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9the time, the independent air force would surely have faced insurmountable problems in getting off the ground. But the gift itself did not comprise simply the aircraft. It consisted in reality of an entire self8contained air force, including not a little of the infrastructure to support it. In addition to the aircraft there were 285 motor vehicles, spare aircraft engines, radios, machine tools, photographic equipment, workshop plant, instruments and test apparatus, and flying clothing, together with armament, including 3,000 bombs, thirteen Bessoneau hangars and other aerodrome equipment, as well as spares sufficient for six months%u2019 wastage, presumably at wartime rates, since no peacetime rate would have been established by then.6 London also accepted responsibility for the costs of packing and shipping, and since the gift was shipped in 19,000 packing cases we should not underestimate the latter.7 Had the gift been limited to aircraft I have little doubt they would either have gone into storage or undergone a rapid a possibly terminal decrease in serviceability. The total value of the gift to Australia has been estimated at some %u00a31,000,000 at 1920 prices8, or the equivalent of the entire air service budget for one year of the three year provision made by the Melbourne government at the height of the war in August 1918. On DH 9A, like this one, included within the Imperial Gift provided the backbone of the RAAF throughout the 1920s. (RAAF Official)