A member of the Australian Air Corps following the war, he transferred to the fledgling RAAF in 1921, and became the first commanding officer of the newly re-formed No.

[12] He took part in one of the embryonic service's earliest public flying displays in May that year, when he and another pilot flew Airco DH.9s in mock dogfights with four Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5s during the New South Wales Aerial Pageant at Victoria Park, Sydney.

[1] The previous year, Lukis had been best man at the wedding of Squadron Leader Frank McNamara, the AFC's only Victoria Cross recipient in World War I.

Over the next week, operating DH.9s and S.E.5s, the unit established itself at the Air Force's newest base, RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales.

[15] Alerted to a forthcoming inspection by the Chief of the Air Staff, Group Captain Richard Williams, Lukis had the foresight to engage in a speedy beautification program at the base, arranging delivery of pot plants and shrubs; the notoriously fastidious Williams concluded the inspection by pronouncing himself "happily surprised ... that so much had been done so quickly".

1 Flying Training School at Point Cook from January 1938 to November 1939, receiving appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1938 King's Birthday Honours, and promotion to group captain in July the same year.

75 Squadron, newly formed under North-Eastern Area Command, were deployed; the unit would shortly distinguish itself in the Battle of Port Moresby.

[27][28] On 23 March 1943, Lukis was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for the "courage, enterprise and devotion" that he had displayed at North-Eastern Area.

Stevenson was forced to apologise to Lukis for going over his head to the Deputy Chief of the Air Staff to voice her opposition to the scheme; nevertheless, cuts to these positions did not eventuate.

On 17 January 1944, Lukis mounted an operation with a force of seventy-three aircraft comprising Bristol Beaufort light bombers and Kittyhawk and Spitfire fighters, the largest strike undertaken by the Australians to that date.

It encountered no opposition, and Lukis voiced his concerns to Whitehead that the "mopping up" role he had been assigned was costing his fighter pilots the opportunity to engage in air-to-air combat.

73, to the Admiralty Islands for convoy escort in late February, Lukis complained directly to Kenney that it was a waste of resources, but was over-ruled.

9 OG became a garrison force in New Guinea, and was renamed Northern Command on 11 April 1944 to better reflect this new status; its original mobile strike role was taken over by No.

[42][43] With the end of hostilities, he was summarily retired along with several other senior commanders and veterans of World War I, ostensibly to make way for the advancement of younger and equally capable officers.

[43] Employed by Australian National Airways (ANA) after leaving the Air Force, Lukis become airfield manager at Essendon, Melbourne.

He took over the airline's Canberra office in 1952, before joining a stockbroking firm in 1957, the year that ANA merged with Ansett Airways to become Ansett-ANA.

Active in veterans' organisations, he served as president of the Air Force Association in Victoria during 1947–48, and helped found the Commonwealth Club in Canberra in 1954.