Never was so much owed, but to whom?

The world's armies and navies have been grizzling about their upstart allies in flying machines ever since the Royal Air Force was established in the closing months of the first world war.

Many of them would concur with the view of Blackadder, who characterised military pilots as "a bunch of upper-class delinquents [who] do 20 minutes work and then spend the rest of the day loafing about in Paris, drinking gallons of champagne and having [sex with] dozens of pink, moist, highly-experienced French peasant girls".