Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Kevin Burridge, is a retired Royal Air Force officer. A former Nimrod pilot, Burridge was in overall command of British forces under Operation Telic during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Edward Johns, is a retired senior Royal Air Force commander. He was a fighter pilot in the 1960s, commanding officer of a squadron during the 1970s and a station commander in the 1980s. Johns served as one of three British directors of operations on the senior planning staff for Operation Granby in 1991 and then acted as a supporting commander for joint operations in the Balkans in 1994. As Chief of the Air Staff he advised the British Government on the air force aspects of the Strategic Defence Review and on NATO's air campaign in Kosovo.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Andrew Henry Humphrey, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He fought in the Second World War as a fighter pilot taking part in the Battle of Britain and also took part in the withdrawal from Aden in November 1967. He served as the Chief of the Air Staff advising the new Labour Government on the implementation of their latest Defence Review. He then served as Chief of the Defence Staff but caught pneumonia within three months of taking office and died shortly afterwards.
Air chief marshal Sir John Anthony Cheshire,, born 4 September 1942, is a retired senior Royal Air Force (RAF) commander.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Ted Squire, was a senior Royal Air Force officer. He was a fast jet pilot in the 1970s, a squadron commander during the Falklands War, and a senior air commander in the 1990s. Squire served as Chief of the Air Staff from 2000 to 2003. In retirement he was the chairman of the board of trustees of the Imperial War Museum and vice-chairman of the board of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force David Brownrigg Craig, Baron Craig of Radley, is a retired Royal Air Force officer and member of the House of Lords. He was a fast jet pilot in the 1950s, a squadron commander in the 1960s and a station commander in the 1970s. He served as Chief of the Air Staff during the late 1980s, when the Boeing Airborne early warning and control system was ordered and the European Fighter programme was being developed. He then served as Chief of the Defence Staff during the Gulf War. He was granted a life peerage as Baron Craig of Radley after his retirement from active service in 1991, sitting as a crossbencher. As of 2022, he is the last living officer in the British Armed Forces to have held a five-star rank whilst on active service.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Dermot Alexander Boyle, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He served in the Second World War initially as a staff officer with the Advanced Air Striking Force in Reims in which capacity he organised the evacuation of the Force through Brest in May 1940. His war service included tours as a bomber squadron commander, as a station commander and also as an air group commander. He was Chief of the Air Staff in the late 1950s and, in that role, deployed British air power during the Suez Crisis in October 1956 and defended the RAF against the views of Duncan Sandys, the Minister for Defence, who believed that the V bomber force rendered manned fighter aircraft redundant.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Neil Cameron, Baron Cameron of Balhousie, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He fought in the Second World War as a fighter pilot taking part in the Battle of Britain, the Battle of Alam el Halfa, the First Battle of El Alamein and the Second Battle of El Alamein and then in operations in Burma. He served as Chief of the Air Staff in the late 1970s advising the British Government on the reinforcement of the British garrison in Belize which was under threat from Guatemala at the time. He also served as the Chief of the Defence Staff at the end of the 1970s in which role he secured pay comparability for services personnel involved in civil support during the firemen's strike, visited the People's Republic of China and lectured extensively on the Soviet air threat.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Denis Frank Spotswood, was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. He fought in the Second World War as a flying boat pilot and then as a coastal reconnaissance squadron commander during Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. He served as a station commander in the late 1940s and early 1950s before becoming a senior air commander in the late 1950s. As the Chief of the Air Staff in the early 1970s he had a major role in implementing the defence savings demanded by the Heath Government in the face of economic difficulties at the time.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Keith Alec Williamson, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He served with the Royal Australian Air Force flying Meteors in a ground attack role during the Korean War. He was a squadron commander and then a station commander during the 1960s and a senior air commander in the 1980s. He was Chief of the Air Staff during the early 1980s at the time of the emergency airlift of food and supplies to Ethiopia.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Hugh Moran, was a fast jet pilot and later a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. He was Commander-in-Chief of Air Command at the time of his unexpected death.
Air Commodore Ashley David Stevenson, is a retired senior Royal Air Force (RAF) officer and a former Commandant of Royal Air Force College Cranwell.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter de Lacy Le Cheminant, was a senior commander of the Royal Air Force (RAF), who served as Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff from 1974 to 1976 and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces Central Europe from 1976 until his retirement in 1979.
Air Vice-Marshal Christopher James Luck is a British charity executive and retired Royal Air Force officer. He was Commandant of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell from 2013 to 2016, and Commandant of the Joint Services Command and Staff College from 2017 to 2019. Since 2019, he has been CEO of the Shaw Trust.
Squadron Leader Nicola Elizabeth Smith is a retired British Royal Air Force officer. She was the first female military helicopter pilot in the United Kingdom and in 2002 she became the first female to command a flying squadron.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard John Knighton, is a senior Royal Air Force (RAF) officer and professional engineer, currently serving as Chief of the Air Staff, the professional head of the RAF, since 2 June 2023. He previously served as Assistant Chief of the Air Staff from January 2015 to January 2017, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff at the Ministry of Defence, and as Deputy Commander Capability at RAF Air Command. Knighton is notable for being the first Chief of the Air Staff who is not a military pilot or indeed aircrew-qualified.
Air Marshal Sir Roy David Austen-Smith, was a Royal Air Force air marshal who served as Commander of British Forces Cyprus.
Air Vice Marshal Stewart William Blacker Menaul, was an officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF). During the Second World War he served in RAF Bomber Command with the elite Pathfinder Force. After the war he participated in the British nuclear weapons tests in Australia, and was on board the Vickers Valiant that dropped Britain's first atomic bomb on 11 October 1956 during Operation Buffalo.
Air Marshal Harvey Smyth, is a senior Northern Irish Royal Air Force officer, who currently serves as the Air and Space Commander. From July 2018, he served as Air Officer Commanding No. 1 Group. Between February 2020 and August 2022, he took up the new post of Director Space, in the Ministry of Defence.
Air Vice-Marshal John Finbar Monahan, known as Fin Monahan, is a senior Royal Air Force officer. After training as a pilot, serving in active squadrons and exchange postings, Monahan was the commandant of the Central Flying School at RAF Cranwell, with the Red Arrows coming under his command. Monahan has trained with several non-UK militaries, and currently serves as the Director of the Air Command Operating Model Programme.
