# Air commanders of World War I

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

#### Royal Naval Air Service
##### 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
* August 1917 to __ Colonel Charles Duval

### Greece

* Hellenic Naval Air Service: Lt Commander Aristeidis Moraitinis (1917–1918)

### Imperial Russia

* Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, 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 [it] (1915–1917)
* Luigi Bongiovanni (1918–1919)

### Romania
#### General Inspector of Engineering and Aeronautics

* 1913-1915 - General Mihail Boteanu

#### Commander of the RAC

* 1915-1916; 1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu
* 1916 - Major Gheorghe Rujinschi
* 1916-1918 - Major De Malherbe

#### Director of the Aeronautics

* 1916-1918 - Lieutenant-colonel François de Vergnette de Lamotte [fr]
* 1918-1920 - Brigadier General Constantin Găvănescu

### 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)