Air Training Corps

The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British volunteer youth organisation; aligned to, and fostering the knowledge and learning of military values, primarily focusing on military aviation. Part of the Royal Air Force Air Cadets (RAFAC), the ATC is sponsored by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the wider Ministry of Defence (MoD). The majority of Air Training Corps staff are volunteers, though some staff are paid for full-time work; including Commandant Air Cadets, who is a Royal Air Force officer as part of a Full Term Reserve Service commitment.

Members of the Air Training Corps are known as Air Cadets, which is often interchanged with the term 'ATC cadets'. Although many ATC cadets subsequently go on to join the Royal Air Force, or the other branches of the British Armed Forces (or have the desire to do so), the ATC is not a recruiting organisation for its parent service (the Royal Air Force).

Activities undertaken by the Air Training Corps include sport, adventure training (such as walking and paddle-sports), ceremonial drill, rifle shooting, fieldcraft, air experience flights in both powered aircraft and sail-plane gliders, and other outdoor activities, as well as educational classification training. Week-long trips, or 'camps' to RAF stations, along with other camps offering adventure training or music, allow the opportunity for cadets to gain a taste of military life, and often some flying experience in RAF gliders and RAF training aircraft such as the Grob G 115, an aerobatic-capable elementary flying training aircraft, known in UK military service as the Tutor T1. The Viking T1 glider is used to train cadets on gliding the manufacturer name for the Viking T1 is the Grob G103a Twin II, manufactured by Grob.

Cadet membership can begin when cadets are 12 years old and in school Year 8 (England and Wales), or equivalent in Scotland and Northern Ireland. New members will join with a rank of Cadet and can earn positions of increasing responsibility in a military rank structure, as well as having increasing skill and competence recognised in a classification scheme (joining as a Junior Cadet, progressing to Second Class Cadet after enrolment then First Class, Leading, Senior, Master). As a cadet becomes more experienced with camps and activities, the skills they will acquire will be rewarded with a corresponding badge according to the skill achieved and how advanced the cadet is at that particular skill (e.g. drumming, shooting, leadership, first aid).

Service as a cadet in the Air Training Corps ends at the age of 18, although a cadet over the age of 18 can continue service until the age of 20 if appointed as a Staff Cadet. As of 2 September 2024 Cadets reaching the age of 18 can also transition to become a Cadet Forces Adult Volunteer (Adult staff member). However, cadets wishing to serve on the same Squadron must spend a minimum six months secondment period at a different Squadron.

As of 1 April 2023, the ATC strength is 34,070 cadets (30% female) and 9,190 adult volunteers (30% female).

Together, the RAF contingent (or RAF section) of the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) and the Air Training Corps comprise the Royal Air Force Air Cadets (RAFAC), previously known as the Air Cadet Organisation (ACO), part of the British Government's Community Cadet Forces.