Cambridge University Air Squadron, abbreviated CUAS, formed in 1925, is the training unit of the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 at the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 and forms part of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve consists of a number of groupings of individual military reservists for the management and operation of the Royal Air Force's Air Training Corps and CCF Air Cadet formations, Volunteer Gliding Squadrons , Air Experience Flights, and also to form the...

. It is the oldest of 14 University Air Squadrons in the UK. For many years it was based at Cambridge Airport

Cambridge Airport

Cambridge Airport is a small regional airport in South Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the eastern outskirts of Cambridge, south of Newmarket Road and west of the village of Teversham, from the centre of Cambridge and approximately from London.Opened in 1938, when it replaced the old...

 at Teversham

Teversham

Teversham is a small village in Cambridgeshire located roughly from Fulbourn, and is roughly from the centre of Cambridge. It is a small village compared to neighbouring ones...

.

Present day

Cambridge University Air Squadron offers basic flying training and adventure training to undergraduates and graduates and encourages members to take up a career as an officer in one of the branches of the Royal Air Force.

Members of CUAS are not committed to join the RAF after graduation. Student members hold the title of Officer Cadet

Officer Cadet

Officer cadet is a rank held by military and merchant navy cadets during their training to become commissioned officers and merchant navy officers, respectively. The term officer trainee is used interchangeably in some countries...

, which carries the privileges, but not the rank, of a commissioned officer. The four senior student members of the squadron are granted commissions in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, with the rank of Acting Pilot Officer

Acting Pilot Officer

Acting Pilot Officer is the lowest commissioned grade in the Royal Air Force, being immediately junior to Pilot Officer. Unlike other RAF ranks which officers may hold in an acting capacity, Acting Pilot Officer is maintained as a separate grade. It normally denotes an officer who has recently...

. Officer Cadets are required to attend a minimum of one training night a week during full term, usually a lecture by a guest speaker on an aspect of the Royal Air Force or another military unit. They are also expected to take part in two weeks of continuous training during the Long Vacation. There are also camps during all university vacations for sports, flying and adventure training.

CUAS is based at RAF Wyton

RAF Wyton

RAF Wyton is a Royal Air Force station near St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, England.In terms of organisation RAF Wyton is now part of the combined station RAF Brampton Wyton Henlow, a merger of Wyton with two previously separate bases, RAF Brampton and RAF Henlow. Wyton is the largest of the three. It...

, and is equipped with Grob Tutor T Mk 1s

Grob G 115

|- Incidents and Accidents :*In February 2009, two RAF Tutors operating air experience flights from RAF St Athan collided in mid-air. All four occupants were killed, a pilot and a female Air Training Corps cadet in each aircraft. The two cadets killed were cousins Nikkita Marie Walters, 13, and...

. Each officer cadet is offered a Summer Vacation Attachment of one week at another RAF base, seconded to an active regular unit.

Commanding officers

1934-1937 Squadron Leader John Stanley Chick

John Stanley Chick

Air Commodore John Stanley Chick, MC, AFC , began his aviation career as a World War I flying ace credited with 16 aerial victories.-World War I service:...

1981-1983 Squadron Leader Brian Burridge

Brian Burridge

Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Kevin Burridge KCB, CBE, ADC, FCMI, FRAeS is a retired Royal Air Force officer...

2009-2011 Squadron Leader Simon Means

2011-Present Squadron Leader Charles Kane

Notable members

Frank Whittle

Frank Whittle

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS was a British Royal Air Force engineer officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air...

 - RAF Officer and inventor of the jet turbine

Kenneth Campbell

Kenneth Campbell

Kenneth Campbell VC was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.-Details:...

- RAF Officer and Victoria Cross recipient

Richard Tomlinson

Richard Tomlinson

Richard Tomlinson is a New Zealand-born British former MI6 officer who was imprisoned during 1997 for violating the Official Secrets Act 1989 by giving the synopsis of a proposed book detailing his career in the Secret Intelligence Service to an Australian publisher...

- Soldier & MI6 Officer

Gordon Manley

Gordon Manley

Gordon Valentine Manley, FRGS was an English climatologist who assembled the Central England temperature series of monthly mean temperatures stretching back to 1659. This is the longest standardised instrumental record available for anywhere in the world...

 - Climatologist

Nicholas Patrick

Nicholas Patrick

Nicholas James MacDonald Patrick, Ph.D., is a British-born engineer and a NASA astronaut. His flight on the 2006 Discovery STS-116 mission made him the fifth Briton to go into space....

 - Astronaut

George Barclay - RAF Officer and DFC recipient

Gino Watkins

Gino Watkins

Henry George "Gino" Watkins FRGS was a British Arctic explorer.Born in London, he was educated at Lancing College and acquired a love of mountaineering and the outdoors from his father through holidays in the Alps, the Tyrol and the English Lake District...

 - Polar Explorer

Michael Stear - RAF Officer

James Peter Obeyesekere III

James Peter Obeyesekere III

Deshamanya James Peter Obeyesekere III was a Sri Lankan politician and aviator. A Senator, he was also an Acting Cabinet Minister of Health and Finance.-Family:...

 - Sri Lankan politician

John Fairey

John Fairey

John Stephen Fairey FRAeS was a British aviator.-Early life:Fairey was the second son of Sir Charles Richard Fairey, founder of the Fairey Aviation Company. He was educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge....

 - Aviator

Cathcart Wight-Boycott

Cathcart Wight-Boycott

Air Commodore Cathcart Michael Wight-Boycott CBE DSO and bar MA, RAF R’td was a British fighter pilot during the Second World War and a senior Royal Air Force officer during the post-war years...

 - RAF Officer

Peter Vanneck

Peter Vanneck

Air Commodore Sir Peter Beckford Rutgers Vanneck, GBE, CB, AFC, AE, DL was a British Royal Navy officer, jet pilot, engineer, stockbroker and politician...

 - RN Officer

Hector Monro, Baron Monro of Langholm

Hector Monro, Baron Monro of Langholm

Hector Seymour Peter Monro, Baron Monro of Langholm, AE, PC , was a Conservative & Unionist Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Dumfries for 33 years, from 1964 to 1997, and then a life peer in the House of Lords....

 - RAF Officer & politician

Alick Foord-Kelcey

Alick Foord-Kelcey

Air Vice Marshal Alick Foord-Kelcey CBE AFC was a Royal Air Force officer who became Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at Signals Command.-RAF career:...

 - RAF Officer and civil servant

Victor Goddard

Victor Goddard

Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard KCB, CBE usually Victor Goddard, was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He is best known as a protagonist in the 1946 aviation incident immortalized in the 1955 film The Night My Number Came Up.-Early life:Goddard was born at...

- RAF Officer