| The Air League | |
| Size: | 170px |
| Type: | UK Registered Charity |
| Registration Id: | 1129969 |
| Headquarters: | 3 Whitehall Court, London, United Kingdom |
| Leader Title: | Former Patron |
| Leader Name: | The Late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1952-2021) |
| Leader Title2: | President |
| Leader Name2: | Air Marshal Sir Christopher Harper |
| Leader Title3: | Chairman |
| Leader Name3: | John Steel KC |
The Air League is an aviation and aerospace non-profit organisation based in the United Kingdom.[1] It is the UK's largest provider of aviation and aerospace scholarships and bursaries.
The Air League aims to inspire, enable, and support the next generation of aviation and aerospace professionals from all backgrounds across the UK. Each year thousands of people from around the UK, including disadvantaged youngsters and wounded and injured servicemen and women benefit from Air League support.
Founded in 1909 as "The Aerial League of The British Empire", The Air League was formed to counter 'the backwardness and apathy' shown by the UK in the face of emerging aeronautical developments and to stress the 'vital importance from a commercial and national defence point of view of this new means of communication'.
The founders of the Air League were concerned that Britain was falling behind other nations in the development of its aviation capability. They foresaw the threats, both military and commercial, to the country's future wellbeing if aviation was not made central to government thinking. When the First World War broke out five years later, Britain was taking aviation sufficiently seriously to be able to develop and produce aircraft that could hold their own in the rapidly evolving scramble for air superiority.[2]
In 1938 The Air League founded the Air Defence Cadet Corps, which is now the Air Training Corps.[2]
The Women's Aerial League was also set up in 1909 - on 4 May [9] [10]
Relations with the Aerial League were friendly, but this organisation led its own existence, and also set up the Boys' and Girls' Aerial League.[11] It was merged into the Aerial League in 1910.