William and Kate meet air cadets in first public engagement since Prince Philip's funeral

Cadets at RAF squadron in east London gave three cheers in memory of the Duke of Edinburgh

Britain's Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge wore all black as they visited the 282 East Ham Squadron in east London. Reuters.

Prince William and his wife Kate have undertaken their first public engagement since the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh on Saturday.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge made an appearance at a Royal Air Force training squadron in east London on Wednesday.

During the visit, the cadets honoured Prince Philip with three cheers, following his death on April 9.

Kate met the cadets in her role as Honorary Air Commandant of the RAF Air Cadets, which comprises the Air Training Corps and the Combined Cadet Force.

Pictures showed Kate demonstrating her aerial skills in a flight simulator, while her husband was left holding her handbag.

Kate joked with Prince William – who wore a black tie as a mark of respect to his grandfather – as she climbed into the simulator and put on a headset with a microphone attached.

She was then talked through the controls of the Grob tutor, a light aircraft that thousands of cadets use for training each year.

William, who learned to fly with the RAF and piloted the service’s search and rescue helicopters, watched as Kate took the controls.

Prince Philip was the Air Commodore-in-Chief of the Air Training Corps for 63 years before he passed on the patronage to the duchess in 2015.

The visit comes as Queen Elizabeth II turned 95 on Wednesday, her first birthday without her husband in more than seven decades.

The birthday falls during a two-week period of royal mourning after the duke was interred in the Royal Vault beneath St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.