Oldest air force

The earliest autonomous air force is the Royal Air Force (UK), the origins of which can be traced back to 1878, when the War Office commissioned the building of a military balloon. The Royal Air Force itself came into existence on 1 April 1918. Balloons had been used for military observation by the French at the Battle of Fleurus in June 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars. By January 2007, the RAF was on operations in Afghanistan, Ascension Island, the Balkans, Cyprus, Diego Garcia, Falklands, Gibraltar, Iraq, Nevada (at Creech AFB to operate the Predator UAV), Northern Ireland and in support of the UN in South Korea, Africa and peacekeeping opertions in Lebanon.