Great Britain, Royal Aero Club Aviators’ Certificates, 1910-1950

This database contains approximately 28,000 index cards and 34 photograph albums of aviators who were issued with their flying licences (certificates) by the Royal Aero Club from 1910-1950. These included the first military and naval personnel to become pilots.

The Royal Aero Club is the national organization for air sport, including private and recreational flying, in the United Kingdom.

Index Cards:

The index cards consist of a front and back of a 3x5 card. There is one card per pilot. On the front side of the card is listed information about the pilot, including:

• Name


• Birth date


• Birthplace


• Nationality


• Rank, regiment, or profession


• Date and place of certificate


• Certificate number

On the back side of the index card, if anything, is usually a photograph of the pilot.

Photo Albums:

The 34 photo albums contain approximately 13,000 photographs of Royal Aero Club pilots. The albums and photos are organized according to certificate number, with four photographs per album page. Album no. 4 is missing from the original collection and so is also missing from this database.

Using This Database:

In the search results for an individual, you will be presented with a set of images. The images will consist of the front and backs of the index cards and photo album pages. For some individuals there may only be images from the index cards and for other individuals there will be images from both the index cards and the photo albums. For these individuals, the images from the index cards and photo albums have been linked using the pilot’s certificate number. This number is unique to individual pilots in the club. To see multiple images for a single individual, use the “Next” and “Previous” buttons in the image viewer to navigate among the images.