History
The rank was devised in the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in 1912 and passed to the Royal Air Force (RAF), on its formation in 1918. RFC flight sergeants wore a four-bladed propeller between the chevrons and the crown.
On 1 July 1946, aircrew flight sergeants were redesignated Aircrew I and replaced their chevrons with three six-pointed stars within a wreath and surmounted by an eagle and a crown. This proved unpopular however, and in 1950 they reverted to their old rank and badge, although Flight Sergeants Aircrew wear an eagle between chevrons and crown. Flight Sergeants in ground trades wear only a crown above the three chevrons.
Between 1950 and 1964, the rank of Chief Technician was equivalent to flight sergeant and was held instead of it by technicians, but now chief technician is a junior rank (still held only by technicians), although classified by NATO in the same grade.
Read more about this topic: Flight Sergeant
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History, as an entirety, could only exist in the eyes of an observer outside it and outside the world. History only exists, in the final analysis, for God.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)