Flight Lieutenant
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A Flight Lieutenant's sleeve/shoulder insignia |
Flight Lieutenant (
Flt Lt in the RAF;
FLTLT in the RAAF and RNZAF,
F/L in the RCAF prior to the 1968 unification of the
Canadian Forces) is a junior
commissioned rank in the
Royal Air Force and the air forces of many
Commonwealth countries. It ranks above
Flying Officer and immediately below
Squadron Leader. The name of the rank is the complete phrase; it is never shortened to "Lieutenant".
It has a
NATO ranking code of OF-2, and is equivalent to a
Lieutenant in the
Royal Navy or a
Captain in the
British Army or the
Royal Marines.
On
1 April 1918, the newly created
RAF adopted its officer rank titles from the
British Army, with
Royal Naval Air Service Lieutenants (titled Flight Lieutenants and Flight Commanders) and
Royal Flying Corps Captains becoming Captains in the RAF. In response to the proposal that the RAF should use its own rank titles, it was suggested that the RAF might use the
Royal Navy's officer ranks, with the word "Air" inserted before the naval rank title. For example, the current rank of Flight Lieutenant would have been Air Lieutenant. Although the
Admiralty objected to this simple modification of their rank titles, it was agreed that the RAF might base many of its officer rank titles on Navy officer ranks with differing pre-modifying terms. It was also suggested that RAF Captains might be titled as Flight-Leaders. However, the rank title Flight Lieutenant was chosen as
Flights were typically commanded by RAF Captains and the term Flight Lieutenant had been used in the Royal Naval Air Service. The rank of Flight Lieutenant has been used continuously since
1 August 1919.
Although in the early years of the RAF, a Flight Lieutenant commanded a flight of
aircraft, in the modern air force, it is rare that a Flight Lieutenant is in command of a flying unit. However, ground flights which are administrative sub-divisions of squadrons are ordinarily commanded by Flight Lieutenants.
The rank
insignia consists of two narrow blue bands on slightly wider black bands. This is worn on both the lower sleeves of the tunic or on the shoulders of the
flight suit or the casual uniform.
The rank of Flight Lieutenant is also used in a number of the air forces in the
Commonwealth, including the
Ghana Air Force,
Indian Air Force (IAF),
Pakistan Air Force (PAF),
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and
Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF). The
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) used the rank until 1968, when the three armed services were unified and Army-type ranks were adopted; Flight Lieutenants became Captains.
*
Jerry Rawlings, Ghanaian politician who twice served as that country's president.
*
Malcolm Kendall-Smith, British officer convicted of criminal charges relating to his refusal to deploy to Iraq.
*
Roald Dahl, British author
*
RAF officer ranks*
Comparative military ranks*
Lieutenant (for pronunciation)
