The Little World

Students of middle European history cannot be unaware that Ruritania is surrounded by Germanic and Slavic nations. While they have neever been quite completely occupied by invaders, they have never been completely free of them, either. This may seem to sit oddly with the decidedly British title of Royal Ruritanian Army Air Force. This is the title that is most often accorded it when planes of the Kingdom visit other nations. Other titles include ” Who? ” and ” Not them again “.

The British connection is adequately – if delicately – explained in Mr. Hope’s account of the occurrences around the castle of Zenda in the 1890’s. We would refer interested readers to it and the sequel book but they should be aware that it makes very little reference to the RRAAF.

The evolution of the service name also owes something to the Americans – their land-based air power in WW2 was connected to their army rather than being a separate service and this seemed very sensible to the Ruritanian government – in part as it allowed for less accounting in the annual war budget. ( Note that Ruritania has never gone to war and rarely had it come to them, but the name sounded good. ) The command of the air power is therefore through army ranks, though the prefix ” Air ” is added to names of the ranks if the soldier is concerned purely with the RRAAF. ” Air-General ” may sound odd to British ears but it has worked well.

It was, however, a close-run thing in the earlier days of the service when considerable German influence was exerted through salesmen from Junkers, Messerschmitt, Heinkel, etc. to equip the new force. They were successful in selling their wares, but the idea of styling the new flying service as the Königlich Ruritanische Luftarmée and incorporation black crosses into the insignia was vetoed by the Queen and quietly dropped. Her Majesty was gracious enough to authorise the stylised representation of the Ruritanian crown in the roundel and that was the end of the matter.

The Throne has been well represented, as well, in postwar development of the country’s airline. Like the Dutch they have retained some of the glamour of flying by keeping the ” Royal ” in the name. The Royal Ruritanian Airways passenger plane is seen in many airports throughout Europe. It is one of the few machines in service with a separate Royal Compartment – reserved exclusively for the Their Majesties and selected guests.