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,Harvey. Collision of Empires: Britain in Three World Wars, 1793–1945. p. 419 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) (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 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)
Ottoman Empire
Bulgaria
References