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:
“The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.”
—Ben C. Bradlee (b. 1921)
“So in accepting the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul, or the like, but the universal impulse to believe, that is the material circumstance, and is the principal fact in this history of the globe.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)