Yesterday marked the centenary of the founding of the Royal Australian Air Force on 31 March 1921. I celebrated in the usual way (buying books, talking about myself):[tweet id="1377043532775493636" conversation=false][tweet id="1377044249552678913" conversation=false][tweet id="1377044649374715908" conversation=false]But I also decided to use the occasion to talk about something that's missing from the usual RAAF origin story, and that's the mystery aeroplane panic of 1918. [tweet id="1377045231397335041" conversation=false][tweet id="1377046196846399494" conversation=false][tweet id="1377046835257253889" conversation=false]

This argument is not new; in fact I published it as far back as 2013, but really only as an afterthought. It's worth laying out in one place like this because it shows why mystery aircraft were (or at least, could be) important: for dramatising aerial threats to the nation and so mobilising public and political opinion for action. So here it is, in tweet (and now blog) form:[tweet id="1377047381015814148" conversation=false][tweet id="1377048398390460421" conversation=false]Wrong: they were in 1916 and 1917.[tweet id="1377049192397369345" conversation=false][tweet id="1377051952631095305" conversation=false][tweet id="1377052065428467712" conversation=false][tweet id="1377055309701677057" conversation=false][tweet id="1377056073408897024" conversation=false][tweet id="1377056857638891522" conversation=false][tweet id="1377057622239506434" conversation=false][tweet id="1377058090399399937" conversation=false][tweet id="1377059152162254851" conversation=false][tweet id="1377059832310550529" conversation=false](The traditional misnumbered tweet.)[tweet id="1377060763467063297" conversation=false][tweet id="1377124258317398019" conversation=false][tweet id="1377126584897826820" conversation=false]This FE.2b photo, by the way, appears to be have been taken while on deployment at Yarram.[tweet id="1377127432059199495" conversation=false][tweet id="1377128034608705545" conversation=false][tweet id="1377129984733536256" conversation=false][tweet id="1377130635119054853" conversation=false][tweet id="1377131331776258053" conversation=false][tweet id="1377133491142332417" conversation=false]*officers[tweet id="1377133747187769346" conversation=false][tweet id="1377134632605392906" conversation=false][tweet id="1377134816160743429" conversation=false][tweet id="1377135012194086917" conversation=false][tweet id="1377135624981909504" conversation=false][tweet id="1377136352114790402" conversation=false][tweet id="1377137283984281601" conversation=false][tweet id="1377137869278486535" conversation=false][tweet id="1377138230038908931" conversation=false][tweet id="1377138850313609223" conversation=false][tweet id="1377139230942457873" conversation=false]Image source: ADF-Serials.

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