The British Army can justifiably lay claim to being the first branch of the nation s military to dabble with flight. Experiments with gas balloons began as early as 1863 and the War Office created a dedicated Balloon Section in 1890. The first of the flying soldiers to qualify as a pilot of a powered aircraft was Capt Bertram Dickson (in April 1910) and Army pilots formed the foundations of what would become the Royal Flying Corps. The Army Air Corps (AAC) fought for its survival in the post-war years but in 1957 it was reformed as a helicopter and fixed wing fighting force. Since then, the men and machines of the AAC have proved invaluable in conflicts as far away as Malaya, the Balklans, the Gulf and Libya and as close to home as Northern Ireland. Today, more than 150 years since those first tentative balloon flights, the AAC is a formidable fighting force. These 100 pages tell the story of some of the Corps finest moments and most memorable machines.
