Royal Air Force College

Royal Air Force College Cranwell
Coat of arms of the Royal Air Force College
Active	1919-Present
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Type	Training
Role	Initial officer training
Part of	No. 22 Group
Based at	RAF Cranwell
Motto(s)	Superna Petimus (Latin: We seek higher things)
March	The Lincolnshire Poacher
Commanders
Commandant	Air Commodore P Squires
Commandant-in-Chief	HM Queen Elizabeth II

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.

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.

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: