The Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force academy which provides initial training to all RAF personnel who are preparing to become commissioned officers. The College also provides initial training to aircrew cadets and is responsible for all RAF recruiting along with officer and aircrew selection. Originally established as a naval aviation training centre during World War I, the College was established as the world's first air academy in 1919. During World War II, the College was closed and its facilities were used as a flying training school. Reopening after the War, the College absorbed the Royal Air Force Technical College in 1966.

The Royal Air Force College is based at RAF Cranwell near Sleaford in Lincolnshire, and is sometimes titled as the Royal Air Force College Cranwell.

In December 1915, after the Royal Naval Air Service had broken away from the Royal Flying Corps, Commodore Godfrey Paine was sent to Cranwell to start a naval flying training school in order that the Royal Navy would no longer need to make use of the Central Flying School. The Royal Naval Air Service Training Establishment, Cranwell opened on 1 April 1916 at Cranwell under Paine's leadership.

In 1917 Paine was succeeded by Commodore John Luce and in 1918 following the foundation of the Royal Air Force in April, Brigadier-General Harold Briggs took over. As the naval personnel were held on the books of HMS Daedalus, a hulk that was moored on the River Medway, this gave rise to a misconception that Cranwell was first established as HMS Daedalus.

The Royal Air Force was formed on 1 April 1918 and, as a Royal Air Force establishment, Cranwell became the headquarters of No. 12 Group for the last few months of the war. After the cessation of hostilities in November 1918, the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Hugh Trenchard, was determined to maintain the Royal Air Force as an independent service rather than let the Army and Navy control air operations again. The establishment of an air academy, which would provide basic flying training, provide intellectual education and give a sense of purpose to the future leaders of the service was therefore a priority. Trenchard chose Cranwell as the College's location because, as he told his biographer:

"Marooned in the wilderness, cut off from pastimes they could not organise for themselves, the cadets would find life cheaper, healthier and more wholesome."

The Royal Air Force College was formed on 1 November 1919 as the RAF (Cadet) College under the authority of its first commandant Air Commodore Charles Longcroft. Prior to this, RAF cadets had been trained by the RAF Cadet Brigade based at Hastings under the command of Brigadier-General Alfred Critchley.

On 20 June 1929, an aeroplane piloted by Flight Cadet C. J. Giles crashed on landing at the College and burst into flames. A fellow flight cadet, William McKechnie, pulled Giles, who was incapable of moving himself, from the burning wreckage. McKechnie was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal for his actions.