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Flying officer

Junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries

Junior commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries

FieldValue
nameFlying officer
image_size100px
captionCommand flag
image2British RAF OF-1b.svg
image_size250px
caption2Shoulder and sleeve insignia
countryUnited Kingdom
service branch
abbreviationFg Off / FLGOFF / FGOFF
NATO rankOF-1
formation
higher rankFlight lieutenant
lower rankPilot officer
equivalents
historyRoyal Naval Air Service

Flying officer (Fg Off or F/O) is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the UK Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence.

Flying officer is one rank above pilot officer and one below flight lieutenant.

It is equivalent to the rank of sub-lieutenant in the navy and lieutenant in other services.

The equivalent rank in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force was "Section Officer" before this organisation adopted common ranks with male officers.

Canada

The rank was used in the Royal Canadian Air Force until the 1968 unification of the Canadian Forces, when army-type rank titles were adopted. Canadian flying officers then became lieutenants. In official Canadian French usage, the rank title was lieutenant d'aviation.

United Kingdom

| Non-NATO rank =

Origins

The term "flying officer" was originally used in the Royal Flying Corps as a flying appointment for junior officers, not a rank.

On 1 April 1918, the newly created RAF adopted its officer rank titles from the British Army, with Royal Naval Air Service sub-lieutenants (entitled flight sub-lieutenants) and Royal Flying Corps lieutenants becoming lieutenants in the RAF. However, with the creation of the RAF's own rank structure in August 1919, RAF lieutenants were re-titled flying officers, a rank which has been in continuous use ever since.

Usage

The rank title does not imply that an officer in the rank of flying officer flies. Some flying officers are aircrew, but many are ground branch officers. Amongst the ground branches some flying officers have command of flights.

In the RAF, aircrew and engineer officers are commissioned directly into the rank of flying officer, while ground branches are commissioned as pilot officers for an initial period of six months. Time served in the rank of flying officer varies depending on branch before automatic promotion to flight lieutenant; aircrew and BEng qualified officers will serve for a period of 2½ years, MEng qualified engineers for 1½ years, and all other ground branches for 3½ years. A graduate entrant who has an MEng but is joining a ground branch other than engineer will serve 3½ years as a flying officer – the early promotion for MEng engineers is designed as a recruitment incentive. The starting salary for a flying officer is £39,671 per year.

In many cases the rank of flying officer is the first rank an air force officer holds after successful completion of his professional training. A flying officer might serve as a pilot in training, an adjutant, a security officer or an administrative officer and is typically given charge of personnel and/or resources. By the time aviators have completed their training, they will have served their 2½ years and typically join their frontline squadrons as flight lieutenants.

Insignia

The rank insignia consists of one narrow blue band on slightly wider black band. This is worn on both the lower sleeves of the tunic or on the shoulders of the flying suit or the casual uniform. The rank insignia on the mess uniform is similar to the naval pattern, being one band of gold running around each cuff but without the Royal Navy's loop.

File:UK-Air-OF1A.svg|An RAF flying officer's shoulder insignia File:File-UK-Air-OF1A-mess-insignia.svg|An RAF flying officer's sleeve mess insignia File:RAF-Fg Off-OF-1.png|An RAF flying officer's sleeve on No.1 dress uniform

References

References

  1. (2007). "Ranks and Badges of the Royal Air Force". [[Royal Air Force]].
  2. "The RCAF".
  3. Hobart, Malcolm C. (2000). "Badges and Uniforms of the Royal Air Force". Leo Cooper.
  4. "Rates of Pay, 2015".
  5. "Badges of rank". [[Department of Defence (Australia)]].
  6. "OFFICER'S RANKS".
  7. (2018). "Rank Structure". Ghana Air Force.
  8. "For Officers". Indian Air Force.
  9. (20 August 2010). "Government Notice".
  10. (1992). "Nigeria: a country study". Library of Congress.
  11. "Commissioned Officers". Sri Lanka Air Force.
  12. "RAF Ranks". [[Royal Air Force]].
  13. (April 2024). "Rank Chart (Commissioned Officers)". Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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