page_title: Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard
section_title: Flying school
hierarchical_section_title: Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard / Flying school
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of Central Flying School (CFS) Staff taken at Upavon Aerodrome, Wiltshire, England, in January 1913. The commandant, Capt Godfrey Paine RN is seated in the front row, shown third from the left. Major Hugh Trenchard is also seated in the front row, shown third from the right. Lieutenant Frank Kirby VC is shown standing, one place in from the right in the photograph. All members Back row (standing): From left to right: Sub-Lieutenant R E C Peirse RN, Lieut Conran, Capt A G Board, Asst. Paymaster J H Lidderdale RN, Capt E G R Lithgow RAMC, Mr G Dobson MA, Lieutenant F H Kirby VC, Eng. Lieutenant C D Breese RN. Front row (sitting): Lieut Commdr Shepherd RN, Capt A C H MacLean, Capt G M Paine CB MVO RN (Commandant), Major H M Trenchard CB DSO (Assistant Commandant), Major E L Gerrard, Capt T L Webb-Bowen.
context_page_description: Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Father of the Royal Air Force."
  During his formative years, Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in the British Army. As a young infantry officer, Trenchard served in India and with the outbreak of the Boer War, he volunteered for service in South Africa. While fighting the Boers, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, he lost a lung, was partially paralysed and returned to Great Britain. On medical advice, Trenchard travelled to Switzerland to recuperate and boredom saw him taking up bobsleighing. After a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone and that he could walk unaided. Following further recuperation, Trenchard returned to active service in South Africa.
context_section_description: During his time in Ireland he received a letter from Captain Eustace Loraine, urging him to take up flying. Trenchard and Loraine had been friends in Nigeria, and on his return to England, Loraine had learned to fly. After some effort, Trenchard persuaded his commanding officer to grant him three months of paid leave so that he might train as a pilot. He arrived in London on 6 July 1912, only to discover that Captain Loraine had been killed in a flying accident on the previous day. At the age of 39, Trenchard was just short of 40, the maximum age for military student pilots at the Central Flying School, and so he did not postpone his plan to become an aviator.
  When he arrived at Thomas Sopwith's flying school at Brooklands, he told Sopwith than he only had 10 days to gain his aviator's certificate. He succeeded in going solo on 31 July, gaining his Royal Aero Club aviator's certificate (No. 270) on a Henry Farman biplane. The course had cost £75, involved a meagre two-and-a-half weeks tuition and a grand total of 64 minutes in the air. Although Copland Perry, Trenchard's instructor, noted that teaching him to fly had been "no easy performance", Trenchard himself had been "a model pupil." His difficulties were in some measure due to his partial blindness in one eye, a fact he kept secret.
  He arrived at Upavon airfield, where the Central Flying School was based, and was assigned to Arthur Longmore's flight.  Bad weather delayed Longmore from assessing his new pupil, and before the weather improved, the School's Commandant, Captain Godfrey Paine RN had co-opted Trenchard to the permanent staff. Part of Trenchard's new duties included those of School examiner, and so he set himself a paper, sat it, marked it and awarded himself his 'wings'. His flying ability still left much to be desired, and Longmore soon discovered his pupil's deficiencies. Over the following weeks Trenchard spent many hours improving his flying technique. After he had finished his flying course he was officially appointed as an instructor. However he was a poor pilot and he did no instructing, instead becoming involved in administrative duties. As a member of the staff, he organised the training and establishment of procedures for the new arm. He paid particular attention to ensuring that skills were acquired in practical topics such as map reading, signalling and engine mechanics. It was during his time at the Central Flying School that he earned the nickname "Boom", either for his stentorian utterances, or for his low rumbling tones.
  In September 1912 he acted as an air observer during the Army Manoeuvres. His experiences here developed his understanding of the military utility of flyers working in cooperation with the British Army's ground forces. In September 1913 he was appointed Assistant Commandant, and promoted to temporary lieutenant-colonel.  Trenchard's paths crossed once more with Winston Churchill, who was by then First Lord of the Admiralty, and himself learning to fly at Eastchurch and Upavon. Trenchard formed a distinctly unfavourable opinion of Churchill's ability as a pilot.
caption: The Central Flying School staff at Upavon in January 1913.  Trenchard is in the front row, shown third from the right.
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