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The air commanders of World War I were army or navy officers who came to command air services during the first major conflict in which air power played a significant role.
Entente Powers air commanders
British Empire
Australian Flying Corps
- 1914–1919 – Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Reynolds, General Staff Officer for Aviation, Australian Imperial Force
- 1918 - Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams, Officer Commanding (Acting) RAF Palestine Brigade
Royal Flying Corps
Director-General of Military Aeronautics
- 1914–1917 – Lieutenant-General Sir David Henderson
- 1917–1918 – Major-General John Salmond
- 1918 – Brigadier-General Edward Ellington
General Officer Commanding the RFC in France
- 1914–1915 – Major-General Sir David Henderson
- 1915–1918 – Major-General Hugh Trenchard
- 1918 – Major-General John Salmond
Heads of the RNAS
- 1914–1915 – Captain Murray Sueter, Director of the Admiralty Air Department
- 1915–1917 – Rear Admiral Charles Vaughan-Lee, Director of the Admiralty Air Department
- 1917–1918 – Commodore Godfrey Paine, Fifth Sea Lord and Director of Naval Aviation
Royal Air Force
Chief of the Air Staff
- 1918 – Major-General Sir Hugh Trenchard
- 1918 – Major-General Frederick Sykes
France
Director of Military Aeronautics
- 1914–1915 Brigadier General Auguste Edouard Hirschauer
- position vacant
- 1916 Henry Jacques Regnier
Head of the Service Aéronautique
- to December 1916 Colonel Édouard Barès
- December 1916 to August 1917 Commandant Paul du Peuty[1]
- August 1917 to __ Colonel Charles Duval
Greece
- Hellenic Naval Air Service: Lt Commander Aristeidis Moraitinis (1917–1918)
Imperial Russia
- Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich,[2] Field Inspector General of the Imperial Russian Air Service
- General Alexander von Kaulbars (Head of Russian Aviation in the Field, 1914-1915)
- Colonel Sergey Oulianine (Head of the Directorate of the Air Force, 1917-1918)
Italy
- Maurizio Moris, General Director for Aeronautics (1915)
- Giovanni Battista Marieni (1915–1917)[3]
- Luigi Bongiovanni (1918–1919)
Romania
General Inspector of Engineering and Aeronautics
- 1913-1915 - General Mihail Boteanu[4]
Commander of the RAC
- 1915-1916; 1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu[4][5][6]
- 1916 - Major Gheorghe Rujinschi[5]
- 1916-1918 - Major De Malherbe[7][8]
Director of the Aeronautics
- 1916-1918 - Lieutenant-colonel François de Vergnette de Lamotte[7]
- 1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu[4][5]
United States
Chief of Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force in France
- 30 June 1917 - Lieutenant-Colonel William L. Mitchell
- 3 September 1917 - Brigadier-General William L. Kenly
- 27 November 1917 - Brigadier-General Benjamin Foulois
- 29 May 1918 - Major-General Mason Patrick
Air Commander, Zone of Advance on the American Expeditionary Force in France
- Brigadier-General Billy Mitchell
Central Powers air commanders
Germany
- Führer der Luftschiffe (Admiral 2nd Class) Peter Strasser, Commander of naval Airships (1915–1918)
- Major, later Lieutenant-Colonel and then Colonel, Hermann von der Lieth-Thomsen, Chief of Field Air Services (1915–1916), Air Service Chief of Staff (1916–1919)
- Lieutenant-General Ernst von Hoeppner, Commanding General of the Air Service (1916–1919)
Inspector of Flying Troops
- Colonel Walter von Eberhardt, Inspector of Flying Troops (1913–1914)
- Major Richard Roethe, Inspector of Flying Troops (1914–1916)
- Major, later Lieutenant-Colonel Wilhelm Siegert, 2nd Staff Officer of Field Air Services (1915–1916), Inspector of Flying Troops (1916–1918)
- Captain Wilhelm Haehnelt, Air Commander 5th Army (1915–1916), Air Commander 1st Army (1916–1918), Inspector of Flying Troops (1918–1919)
Austro-Hungarian Empire
- Colonel, later Major General Emil Uzelac, Commander of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops (1912–1918)
- Colonel General Archduke Josef Ferdinand, Inspector General of the Imperial Air Force (1917–1918)
Ottoman Empire
Bulgaria
References
- ^ "AIR POWER REVIEW Volume 12 Number 1" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
- ^ Harvey. Collision of Empires: Britain in Three World Wars, 1793–1945. p. 419
- ^ "Giovanni B. Marieni". Marieni-saredo.it. Retrieved 2022-03-24.
- ^ a b c Valeriu Avram (2013). "Din Istoria Aripilor Românești 1910-1916" (PDF). Buletinul Arhivelor Militare Române (in Romanian). No. 61/2013. pp. 2–17.
- ^ a b c Războiul de întregire (1916-1919) Comandanți militari români (PDF) (in Romanian). Editura Centrului Tehnic-Editorial al Armatei. 2016. ISBN 978-606-524-176-3.
- ^ "Galeria comandantilor". RoAF (in Romanian).
- ^ a b Mihail Orzeață; Valeriu Avram (2018). "Romanian Aviation in the First World War" (PDF). Romanian Military Thinking (3): 206–231.
- ^ "Istoric". RoAF (in Romanian).
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