Australian Army Aviation (AAAvn) is a corps of the Australian Army. It was formed on 1 July 1968, although it has a history dating back to 1911, when the Minister of Defence at the time, Senator George Pearce, decided there should be a flying school in the Defence Department. The motto of the Australian Army Aviation corps is Vigilance. In August 2018, the Corps consisted of 140 aircraft, 1495 uniformed personnel and over 3000 personnel engaged in industry support.