Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British i ...

Makalandage Johnny Terrence "Terry" De Silva Gunawardena, VSV (-2014) was the 8th Commander of the Sri Lankan Air Force. Educated at

Wesley College, Colombo Wesley College popularly known as "Wesley" or "The Double Blues", is a Methodist school providing primary and secondary education in Sri Lanka since 1874. History In 1858, Rev. Joseph Rippon wanted to establish a superior educational instit ...

, Gunawardena joined the

Royal Ceylon Air Force The Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF; ; ) is the air arm and the youngest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. It was founded in 1951 as the Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) with the assistance of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The SLAF played a major role throu ...

on 31 December 1959 and was commissioned a

pilot officer Pilot officer (Plt Off or P/O) is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Pilot officer is the lowest ran ...

in 1961. He served as a squadron pilot in both the No 1 Squadron and No. 2 Squadron. He was one of the first pilots qualified in

fighter jet Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the a ...

s, flying

BAC Jet Provost The BAC Jet Provost is a British jet trainer aircraft that was in use with the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1955 to 1993. It was originally developed by Hunting Percival from the earlier piston engine-powered Percival Provost basic trainer, and l ...

s and

MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 an ...

s. He served as Commanding Officer, No 2 Squadron and Commandant,

Air Force Academy, China Bay The Air Force Academy (AFA) is the Sri Lanka Air Force's training and education academy which provides initial training to all SLAF personnel who are preparing to be commissioned officers. AFA also provides initial training to Officer Cadets of t ...

. He attended

RAF Staff College, Bracknell The RAF Staff College at Bracknell was a Royal Air Force staff college active for most of the second half of the 20th century. Its role was the training of staff officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of air force matters. It ...

and National Defence College, New Delhi. He was appointed Chief of Staff of the SLAF in March 1986. On 1 August 1991 he was appointed Commander of the Air Force and promoted to the rank of Air Marshal. He reintroduced fighter jets to the SLAF by acquiring

F-7 Skybolt The Chengdu J-7 ( Chinese: 歼-7; third generation export version F-7; NATO reporting name: Fishcan) is a Chinese fighter aircraft. It is a license-built version of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, and thus shares many similarities with that ...

s and increased its light attack capability by acquiring

FMA IA 58 Pucará The FMA IA 58 Pucará () is an Argentine ground-attack and counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft manufactured by the Fábrica Militar de Aviones. It is a low-wing twin-turboprop all-metal monoplane with retractable landing gear, capable of operat ...

s. He added

Mil Mi-17 The Mil Mi-17 (NATO reporting name: Hip) is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family introduced in 1975 (Mi-8M), continuing in production at two factories in Russia, in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russ ...

heavy transport helicopters to the SLAF fleet. His tenner saw the introduction of zonal commands in the SLAF. He retired on 16 February 1996 and was promoted to the rank of

. He was succeeded by Oliver Ranasinghe.

References

{{Commanders of the Sri Lankan Air Force Commanders of the Sri Lanka Air Force Sri Lankan Air Chief Marshals Sinhalese military personnel Alumni of Wesley College, Colombo Graduates of the RAF Staff College, Bracknell National Defence College, India alumni