Very soon, some British army officers, who became flying enthusiasts, realized the potential of using this new invention in warfare. In 1913, Captain SD Massey of 29th Punjab Regiment, Indian Army, established a military flying school at Sitapur (around 90 km from Lucknow) in present-day Uttar Pradesh. The units trained here went on to serve in World War I (1914-1918), under the unofficial name of Indian Air Corps. Indra Lal Roy (1898-1918), a scion of a wealthy Bengali zamindari family and a member of the Indian Air Corps, is considered to be the first Indian Fighter Aircraft Pilot. His nephew, Subroto Mukherjee would go on to become the first Indian to become the ‘Chief of Air Staff’ in 1954.

On 1st April 1918, the Indian Air Corps would be reorganized as a part of the Royal Air Force (RAF), which operated out of Risalpur (near Peshawar), Quetta, Ambala (Punjab) Lahore and Sitapur (UP). However, this was just an arm of the British Air Force, used for operations against tribes along the Afghan border. By 1927, there was strong pressure to establish, a separate Airforce for India. In 1930, six Indian cadets were selected for training at the RAF College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire UK and in January 1932, around 29 technicians, mostly from railway workshops were appointed as ‘Havai Sepoys’ to work as ground staff. Finally, on 8th October 1932, the then Government of (British) India passed the ‘Indian Air Force Act’ and a new branch of the Indian armed forces was officially born. The new airforce had four Westland Wapiti biplanes at their disposal.