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

• Lieutenant-General Sir David Henderson, General Officer Commanding the Royal Flying Corps in the Field (1914-1915) and Director-General of Military Aeronautics (1913-1917)^[1]
• Major-General Sir Hugh Trenchard, General Officer Commanding the Royal Flying Corps in the Field (1915-1918), Chief of the Air Staff (1918) and General Officer Commanding the Independent Air Force (1918)^[2]
• Captain Murray Sueter, Director of the Admiralty Air Department (to 1915)
• Rear Admiral Charles Vaughan-Lee, Director of the Admiralty Air Department (from 1915 to early 1917)
• Commodore Godfrey Paine, Fifth Sea Lord and Director of Naval Aviation (1917)^[3]
• Major-General Frederick Sykes, Chief of the Air Staff (1918)^[4]

France

• Brigadier General Auguste Edouard Hirschauer, Director of Military Aeronautics 1914-1915
• Colonel Édouard Barès, Head of the Service Aéronautique, to December 1916
• Commandant Paul du Peuty, Head of the Service Aéronautique, December 1916 to August 1917^[5]

Greece

• Hellenic Naval Air Service: Lt Commander Aristeidis Moraitinis (1917-1918)

Imperial Russia

• unknown

Italy

• unknown

United States

• Brigadier-General William L. Kenly, Chief of Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force in France (1917)
• Brigadier-General Benjamin Foulois, Chief of Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force in France (1917 to 1918)
• Major-General Mason Patrick, Chief of Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force in France (1918)
• Brigadier-General Billy Mitchell, Air Commander, Zone of Advance on the American Expeditionary Force in France

Central Powers air commanders

Germany

• Führer der Luftschiffe (Admiral 2nd Class) Peter Strasser, Commander of 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)^[6]
• Lieutenant-General Ernst von Hoeppner, Chief of the Air Service (1916-1919)

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

• unknown

Bulgaria

• unknown

References