 March 1921, the Brisbane Courier reported that the AAC would disband on 30 March, and be succeeded by a new air force. The Australian Air Force was formed on 31 March, inheriting Point Cook and most of its initial personnel and equipment from the AAC (the "Royal" prefix was added to "Australian Air Force" that August). Several officers associated with the AAC, including Williams, Anderson, Wrigley and McNamara, went on to achieve high rank in the Air Force. According the RAAF's Pathfinder bulletin, the AAC was "technically separate from the Army and Navy; its director answered to the Minister for Defence, through the Air Council. In effect, the AAC was Australia's first independent air force, albeit an interim one."