https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/m...rmed-vjq9zvpnj
‘Millionaires’ 601 Royal Auxiliary Air Force Squadron is reformed
When the Royal Air Force founded the Millionaires’ Squadron in 1925 it recruited wealthy aristocrats seeking adventure. Now the elite unit has been quietly re-formed, this time to enlist the services of business leaders.
Captains of industry have flocked to sign up to the unit, officially called 601 Royal Auxiliary Air Force Squadron. Lord Bilimoria, the British-Indian crossbench peer who founded Cobra Beer, Andrew Palmer, chief executive of Aston Martin, and Sir Peter Rigby, one of Britain’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, are among its reservists. Air Vice-Marshal Malcolm Brecht, whose day job is at Boeing, is the commanding officer. Former personnel are also involved, including Jo Salter, the RAF’s first female fast jet pilot, who is now a director at the professional services company PWC.
The original Millionaires’ Squadron was founded at a gentlemen’s club in Mayfair and its members swiftly gained a reputation for flamboyance and high spirits. Lord Grosvenor, its first commander, “chose his officers from among gentlemen of sufficient presence not to be overawed by him and sufficient means not to be excluded from his favourite pastimes — eating, drinking and White’s [his club],” according to Tom Moulson, a former 601 pilot who has written its official history.
Originally a bomber squadron, it was designated a fighter unit in the mid-1930s. At the start of the Second World War it flew Hurricanes and went on to play a key role in the Battle of Britain. The squadron recorded 75 confirmed kills, 29 probables and 21 damaged. It lost nine pilots. In 1942 its pilots switched to Spitfires and transferred to North Africa, then supported the Allied advances through Sicily and mainland Italy.
Among its members were Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, architect of the Great Escape and an Olympic skier, and Group Captain Sir Max Aitken, the Canadian-British newspaper publisher and second Lord Beaverbrook. Its last surviving fighter pilot, Flight Lieutenant Archie McInnes, died last month, aged 100. The squadron was disbanded in 1957.
The re-formed unit is seeking business advice, access and advocacy instead of flying aces. Estate management, engagement strategy, modernising human resources and business transformation are areas where assistance is required, and a mentoring programme for the RAF’s senior personnel has been set up. The unit has amassed 27 civilian members, who have been appointed honorary group captains. They are entitled to wear an officer’s uniform, comprising of a belted blue wool suit and cloth peaked cap, which they must pay for themselves.
The six to ten days a year of support that membership of the Millionaires’ Squadron entails is voluntary and the RAF calculates the value of the reservists’ time, based on their average daily civilian rates, to be more than £400,000 a year. An RAF spokesman said: “Some of the recent advice offered in the areas of business process, transformation and digitisation has been much welcomed and in a number of cases has materially changed how the RAF approaches challenges, with the further potential to provide significant savings to the RAF and Ministry of Defence in the future.”