History
In February 1911 the Belgian pilot Charles Van Den Born displayed the first aircraft in Siam at the Sa Pathum Horse Racing Course. The Siamese authorities were impressed enough that on 28 February 1912 they dispatched three officers to learn to fly in France, the main center of aviation development of the time. After learning to fly, the three officers returned to Siam in November 1913 with eight aircraft (four Breguets and four Nieuport IVs). In March of the next year they moved from Sa Pathum airfield to Don Muang.
The Ministry of Defence put the Siamese Flying Corps under the control of the Army Engineer Inspector General Department. Prince Purachatra, Commander of the Army Engineers, and his brother Prince Chakrabongse Bhuvanath were instrumental in the development of the army's Royal Siamese Aeronautical Service to which it was renamed in 1919. In 1937, the service was again renamed when it became an independent service, as the Royal Siamese Air Force but the takeover of the country by the Thai ethnic group meant that name would only be used until 1939, when it became the Royal Thai Air Force.
During the French-Thai War, the Thai Air Force scored several air-to-air-victories against the Vichy Armée de l'Air. During World War II the Thai Air Force supported the Royal Thai Army in its occupation of the Burmese Shan States as allies of the Japanese in 1942 and defended Bangkok from allied air raids during the latter part of the war. Some RTAF personnel assisted the resistance against the Japanese. After World War II, the Thai Air Force sent three C-47s to support the United Nations in Korean War. The victorious Wings Unit, operating the C-47, also joined the US Forces in the Vietnam War. Along the border, the Thai Air Force launched many operations against communist forces, such as Ban Nam Ta Airfield Raid in Laos, and clashes occurred between Thai and Vietnamese troops along the Thai-Cambodian border. When the Cold War ended, the Thai Air Force participated in Operation Border Post 9631 along the Thai-Burmese border in 1999, and launched the evacuation of foreigners during the 2003 Phnom Penh riots in Cambodia.
Read more about this topic: Royal Thai Air Force
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