The air force officer was the anachronistic title used for this sculpture created in 1934. Australia had military aviators during the Great War, but they were soldiers of the Australian Flying Corps, a unit of the AIF. It did not establish its own air force until 1921.

In his flying suit, flying helmet with goggles and leather gauntlets – and an aerial bomb at his feet – he looks courageous and daring. By 1918 the aeroplane had become one of the deadliest new weapons on the battlefield and tactics such as strategic bombing would change the nature of war forever. The officer is wearing special clothing to protect himself from the bone-numbing cold while sitting in the open cockpit of an aircraft made of wood and doped canvas.