Square Pegs in a Round Hole

This chapter follows the establishment of the Air Power Development Centre in 1989 to fill a gap in the RAAF lack of and air power education and doctrine. Under the patronage of Air Marshal Ray Funnell, the APDC had a two-fold remit: it fostered the development of an Australian air doctrine with several editions of the Air Power Manual and it led to the spreading of air power concepts in Australian military institutions such as the RAAF Staff College and the Australian Defence Force Academy. Notwithstanding the Centre's efforts in promoting airpower theory in staff and students at training institutions, much should still be done to influence an enduring change in PMET in the Australian forces.

Luftwaffe Officer Training in the Interwar Period

This chapter argues that while the l'École supérieure de guerre aérienne (ESGA) and the Centre des hautes études aériennes (CHEA) played important roles in the development of air doctrine and in the professional education of French airmen on strategic issues, overall these programmes touched only a small number of aviators, and their impact was too short-lived to have a real influence on the conduct of operations in 1940. Nonetheless, the chapter suggests that previous judgments about air power thinking in interwar France have been too harsh. The emphasis put on bombing operations in the curriculum at ESGA and CHEA goes against the idea that France was the least successful nation in the interwar years in translating its air power theories into a coherent doctrine, or that air doctrines were solely a product of the theories of army generals.