Air officer and general officer in the Royal Navy and Army respectively. Specifically while the Army uses General Officer Commanding (GOC), the Air Force uses Air Officer Commanding (AOC) to designate the senior officer in a formation. Note, however, that in the British Armed Forces, while an air commodore is an air officer, his Royal Navy equivalent (commodore) is not considered a flag officer, nor is his British Army or Royal Marines equivalent (brigadier) considered a general officer. In 1919 when the RAF introduced its own air officer ranks, the preceding RAF and equivalent army rank was brigadier-general, which was a general
History of the Royal Air Force the RAF is the world's oldest independent air force: that is, the first air force to become independent of army or navy control. The RAF was founded on 1 April 1918 by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service and was controlled by the British Government Air Ministry which had been established three months earlier. The Royal Flying Corps had been born out of the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers and was under the control of the British Army. The Royal Naval Air Service was its naval equivalent and was controlled by the