50 Pence - Elizabeth II Royal Air Force Centenary - Bristol Fighter

The Royal Air Force was formally established on 1 April 1918 — the world's first independent air force, split from the Army's Royal Flying Corps and the Navy's Royal Naval Air Service during the final year of the First World War. The Bristol F.2B Fighter, which this coin commemorates, was already proving itself by then: initially mishandled in combat during its 1917 debut at Arras, it became lethal once pilots learned to fly it offensively rather than defensively. By the Armistice it had the lowest loss rate of any two-seat fighter on the Western Front.