Robert Bilcliffe Loraine DSO, MC (14 January 1876 – 23 December 1935) was a successful London and Broadway British stage actor, actor-manager, and soldier who later enjoyed a side career as a pioneer aviator.

He was particularly associated with the works of George Bernard Shaw, taking over the role of John Tanner from Harley Granville Barker in the fourth[4] run of Man and Superman at the Royal Court Theatre.

[5] The same month he piloted one of the two Bristol Boxkites which took part in the British Army manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain, during which he transmitted the first radio signals to be sent from an aeroplane in Britain.

Formerly a lieutenant in the Special Reserve serving as a flying officer RFC, he was appointed to be a flight commander with the rank of captain on 15 September 1915.

[15] On 11 December 1918, he relinquished his commission in the Royal Air Force due to ill-health brought on by his wounds, and was granted the honorary rank of major.

They had been in a West End production together in 1902 in London,[17] they were both veterans of the RFC (and its successor, the Royal Air Force) and were both flying and making films in Hollywood in the 1930s.

At Loraine's wedding in 1921, his best man was an Air-Commodore Duncan le Geyt Pitcher who had been in charge of the RFC radio control weapons and developed the first powered drone aircraft.