THE FIRST RMAF TEST PILOT

Colonel  Ahmad Ridzwan Mohd Salleh RMAF (Retired) was the first RMAF test Pilot..
He graduated from Empire Test Pilot School, Boscombe Down, UK in 1978.
He has flown more than 50 types of aircraft in Fighter, Transport, Bomber and Helicopter class. These include A4 Skyhawk, F5 Northrop, Jaguar, Lightning, MiG 29, Canberra Bomber, Boeing 747-400, Airbus 320/330/340. After serving as a Test Pilot in RMAF he joined the Department of Civil Aviation (1996 to 2004) and AirAsia Berhad.

He is now stationed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The First Lady Fighter Pilot

Lt Col Emilia Kamarudin (Retired)

This first RMAF lady pilot is a gradute of Longborogh University of Technolagy majoring in Civil Engineering. She received her wing  in April 1988. Subsequently she did her fighter conversion on A-4 Skyhawks. Later she flew the MB339 and the Hawk. Currently she works with the Depertment of Civil Aviation after her tenure with the RMAF. 

The First Lady Officer

Major Wan Fatimah bte Hj Abd Latiph (60541)

Wan Fatimah was born in Kota Bharu, Kelantan on 23 June 1950. Before joning th eAir Force she was a temporary teacher. She joined the Air Force and was commissioned as the firat lady officer in the RMAF on 15 Jube 1972.



The First Malay Chief of the Air Staff (CAS)

Air Vice Marshal Dato Sulaiman b. Sujak
(November 1, 1967 - December 31, 1976)

Dato Sulaiman Sujak came back to Malaysia in September 1965 as a Sqn Ldr. His "education" was swift. He started off as the Commandant FTS Alor Setar, then Base Cdr RMAF Labuan in the rank of Wing Commander. Soon after he was recalled to Mindef to under study Air Cdre Steedman. He became a Group Captain. And on 1 Nov 67 Steedman handed over the top job of the RMAF to him and a promotion to Air Commodore. During his 10 years in office, the RMAF expanded in view of the RAF pullout from east of Suez and the escalation of the Vietnam War. During his time a lot happened -- the Bulldog aircraft replaced Provosts; Cessna 402B's introduced for Advanced FTS; the Hercules C130H replaced Dart Heralds; the Pioneers were phased out; executive jets HS125 and F28's phased in; more Nuris were bought, the Australian F86 Avon Sabres introduced and then replaced by F5E's, B's and F's and a basic Helicopter FTS was formed with Bell 47's. An Overhaul Depot, AIROD, was also formed. RMAF Kuching became a Base.

THE HANDING OVER OF FM 1001 TWIN PINONEER

The first Twin Pioneer was handed over to Tengku Yaacob, Malayan High Commissioner in London, during a ceremony at Prestwick in the early spring of 1958 and was flown from Scotland to Malaya by a crew seconded from the Royal Air Force, Flight Lieutenant Charles being the Captain. With the Suez crisis uppermost in everyones' minds and much of the Middle East in a state of turmoil, British stock was at a low ebb in the area. So, not wanting to have our new aircraft impounded by some unfriendly state, the CAS Designate arranged for the national markings on the fuselage and wings to be covered over with canvas strips and the plane registered as a civil aircraft for the long flight to the Far East.

All went well until the crew ran into extremely bad weather over Turkey where they were forced to land at a remote military airfield tucked among the mountains. Unfortunately one of the canvas strips bearing the civil markings had become detached in the storm, leaving Flight Lieutenant Charles with the difficult task of trying to explain to a junior Turkish officer, who spoke no English, why a number of Royal Air Force officers were flying a hitherto unknown type of aircraft bearing a civil registration on one side and an equally unknown military marking on the other, from the United Kingdom, which he had had heard of, to Malaya, which he had not! Indeed the situation eventually became so farcial that the poor young Turk was only too pleased to have the aircraft refuelled and sent on its way, reckoning he would never be able to explain at all to his superiors.

                                                       Flight Lieutenant H G Charles

THE AIR FORCE ORDINANCE 1958

The Yang di-Pertuan Agong approved the bill of the Air Force Ordinance on Monday 2nd June 1958 for the formation of the Royal Malayan Air Force.