History
During World War II, it at first ferried aircraft from factories to operational units and performed air transport. Later it took over the job of dropping paratroops from Army Cooperation Command as well.
After WWII, it increased rapidly in size. It took part in several big operations, including the Berlin Airlift in 1948, which reinforced the need for a big RAF transport fleet. The Handley Page Hastings, a four-engined transport, was introduced during the Berlin AirLift and continued as a mainstay transport aircraft of the RAF for the next 15 years. In 1956, new aircraft designs became available, including the de Havilland Comet (the first operational jet transport), and the Blackburn Beverley. In 1959, the Bristol Britannia was introduced.
The principal RAF Transport Command functions of this period were support operations involving the evacuation of military personnel from the Suez Canal Zone prior and after the Suez Crisis of October–November 1956; casualty evacuation from South Korea during the Korean War and from the Malaya during the Malayan Emergency; essential supplies to Woomera, South Australia, and ferrying personnel and supplies out to Christmas Island for the atomic bomb tests carried out by the UK. In addition, Transport Command ran scheduled routes to military staging posts and bases in the Indian Ocean region, Southeast Asia and the Far East, to maintain contact between the UK and military bases of strategic importance. It also carried out special flights worldwide covering all the continents bar Antarctica. Many varied tasks were undertaken during the 1950s.
The 1960s saw a reduction of the RAF and a loss of independence of the former functional commands. Transport Command was renamed Air Support Command in 1967.
Read more about this topic: RAF Transport Command
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