Aviation medicine in the United Kingdom: cold war and peace dividend, 1946-2000.

This is the third of three brief papers that summarize the history of aviation medicine in the Royal Air Force. Unusually, at the end of the Second World War, British aviation medicine research did not enter a period of decline. The needs of the Royal Air Force during the Cold War ensured the continuing development of the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine. However, reduction of the threat with the end of the Cold War led to the requirement for a peace dividend. British aviation medicine research has now entered a commercial era, competing for funding from industry as well as from the Royal Air Force.

Aviation medicine in the United Kingdom: from the end of World War I to the end of World War II, 1919-1945.

This is the second of three brief papers that summarize the history of Aviation Medicine in the Royal Air Force. British aviation medicine research was rescued from the doldrums of retrenchment after the end of the First World War by the need to support attempts on world records for height and speed. Despite this, the outbreak of the Second World War still found the British inadequately prepared. This part of the account of British aviation medicine research charts its transition from an organization with three full-time workers into a thriving research institute.

Aviation medicine in the United Kingdom: early years, 1911-1918.

This is the first of three brief papers that summarize the history of aviation medicine in the Royal Air Force. Just as the generals and politicians were slow to appreciate the potential of the airplane, so the medical establishment was slow in understanding that the flight environment involved medical and physiological challenges. This note outlines the development of research to support British military aviators up to the formation of the Royal Air Force in 1918.