1 AEF formed on 8 September 1958 at RAF Biggin Hill in Kent, equipped with de Havilland Chipmunk T Mk 10 aircraft.

[1] The Flight HQ and Crew Room was based for many years just north of the main runway (29L/11R) on the B2190 in corrugated World War II buildings adjacent to the Western Taxiway (as it was known then).

The Flight also provided facilities for aircrew officers in ground appointments in London and the South East the ability to retain current flying practice on the Chipmunks.

A typical AEF flight from RAF Manston would either be a "south below one", which would last approximately thirty minutes inland down to Dover (seeing the Shakespeare Cliff[4] Channel Tunnel Site, Dover Castle, along with the location of the former Battle of Britain radar masts) and return up the coast for a "rejoin" at Sandwich, Kent (with a quick peer down the top of the Richborough Power Station[5] cooling towers) or "west below one", again thirty minutes duration, inland to Canterbury (seeing Canterbury Cathedral) and return along the north Kent coast for a "rejoin" at Reculver (of Sir Barnes Wallis Bouncing bomb fame).

If the weather was particularly unkind for the visiting cadets, then Plan B was known as "round the island" (a reference to the Isle of Thanet) either clockwise or anti-clockwise depending on the wind direction, with sorties lasting approximately twenty minutes.

Nothing was seen as by the time the CAA lost radar contact on the pig near Chatham in Kent, it was at a height of 18,000 feet and still flying East.

In the final years at RAF Manston the aircraft sported the "grey elephant on green shield" emblem just forward of the front cockpit on both sides of the fuselage.