New Zealand Air Force

In 1912 the military authorities were already watching the development of aviation overseas. In the following year a group of private citizens in England subscribed the cost of the Bleriot mono­plane Britannia which they presented to New Zealand, and an officer of the permanent forces was sent to England for flying training. The Britannia was flown in demonstration flights at the Auckland Exhibition, but on the outbreak of the War in 1914 it was shipped back to the United Kingdom.

Soon afterward two flying schools were opened, one by the Walsh brothers at Kohimarama in 1915 and the second by the Canterbury Aviation Company at Sockburn, near Christchurch. Several hundred pilots trained at these schools were accepted into the Royal Flying Corps, and served with distinction in this arm of the fighting services.

In 1920 Colonel A. V. Bettington came from England to report on the aerial defence of the Dominion. He returned to the United Kingdom to investigate the British Government’s offer to each Dominion of 100 machines. New Zealand accepted thirty-three aeroplanes from this gift, most of which were lent to the two flying schools. In the same year an Air Board was established. In 1923, helped by the first of the magnificent gifts of Sir Henry Wigram, the Government pur­chased the Sockburn Aerodrome (renamed the Wigram Aerodrome) for military use. On 14^th June 1923 the formation of the New Zealand Air Force was gazetted, consisting of the Regular Air Force, the Air Force Reserve, and the Territorial Air Force. In 1924 the Government took over the equipment of the flying school at Kohimarama, and later a base was established at Hobsonville that could be used for seaplanes as well as aeroplanes.

The New Zealand Air Force was now firmly established as part of the permanent military forces and was mainly occupied in supervising training, though operations were carried out in conjunction with the military and naval forces as part of normal training. From 1928 a good deal of valuable instructional work was carried out by the aero clubs which were formed in every district. These were aided by government grants, but civil aviation had already been under the control of the Air Force staff since 1923. In 1929 the Terri­torial Air Force was organised in four squadrons. The Air Force performed rescue work of the greatest value during the 1929 Murchison and the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquakes.

In 1937 the Air Force entered a new phase of expansion as the result of a report by Group Captain the Honourable R. A. Cochrane who had been sent from England in response to a request from the New Zealand Government. The Royal New Zealand Air Force was constituted a separate arm of the Defence Forces and a new government department was created. A program of construction of aerodromes was begun, together with a new and greater air training scheme.

Thus at the outbreak of war New Zealand had in being a comprehensive air development policy. Many New Zealanders entered the Royal Air Force under the Short Service Commission scheme, thus maintaining the traditional close liaison between the Royal Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Then on the outbreak of the present conflict the vast Empire Air Training scheme was set in motion to train a large force of pilots and technicians to provide the Allied forces with overwhelming reserves of trained personnel. Both the New Zealanders already in the Royal Air Force and those who are joining it under this scheme form not the least potent part of the Dominion’s contribution to the waging of the war