Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation
RAF Mechanical Transport - Index
Throughout its life the RAF has used more motor vehicles then it as aircraft. The term MT means Mechanical Transport rather then Motor Transport as some of the earliest vehicles used by the Army were steam powered and the term has continued in use to the present day. Much of the RAF's early MT equipment was taken over form the RFC and RNAS and much of this equipment continued to be used into the 1920s and even 1930s but in the 1920s it began to acquire its own equipment directly.
The recording and publication of RAF MT Vehicle data in a dedicated document does not appear to have been undertaken until the middle of WW2 when AP2782 was issued. This document covered vehicles that had been in use since 1939. However, prior to its release, minimal technical details had been published in the RAF Pocket Book (AP1081), the 3rd edition of which was published in December 1937 (presumably the 1st and 2nd editions had been published a few years earlier). AP2782 was maintained up to date by the issuing of Amendment Lists at various times but following the end of the war it was probably felt that the document required a complete revision, which took place in late 1945/early 1946 as AP2782A.
AP2782A was issued in two sections, Cover A and Cover B, 'A' consisting of Sections 1 - 16 (Standard vehicles) whilst 'B' consisted of Sections 17 - 32 (Specialist vehicles). This document seems to have remained in use through a number of editions and Amendment Lists until around 1956, when it was replaced by three new documents, AP2782B (Standard Vehicles), AP2782C (Specialist Vehicles) and AP2782D (Radio Vehicles). However, AP2782B and AP2782C were replaced by AP2782E in around the mid 1970s, again in two sections (similar to AP2782A), with Book 1 covering Prime Movers and Book 2 covering trailers. AP2782D remained in existence to cover Radio Vehicles. The pages in this area only list the vehicles in each section, for technical specifications and images go to the Members' Area.
A breakdown of sections in each document is shown below.
AP2782B - Standard RAF Vehicles
- Section 1 - General Information
- Section 2 - Ambulances
- Section 3 - Cars/Passenger
- Section 4 - Coaches and Trucks/Troop Carrying
- Section 5 - Cranes
- Section 6 - Motor Cycles and Bicycles
- Section 7 - Tractors
- Section 8 - Trailers and Semi-trailers (excluding special purpose vehicles)
- Section 9 - Trucks/Cargo and Tipping
- Section 10 - Truck/Fire, Domestic
- Section 11 - Trucks/Vans
- Section 12 - Trucks/Works, Fork Lift and Aircraft Loading
- Section 13 - Miscellaneous vehicles
AP2782C - Special Purpose Vehicles (excluding Radio Vehicles)
- Section 1 - General Information
- Section 2 - Air and Industrial Gas-carrying vehicles (never issued)
- Section 3 - Armoured Fighting Vehicles (never issued)
- Section 3 - Photographic Vehicles
- Section 4 - Bomb-carrying vehicles
- Section 5 - Breakdown vehicles
- Section 6 - Decompression Chamber vehicles
- Section 7 - Fire Crash vehicles
- Section 8 - Floodlight and Beacon vehicles
- Section 9 - Mobile Industrial gas-making plant (never issued)
- Section 10 - Mobile Classrooms
- Section 11 - Mobile Workshops
- Section 12 - Office vehicles
- Section 13 - Parachute vehicles
- Section 14 - Power vehicles
- Section 15 - Snow Clearance vehicles
- Section 16 - Stores vehicles
- Section 17 - Refuelling and bulk liquid-carrying vehicles
- Section 18 - Miscellaneous vehicles
- Section 1 - General Information
- Section 2 - Chassis used to mount Radio Bodies
- Section 3 - Radio Vehicle Bodies
- Section 4 - Radio Vehicle Types
- Section 1 - Ambulances
- Section 2 - Cars
- Section 3 - Coaches
- Section 4 - Cranes
- Section 5 - Motor Cycles
- Section 6 - Trucks, Tanker and Fuel Servicing
- Section 7 - Tractors
- Section 8 - Miscellaneous Trucks and Truck Mounted Equipment
- Section 9 - Trucks, Vans, General Service and Cargo
- Section 10 - Fire-fighting vehicles
- Section 11 - Trucks, Fork Lift
- Section 12 - Vans
- Armoured Fighting Vehicles - Post WW2
AP2782E Book 2 - Trailers and Radio Vehicles
- Section 1 - Semi Trailers
- Section 2 - Trailers
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