The ARR can trace its roots all the way back to 1909, when Mihai Cerchez, a 40-year old lawyer, together with a group of friends and customers, created the "Cerchez Co" a society dedicated to "exploiting the possibilities of flight under all forms". Cerchez had a budget of some 200.000 lei ( the Romanian currency ) which was roughly equal to 200.000 French francs. His personal contribution was 50.000 lei, whilst other members offered 5000 lei each. The money were used to build Chitila airfield, the very first Romanian airfield.

Chitila was just as modern as any other base in the world : it had 5 hangars, two large stands for the crowds, administrative infrastructure, 4 planes ( two airworthy Farman biplanes, one Wright plane and one Demoiselle plane, both without engines ) and workshops capable of manufacturing or repairing airplanes. Cerchez brought back from France a license which allowed him to build Henry Farman type biplanes as well as a Russian mechanic, named Nichita Pasev, specialized in Gnome engines, and two pilots : the Frenchmen Guillemin and Robert Catargi. In June 1910, the airfield was fully operational and Guillemin was the first to take-off from there on June the 11th, though his career was short-lived, as he damaged one of the Farmans two days later and Cerchez decided to replace him with two other French pilots : Michel Molla and Charles Vialard. By the end of 1910, seven Farman airplanes fitted with 50 HP Gnome engines were produced and used for air shows and short raids. At the end of the year, Cerchez felt confident enough to send the War Ministry a memoir enumerating the possibilities offered by the airplane to the army. He suggested the ministry to send officers to train as pilots at Chitila and order some planes from his workshops as a start. Nicolae Filipescu, the man in charge of the War Ministry, approved the memo and the Romanian airforce was born.

In early April 1911, the six officers reported to Chitila to begin training : major Ion Macri ( commander of the group ), captain Fotache Enescu, lieutenant Stelian Boiangiu, second lieutenant Nicolae Drutu, second lieutenant Gheorghe Negrescu and second lieutenant Stefan Protopopescu. All these men were volunteers coming from the engineer corps ( most of them were called mad when they told their superiors that they wanted to fly ). The War Ministry also placed an order for 4 Farman biplanes, the very first airplanes in service with the Romanian army. In late July, Negrescu and Protopopescu, who were the best students, were ordered to take the two Farmans completed and move to Cotroceni airfield, where the army had finished work on its first official airbase. They were soon joined by prince Bibescu ( he had earned the 20th pilot license in the world ) and his friends : lieutenants Mircea Zorileanu and Nicolae Capsa, who brought in three Bleriot planes, initially used by Bibescu's private flight school. At this moment, the War Ministry decided not to support the Chitila flight school any more, but to establish its own school at Cotroceni, under the control of the army. Without financial aid, Chitila couldn't survive and was forced to close its gates after most of its personnel had moved to Cotroceni and the last Farman had been damaged beyond repair. By the end of August, Romania had six qualified pilots : Aurel Vlaicu, prince Bibescu, second lieutenants Stefan Protopopescu and Gheorghe Negrescu and lieutenants Mircea Zorileanu and Nicolae Capsa. Soon, the army started its autumn maneuvers, so it was decided to form two sections of planes attached to each corps : three Farmans were attached to the 3rd Corps whilst the three Blerios supported the actions of the 4th Corps. Both units proved they could be of real use to ground units, bringing back valuable information.

The air branch continued to expand in the next years. However, the road was not trouble-free, as on the 20th of June 1912 the still emerging air force suffered its first loss when lieutenant Gheorghe Caranda crashed during take-off and was killed. On the 20th of April 1913, the "Law regarding the organization of the Military Aeronautics" was adopted. The airforce was reorganized in two separate parts : the aviation section and the ballooning section, both of which were based near Bucharest. The first real test came in the summer of 1913, when Romania entered the second Balcanic war and Romanian troops crossed the Danube into Bulgaria. Fifteen Romanian planes took part in this campaign : 8 Bleriot two-seaters ( powered by 80 HP Gnome engines ), one single-seat Bleriot ( fitted with a 50 HP Gnome engine ), two more Bleriot two-seaters powered by 50 HP engines, two Farmans equipped with 70 HP Renault powerplants plus two more Farmans equipped with 80 HP Gnome's. All planes flew mainly reconnaissance missions, but some were used to drop leaflets as well. No aircraft was used for combat missions, as none had any weapons installed.

It was one of the first fully independent air forces in the world, but by early 1916 it had no more than 40-50 planes : besides those which had taken part in the second Balcanic war, 44 more airplanes had arrived from France in the autumn of 1915 ( 12 Maurice Farman MF-7's, 12 Caudron G-3's, 6 Morane-Saulnier's, 8 Voisin-8 and 6 Bleriot trainers ). None of them was armed as all of them, apart from the Bleriot trainers, were destined for reconnaissance ( in some cases, the observer was armed with a rifle as a self-defense weapon ). Using these airplanes, a total of 97 pilots were supposed to be trained until the start of the war, but only 57 of them were fully trained on the 16th of August 1916, when Romania declared war on Germany and Austro-Hungary. After Romania entered the war a small number of airplanes did arrive through Russia : 10-12 Breguet-Michelin light bombers, 4-5 Farman F40's and 8-10 BB Nieuport fighters. Compared to what Germany and Austro-Hungary could send against Romania and to what the French had promised to deliver ( over 100 planes ) , it was somewhere next to nothing.

On the 16th of August, just 30 aircraft were actually ready for action, as the rest were either too worn out or had been damaged during flight training. In theory, each of the three Romanian armies was supposed to have a reconnaissance group of two squadrons each at its disposal, but due to the lack of pilots and planes, only two squadrons were formed up : the Farman-1 ( 5 pilots, 3 observers, 6 airplanes ) - 1st army ; the Farman-2 ( 4 pilots, 6 observers, 5 airplanes ) - 2nd army. A single aircraft was attached to the Northern Army. Remaining crews and planes were used to form a reserve group based on Pipera airfield. Later on, 4 planes were grouped into another squadron which supported the 5th Army Corps during the fighting in Dobrogea.

During the first months of the war the Romanian pilots flew mainly reconnaissance missions south of the Danube and over the Carpathian mountains accompanying the advance of the Romanian army, but there were some bombing missions as well, the first one on the 10th of September 1916, when 2nd lieutenant Adrian Casolteanu bombed an enemy command post just north of the town of Sibiu. The largest "raid" took place on the 17th of October 1916, when a formation of 5 planes crossed the Danube into Bulgaria and bombed the Sistov railway station, hitting an ammo dump. The first losses were taken on the 4th of September, when 2 airplanes were shot down by enemy AA artillery.

A Caudron G-3 prepares for a reconnaissance mission. Autumn 1916

It wasn't until late 1916, by which time half of Romania had been overrun by the Germans that real help started to arrive. A French military mission led by general Berthelot arrived in early October 1916, together with increased amounts of weapons and equipment and experienced French pilots. Therefore, 2 sections of reconnaissance aircraft and the very first Romanian fighter squadron were created on the 4th of October. The fighter squadron had 8 BB Nieuport fighters ( but only 6 were actually armed ) and was tasked with the air defense of Bucharest. Two more fighter squadrons were formed up by the end of the year, from Romanian and French pilots as well. A British squadron also saw action on the Romanian front. On the 15th of December, the Aviation Corps's situation was the following : 12 Nieuport BB fighters ready for action, 6 could be repaired, 8 to be removed from service ( 15 out of all were armed ) ; 6 Breguet-5 recon aircraft ready for action, 6 to be removed from service ( all were armed ) ; 11 Farman-40 recon aircraft ready for action, 9 were being assembled, 13 to be removed from service ( 11 out of all were armed ) ; 6 Breguet-Michelin light bombers ready for action ( all were armed ) ; 3 Nieuport-11 two-seat fighters ready for action, 2 to be removed from service ( 3 were armed ). More French airplanes were finally on their way. By the end of 1916, 10 Romanian aircraft had been lost in combat or accidents and 12 airmen had been killed in the line of duty. Still, the Romanian, French and British pilots ( together with the AA artillery ) gave worse than they got, as they shot down about 30 enemy airplanes.

The Romanian Air Corps was now ready and able to give a crucial support the army. Besides their normal reconnaissance duties, the Farman pilots also adapted their planes so that they could carry five 75 mm artillery shells instead of bombs. After the shells were dropped, the plane continued its normal reconnaissance mission. Romanian pilots also started to score more air victories as well, although air-to-air combat on the Romanian front was far less frequent than on the Western front ( please bear in mind that on a front much longer there were far less airplanes, therefore less opportunities for air engagements ). Nevertheless, on May the 14th, 1917 a Nieuport fighter flown by second lieutenant Marin Popescu shot down a German airplane. It was the first victory obtained by Romanian fighter pilot. The very first Romanian airman to shoot down an enemy aircraft had been second_lieutenant_Dumitru_Badulescu ( he was actually an observer flying Farman F-40's ), who engaged a German aircraft on the 20th of November 1916 and shot it down in flames in the Ploiesti area. By the end of the war, Badulescu was officially an ace, having shot down 4 enemy aircraft and a balloon. Another premiere happened on the 7th of August, when the same Marin Popescu shot down a German balloon, using the "La Prieur" rockets. It was the first time that air-to-air rockets had been used by the Romanian air force. During August the battle reached its climax as both sides struggled to gain control of the skies and Romanian and Allied pilots racked up more and more kills : 2 balloons and a Fokker on the 7th; an German aircraft marked with the letters R.U.M and a Hansa Brandeburg on the 8th; an Albatros fighter and another unidentified airplane on the 12th; an LVG reconnaissance aircraft on the 16th ; another reconnaissance aircraft on the 19th ; an Albatros fighter on the 20th ; 3 more unidentified German airplanes between the 21st and 22nd ; a DFW and an LVG on the 23rd ; and, finally, 4 more enemy planes were shut down on the 26th, including a Fokker fighter. By the end of November 1917, when the Russian revolution forced Romania to sue for peace as it was impossible to keep fighting alone on the entire east front, Romanian pilots scored 23 more kills, whilst 15 more were claimed by Russian and French airmen. The AA artillery shot down 10 more enemy aircraft, raising the score to nearly 90 German and Austrian airplanes destroyed during 1917.

But in August 1919 it was all over, and the Aviation Corps could be proud of a job well done under very difficult circumstances. Romanian pilots had flown more than 1600 combat missions totaling 8160 hours of flight, engaged in 560 dogfights, dropped 62 tons of bombs and claimed ( together with the AA artillery and Allied pilots ) over 120 enemy planes, 48 of which were shot down by the Romanians. More than 30 airmen had given their lives for their country in the three years of war.