A Flight Lieutenant's sleeve/shoulder insignia
Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt in the RAF; FLTLT in the RAAF and RNZAF) 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.
Origins
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.
Insignia
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.
Other air forces
The rank of Flight Lieutenant is also used in a number of the air forces in the Commonwealth, including the Indian Air Force (IAF), Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF).
See also
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Lieutenant under GFDL
