An Cosantóir

18 CASA CN 235 aircraft for maritime operations begin- ning a service history with the type that lasts to this day with extra capabilities including air ambulance, trans- port, parachuting, disaster response and more. 1994 saw the introduction of a new blue uniform and insignia to replace the green army style, symbolic of traditional military aviation forces in the 20th Century. In 1997 the Air Corps began supporting the recently estab- lished Garda Air Support Unit as it does today, initially operating a Pilatus Britten-Norman BN 2T 45 Defender 4000 fixed wing aeroplane and a Eurocopter AS 355N Eceuriel helicopter flown my military pilots and tasked by the Gardai. The Air Corps and the Defence Forces as a whole has changed in many ways over the years as a reflection of society and as such the 1980s and 90s saw the first female soldiers serving in all ranks and services. In 2002 the Air Corps had a new establishment intro- duced and a change of squadrons to numerical des- ignations. The early 2000s saw the closure of the Air Corps involvement with SAR but all other helicopter taskings remained with a slow expansion which was eventually enhanced by the introduction to the rotary wing of six AW139s and two EC135s. These newly acquired helicopters replaced the aging Alouettes and Gazelle's as well as the Dauphins and now contribute a vastly superior range of operations including combat support, Emergency Air Ambulance, firefighting, and more. In the first decade of the 21st Century, the Air Corps acquired modern trainers in the form the Pilatus PC9m replacing the Marchetti and Fouga types and as we moved into the third decade of the same century, in the midst of a pandemic, the arrival of four PC 12s (three of them PC12NG Spectre - ISR mission compatible) at Casement Aerodrome. Since its inception in 1922 Irish Military Aviation in the form of the Irish Air Corps, has negotiated the polit- ical turmoil and security upheavals of the 20th and early 21st Centuries during which it has received just over eighty five deliveries of aircraft and operated fifty eight different types (specs). Through its people and endeavours, it has informed directly and indirectly the establishment of the Irish Aviation Authority, conquered and pioneered trans-Atlantic flight, Shannon Airport and civil Air Traffic Control at Foynes Boat Station and later at Shannon, introduced the first jet aircraft and helicop- ters into Ireland and was most recently on the front line during the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the last hundred years the Air Corps has been the most constant in Irish skies but similar to the experiences of Major Sholto Douglas in 1917, the people of this country have little understanding of what it is about, what it has done, as a service, what it is there for or indeed its worth. Tragically over last 100 years the Air Corps has lost personnel while serving in uniform at home and on United Nations Peacekeeping Service abroad as well as thirty-nine who perished as a result of twenty-six aircraft and aviation related accidents. All personnel are remembered in the memorial book and monument in the chapel. Casement Aerodrome Originally named after the town land, one of seven located near the perimeter of the aerodrome, on 23rd February 1965 the remains of Roger Casement, exe- cuted for his part in the 1916 Rising, were repatriated through Baldonnell Aerodrome from Pentonville Prison in England on a special Aer Lingus flight piloted by Air Corps reserve officers. One week later on 2nd March the aerodrome was renamed in his honour. The original grave marker from Glasnevin Cemetery commemorates the occasion in the aerodrome's church. A large number of original buildings are still extant including two WWI period hangars, one of which has a simulator bombing tower and is a listed building. A large aerial photo of the construction of the base in the period 1917-1919 is Letter ref purchase of Martinsyde aircraft from C.F Russell & Emmett Dalton to COS IRA 21 October 1921 (Military Archives) A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE IRISH AIR CORPS 1922-2022

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