William will learn to fly in county

Prince William will be the first member of the royal family to be trained at RAF Shawbury when he is stationed at the Shropshire airbase this year.

He will spend about five weeks living in the small north Shropshire village as he learns to fly helicopters, all part of a training programme preparing him for his future role as head of the nation's armed forces.

William, who will be known as Flying Officer Wales, will be expected to settle into life at Shawbury like any other student at the base and is being promised no special treatment.

The 25-year-old, second in line to the throne after his father Prince Charles, will be expected to work and socialise alongside other recruits during his four-month secondment, which will see him arrive at the base towards the end of March.

Group Captain Nick Seward, commandant of RAF's central flying school in Cranwell, Lincolnshire, said: "The school has been tasked to oversee the organisation of Prince William's attachment to the Royal Air Force, which is called Operation Golden Kestrel.

"The four-month attachment starts in January 2008 during which the Prince will take on the RAF rank of Flying Officer, which is the equivalent to his current Army rank of First Lieutenant.

"He will be called Flying Officer William Wales while with the RAF, but will remain under full command of the Army.

"This attachment is part of a wider programme of events designed to prepare Flying Officer Wales for his future role as head of the armed forces.

"It is designed to familiarise him with the Royal Air Force, its structure, roles, history and ethos. Therefore, during his time with us, Flying Officer Wales will undertake flying training which will give him the maximum opportunity to understand the challenges of modern air power and the underpinning tradition, espirit de corps and integrity of the service."

Prince William will start his flying training at RAF Cranwell, on the Grob 115E, known by the RAF as the Tutor. It is the RAF's elementary flying training aircraft and is used to train all RAF pilots.

After completing the basic flying phase, he will then move to another flying school at RAF Linton-On-Ouse, North Yorkshire, where he will learn to fly the Tucano.

The Tucano is a faster and more capable aircraft than the Tutor and is used as a training aircraft for all RAF fast jet pilots.

The final stage of training as part of Project Golden Kestrel will be carried out at RAF Shawbury, where Prince William will be taught how to fly the Squirrel helicopter. The Squirrel is used by all three services as their basic helicopter trainer.

During this phase he will complete an intensive course designed to familiarise him with basic helicopter flying, and may even carry out a solo flight based on his performance.

His instructor while at RAF Shawbury will be Squadron Leader Rich Allison, 36, who has been in the service since 1991. He said: "It is like a double-edged sword when the telephone rings and you are told you are going to be teaching the future King of England.

"It is both an honour and a challenge, but he will be treated like any other student would be.

"He will be at RAF Shawbury for about four to five weeks, but it all depends on his diary and not ours.

"He will be living on the base in Shawbury during that training time as would any other recruit.

"He is doing a condensed course and will have a lot of one-on-one training. If he proves to be good enough he will also get to fly solo."

While military chiefs have remained tight-lipped about Prince William's posting for security reasons, they expect him to fully integrate into life during his time in Shawbury, both professionally and socially.

And if the Prince does venture out for a night on the tiles he will be expected to keep to the RAF's unwritten drinking rules of leaving at least "12 hours from bottle to throttle".

Group Captain Seward said: "Just as with the Army before, he will be treated as any junior officer and he will be expected to fully integrate both at work and socially, he will not be given any preferential treatment. He will be staying in normal junior officer accommodation in the officers' mess.

"While he is here, there will be social events in the mess and like any other students they will go out to local pubs and he will be treated no differently to anyone else."

But while military bosses want to see the Prince integrating into life around each of the airbases to which he will be posted, they are also calling on people to respect his privacy while he is training.

An RAF spokeswoman said: "We would ask that Prince William is allowed to enjoy his experience here and he be allowed to focus on the task at hand.

"Interruptions on the base can have a serious impact on these operations."

If all goes according to plan and William successfully completes his training then he is expected to take part in a graduation ceremony, likely to take place towards the end of April.

Later in the year the Prince is due to carry out a similar attachment with the Royal Navy to complete his familiarisation training.