# Chief of the Air Staff (United Kingdom)

Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) is the title of the professional head of the Royal Air Force, who is a member of both the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Air Force Board. The post was created in 1918, with Major General Sir Hugh Trenchard as the first holder. The current and 30th Chief of the Air Staff is Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, who succeeded Sir Michael Wigston on 2 June 2023.

## Responsibilities

As the RAF progressively adopts responsibility for Air Capability planning and management from MOD Head Office, CAS will be responsible for commissioning RAF equipment, materiel and other support requirements. As a Service Chief of Staff, he has the right of direct access to the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister. CAS chairs the Air Force Board Standing Committee, and is a member of the Defence Council, the Air Force Board, the Armed Forces Committee, the Chiefs' of Staff Committee and the Senior Appointments Committee. Current responsibilities for CAS include:
* Managing the AIR Top-Level Budget to deliver the RAF's Command Plan, in accordance with defence priorities and standing military tasks within the delegated funding;
* Ensuring the long-term health of the service, focusing on professional standards, ethos, welfare, career management and morale;
* Ensuring that the whole force, including civil servants and contractors, plays its part in delivering the required operational effects as components of a single team
* Advising on the development and maintenance of the optimum coherent set of requirements that UK defence requires;
* Providing CDS, MOD and the government with advice and recommendations on the operational employment of the RAF and contributing military experience and knowledge to assist in the development of defence policy.

## History

The post of Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) was established in January 1918, just prior to the official formation of the Royal Air Force (RAF), and its first occupant was Major General Sir Hugh Trenchard. Following Trenchard's resignation in March 1918 after disagreements with the first air minister, Lord Rothermere, his rival Major General Sir Frederick Sykes was appointed. For political reasons Trenchard's resignation did not take effect until late April in order that he would be CAS when the RAF was formed. With Winston Churchill's post-war appointment as Secretary of State for War and Air, Sykes was moved sideways to head up the nascent Civil Aviation ministry and Trenchard returned as CAS. In the early 1920s, Trenchard had to fight to keep the RAF from being divided and absorbed back into the Royal Navy and the British Army. After Lord Trenchard retired in 1930 there were still suggestions that the RAF should be broken up, but Trenchard's foundations proved solid.
By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939, the then occupant of the post, Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall, had a service that had been undergoing the most rapid of expansions during the British rearmament programs of the late 1930s. Newall gave way in 1940 to Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, who led the service for the rest of the war. Portal was a tireless defender of the RAF and highly capable in administration and strategy. Postwar the RAF was reoriented to perform the dual roles of defending the shrinking British Empire and possibly fighting against the Soviet Union in a Warsaw Pact verses NATO war over Germany and the United Kingdom. The Chiefs of the Air Staff of the day had to fight a constant battle to keep the British aircraft industry alive. In the end only minimal success was achieved, with only a rump aviation industrial base left by the 1970s.
The first eight Chiefs of the Air Staff were originally commissioned in the British Army, with four coming from the infantry, two from the artillery and one each from the cavalry and the engineers. Of these both Lord Trenchard and Sir John Salmond each held the post over two separate periods. By the early mid-1950s sufficient time had elapsed for officers originally commissioned in the British air services of the First World War to have risen through the ranks to RAF's senior post; Sir John Slessor had originally served in the Royal Flying Corps while Sir William Dickson was commissioned into the Royal Naval Air Service. In 1956 Sir Dermot Boyle became the first CAS to have originally been commissioned in the RAF.
Until 2023, every occupant of the post originally commissioned in the RAF was a qualified pilot. The first non-pilot to be appointed to the role is Sir Richard Knighton, who joined the RAF as an engineer, and who took up post in June 2023.
Professional heads of the English/British Armed Forces vte :
| | Royal Navy | British Army | Royal Air Force | Combined |
| 1645 | N/A | Commander-in-Chief of the Forces (1645/60–1904, intermittently) | N/A. The RAF was formed in 1918 | |
| 1689 | Senior Naval Lord (1689–1771) | Commander-in-Chief of the Forces (1645/60–1904, intermittently) | N/A. The RAF was formed in 1918 | |
| 1771 | First Naval Lord (1771–1904) | Commander-in-Chief of the Forces (1645/60–1904, intermittently) | N/A. The RAF was formed in 1918 | |
| 1904 | First Sea Lord (1904–1917) | Chief of the General Staff (1904–1909) | N/A. The RAF was formed in 1918 | Inter-service co-ordination was carried out from 1904 by the Committee of Imperial Defence under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister |
| 1909 | First Sea Lord (1904–1917) | Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1909–1964) | N/A. The RAF was formed in 1918 | Inter-service co-ordination was carried out from 1904 by the Committee of Imperial Defence under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister |
| 1917 | First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1917–present) | Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1909–1964) | N/A. The RAF was formed in 1918 | Inter-service co-ordination was carried out from 1904 by the Committee of Imperial Defence under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister |
| 1918 | First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1917–present) | Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1909–1964) | Chief of the Air Staff (1918–present) | Inter-service co-ordination was carried out from 1904 by the Committee of Imperial Defence under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister |
| 1923 | First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1917–present) | Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1909–1964) | Chief of the Air Staff (1918–present) | Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (1923–1959, held by one of the service heads until 1956) |
| 1959 | First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1917–present) | Chief of the Imperial General Staff (1909–1964) | Chief of the Air Staff (1918–present) | Chief of the Defence Staff (1959–present) |
| 1964 | First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1917–present) | Chief of the General Staff (1964–present) | Chief of the Air Staff (1918–present) | Chief of the Defence Staff (1959–present) |

## Appointees

The following list gives details of the chiefs of the air staff from 1918 to the present:
| No. | Name | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Flying specialism or arm |
| 1 | Trenchard, HughMajor-General Sir Hugh Trenchard (1873–1956) | 3 January 1918 | 13 April 1918 | 100 days | Infantry (Royal Scots Fusiliers) |
| 2 | Sykes, FrederickMajor-General Sir Frederick Sykes (1877–1954) | 13 April 1918 | 31 March 1919 | 352 days | Cavalry (15th Hussars) |
| (1) | Trenchard, HughMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Hugh Trenchard (1873–1956) | 31 March 1919 | 1 January 1930 | 10 years, 276 days | Infantry (Royal Scots Fusiliers) |
| 3 | Salmond, JohnAir Chief Marshal Sir John Salmond (1881–1968) | 1 January 1930 | 1 April 1933 | 3 years, 90 days | Infantry (King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment)) |
| 4 | Salmond, GeoffreyAir Chief Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond (1878–1933) | 1 April 1933 | 27 April 1933 † | 26 days | Artillery (Royal Artillery) |
| - | Salmond, JohnMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Salmond (1881–1968) Acting | 28 April 1933 | 22 May 1933 | 24 days | Infantry (King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment)) |
| 5 | Ellington, EdwardMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Edward Ellington (1877–1967) | 22 May 1933 | 1 September 1937 | 4 years, 102 days | Artillery (Royal Field Artillery) |
| 6 | Newall, CyrilMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Cyril Newall (1886–1963) | 1 September 1937 | 25 October 1940 | 3 years, 54 days | Infantry (Royal Warwickshire Regiment and 2nd Gurkha Rifles) |
| 7 | Portal, CharlesMarshal of the Royal Air Force The Lord Portal (1893–1971) | 25 October 1940 | 1 January 1946 | 5 years, 68 days | Engineers (Royal Engineers) |
| 8 | Tedder, ArthurMarshal of the Royal Air Force The Lord Tedder (1890–1967) | 1 January 1946 | 1 January 1950 | 4 years, 0 days | Infantry (Dorset Regiment) |
| 9 | Slessor, JohnMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Slessor (1897–1979) | 1 January 1950 | 1 January 1953 | 3 years, 0 days | Fighters (biplanes) |
| 10 | Dickson, WilliamMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir William Dickson (1898–1987) | 1 January 1953 | 1 January 1956 | 3 years, 0 days | Naval aviation (biplanes) |
| 11 | Boyle, DermotMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Dermot Boyle (1904–1993) | 1 January 1956 | 1 January 1960 | 4 years, 0 days | Fighters (biplanes) |
| 12 | Pike, ThomasMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Thomas Pike (1906–1983) | 1 January 1960 | 1 September 1963 | 3 years, 243 days | Fighters (biplanes) |
| 13 | Elworthy, CharlesAir Chief Marshal Sir Charles Elworthy (1911–1993) | 1 September 1963 | 1 April 1967 | 3 years, 212 days | Bombers (biplanes) |
| 14 | Grandy, JohnAir Chief Marshal Sir John Grandy (1913–2004) | 1 April 1967 | 1 April 1971 | 4 years, 0 days | Fighters (biplanes) |
| 15 | Spotswood, DenisAir Chief Marshal Sir Denis Spotswood (1916–2001) | 1 April 1971 | 1 April 1974 | 3 years, 0 days | Multirole (monoplane) |
| 16 | Humphrey, AndrewAir Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Humphrey (1921–1977) | 1 April 1974 | 7 August 1976 | 2 years, 159 days | Fighters (monoplane) |
| 17 | Cameron, NeilMarshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Neil Cameron (1920–1985) | 7 August 1976 | 10 August 1977 | 337 days | Fighters (monoplane) |
| 18 | Beetham, MichaelAir Chief Marshal Sir Michael Beetham (1923–2015) | 10 August 1977 | 15 October 1982 | 5 years, 66 days | Bombers (monoplane) |
| 19 | Williamson, KeithAir Chief Marshal Sir Keith Williamson (1928–2018) | 15 October 1982 | 15 October 1985 | 3 years, 0 days | Fighters (fast jet) |
| 20 | Craig, DavidAir Chief Marshal Sir David Craig (born 1929) | 15 October 1985 | 14 November 1988 | 3 years, 30 days | Fighters (fast jet) |
| 21 | Harding, PeterAir Chief Marshal Sir Peter Harding (1933–2021) | 14 November 1988 | 6 November 1992 | 3 years, 358 days | Bombers (fast jet) |
| 22 | Graydon, MichaelAir Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon (born 1938) | 6 November 1992 | 10 April 1997 | 4 years, 155 days | Fighters (fast jet) |
| 23 | Johns, RichardAir Chief Marshal Sir Richard Johns (born 1939) | 10 April 1997 | 21 April 2000 | 3 years, 11 days | Fighters (fast jet) |
| 24 | Squire, PeterAir Chief Marshal Sir Peter Squire (1945–2018) | 21 April 2000 | 1 August 2003 | 3 years, 102 days | Fighters (fast jet) |
| 25 | Stirrup, JockAir Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup (born 1949) | 1 August 2003 | 13 April 2006 | 2 years, 255 days | Ground attack/ reconnaissance (fast jet) |
| 26 | Torpy, GlennAir Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy (born 1953) | 13 April 2006 | 31 July 2009 | 3 years, 109 days | Ground attack (fast jet) |
| 27 | Dalton, StephenAir Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton (born 1954) | 31 July 2009 | 31 July 2013 | 4 years, 0 days | Ground attack (fast jet) |
| 28 | Pulford, AndrewAir Chief Marshal Sir Andrew Pulford (born 1958) | 31 July 2013 | 11 July 2016 | 2 years, 346 days | Helicopters |
| 29 | Hillier, StephenAir Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier (born 1962) | 11 July 2016 | 26 July 2019 | 3 years, 15 days | Ground attack (fast jet) |
| 30 | Wigston, MichaelAir Chief Marshal Sir Michael Wigston (born 1968) | 26 July 2019 | 2 June 2023 | 3 years, 311 days | Ground attack (fast jet) |
| 31 | Knighton, RichardAir Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton (born 1969) | 2 June 2023 | Incumbent | 1 year, 289 days | Engineer (aeronautical) |
* ^ The ranks and titles shown are the highest that the officer in question attained during his tour as Chief of the Air Staff. However, in the case where the officer was promoted on the day before he was posted or retired, then the lower rank is shown.