Before there was a Kuwait Air Force there was a club. And before the club there was a runway.
Nugra airfield
The runway known as Nugra airfield opened between 1946 and 1948 to receive propeller aircraft. It was operated by a British company called International Radio Ltd, and reported administratively to the Public Security Department under Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.
1953: eight aircraft and a club for amateurs
In 1953 the Flying Club was established at Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak’s wish, to train any young Kuwaitis who wanted to fly. The club was equipped with eight “Auster” training aircraft, light single-engine machines.
Note what is not in that sentence: no squadron, no base, no weapons. The beginning was a club, and the difference between a club and an air force is what took eight years.
The first pilot and the first engineer
In 1954 the Kuwaiti government sent pilots to Britain to study military aviation. The first Kuwaiti to finish his training was Marzouq Al-Ajeel, who received a pilot’s licence in September 1954, with further intakes following.
The technical side began with engineers from Britain and technicians from India. The first Kuwaiti aeronautical engineer was Abdulaziz Al-Sayegh, who graduated in December 1959 and then joined the air arm. Which means Kuwait had its pilot five years before its engineer — a logical order when aviation is entirely imported at the outset.
1956: the club grows
In 1956 the club was equipped with two light transport aircraft of the “Dove” type, a “Heron” for carrying dignitaries, and four “Westland Whirlwind S55” helicopters. A mix of transport and rotary aircraft, not combat aircraft.
1961: the separation
After the Abdul Karim Qasim crisis and Kuwait’s independence, the air arm separated from the club and the Kuwait Air Force was formally proclaimed, turning an amateur club into an air force. The first jet aircraft, of the “Jet Provost” type, entered service in mid-1961.
The Kuwait News Agency dates the founding anniversary to 8 December, having published on 7 December 2001 that the forty-eighth anniversary fell the following day.
Then came the first cost
On 29 August 1966 First Lieutenant Hassan Al-Zaabi was killed in the crash of a “Hunter”, the first fatal accident in the air force’s history. Thirteen years separated eight training aircraft in an amateurs’ club from the first name entered on that list.
Source: the Kuwait News Agency, Khaled Al-Zaid’s report on the forty-eighth anniversary of the founding of the Kuwait Air Force, 7 December 2001, and the “on this day in Kuwait” calendar. Photo: an Auster aircraft, public domain.
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