While not of the same venerable age as the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Royal Aero Club can lay claim to a respectable antiquity having celebrated its golden jubilee on 24th September 1961. Registered on 29th October 1901, the Aero Club antedated a potential rival by two days. As it was by a very short time the earliest, so for many years it continued the only, authority on the practice of the art of flying, and still reigns supreme in many aspects of sporting and private aviation.

While many of the detailed aspects of the work grew inevitably, over the years, into separate sports with their own organisations, affiliated to the parent Club, the basic responsibilities of looking after the interests and promoting the well-being of private flying in this country have never left us.