Pilot Officer

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A Pilot Officer's sleeve/shoulder insignia

Pilot Officer (Plt Off officially in the RAF; PLTOFF in the RAAF and RNZAF; P/O in the former RCAF and frequently in the RAF) is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks immediately below Flying Officer. It normally denotes an Officer who has elected to join as a non-graduate direct entrant Officer, as those with degrees usually only serve a week at the rank after graduation from the RAF College Cranwell. Some newly commissioned officers hold the lower grade of Acting Pilot Officer.

It has a NATO ranking code of OF-1 and is equivalent to a Second Lieutenant in the British Army or the Royal Marines. The Royal Navy has no exactly equivalent rank, and a Pilot Officer is senior to a Royal Navy Midshipman and junior to a Royal Navy Sub-Lieutenant.

1 Origins
2 Usage
3 Insignia
4 Other air forces
5 See also

[edit] Origins

On 1 April 1918, the newly created RAF adopted its officer rank titles from the British Army, with Royal Flying Corps Second Lieutenants becoming Second Lieutenants in the RAF. Consideration was given to renaming Second Lieutenants as Ensigns. However, when the RAF's own rank structure was introduced on 1 August 1919, RAF Second Lieutenants were re-titled as Pilot Officers, a rank which has been in continuous use ever since.

Common Military Ranks
Naval Forces	Land/Air Forces	Commonwealth Air Forces
Admiral	General	Air Marshal
Commodore	Brigadier	Air Commodore
Captain	Colonel	Group Captain
Commander	Lieutenant Colonel	Wing Commander
Lieutenant Commander	Major	Squadron Leader
Lieutenant	Captain	Flight Lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant	Lieutenant	Flying Officer
Warrant Officer	Warrant Officer	Warrant Officer
Petty Officer	Sergeant	Sergeant
Leading Rate	Corporal	Corporal
Seaman	Private	Aircraftman

[edit] Usage

The rank title does not imply that an officer in the rank of Pilot Officer is a pilot. Some Pilot Officers are aircrew, whilst many are ground branch officers. Ground branch Pilot Officer rarely have command of a flight.

[edit] Insignia

The rank insignia consists of a thin 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.

Although no Royal Navy rank has an insignia of a single half width ring, a pilot officer's mess insignia of one thin band of gold running around each cuff is similar to the general naval pattern. As with the mess insignia for other RAF officer ranks, the band of gold does not have the Royal Navy's loop.

[edit] Other air forces

The rank of Pilot Officer is also used in a number of the air forces in the Commonwealth, including the Bangladesh Air Force, Pakistan Air Force, Royal Australian Air Force, Royal New Zealand Air Force and Sri Lanka Air Force. The rank is no longer used by the Indian Air Force. The Royal Canadian Air Force used the rank until the three armed services were unified into the Canadian Forces in 1968 and Army-type ranks were adopted. A Canadian Pilot Officer then became a Second Lieutenant.

[edit] See also

	Officer ranks of the British Armed Forces
	Student Officer	OF(D)	OF-1		OF-2	OF-3	OF-4	OF-5	OF-6	OF-7	OF-8	OF-9	OF-10
Royal Navy:		Mid	SLt		Lt	Lt Cdr	Cdr	Capt	Cdre	RAdm	VAdm	Adm	Adm of the Fleet
Royal Marines:			2Lt	Lt	Capt	Maj	Lt Col	Col	Brig	Maj Gen	Lt Gen	Gen
Army:	OCdt		2Lt	Lt	Capt	Maj	Lt Col	Col	Brig	Maj Gen	Lt Gen	Gen	FM
Royal Air Force:	OC / SO		APO / Plt Off	Fg Off	Flt Lt	Sqn Ldr	Wg Cdr	Gp Capt	Air Cdre	AVM	Air Mshl	Air Chf Mshl	MRAF