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The Aircraft Apprentice Scheme 1920-1993

World War I saw the beginning of aerial combat. By April 1, 1918 the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) had amalgamated into the Royal Air Force, Hugh Trenchard had been appointed Chief of Air Staff (CAS) and quickly discovered that specialist groundcrew were in very short supply.

Wartime use of aircraft had quickly driven new technologies. Aircraft power plants were vastly different from those that powered buses and lorries; airframes, with their need to reduce drag and provide control in the air, were a totally new challenge; armourers were asked to develop new fusing methods for equally new explosive devices like the bomb; aircraft electrical systems included: bomb release mechanisms and synchronised gun firing through the propeller via the use of an interrupter mechanism; finally the addition of a third dimension to navigation meant aircraft instrument makers had to produce air speed and turn and bank indicators plus the artificial horizon.

It was for these reasons, if no other, that Hugh Trenchard instituted the aircraft apprentice scheme based on No 1 School of Technical Training. This was originally located at RAF Cranwell but later more permanently at RAF Halton, in 1920. RAF Cranwell and RAF Locking later switched exclusively to training aircraft apprentices in the ground and air radio trades.

Entrance to the scheme involved a competitive exam, intelligence and aptitude tests, medical examinations and was exclusively limited to males between the ages of 15 and 17 and a half when the Royal Air Force assumed legal guardianship of the lads as "in locum parentis". This was a three year course. Five and a half days a week, consisting academic and practical training. In addition basic military training was given. Apprentices were accepted from Commonwealth and other countries.

Prominent graduates of this scheme include: Sir Frank Whittle (father of the jet engine) and Olympian D.O. Finley who also fought as a pilot in The Battle of Britain.

Ex-members of the scheme (colloquially known as "Trenchard's Brats - or just Brats) have their own association the RAFHAAA and their own website. They may be contacted through RAF Halton airfield.

RAF Halton also has its own memorial to the brats very close to St.George's C of E church which is resplendent with very many stained glass windows commemorating the 155 Entries of apprentices who were trained there.