Kōkūtai

Some comparable units included wing in the British Royal Air Force, gruppe in the German Luftwaffe, and groupe in the French Armée de l'Air.

In general, most pilots and aircrew in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service were non-commissioned officers.

In terms of the flight element, it was generally composed of 18 to 27 aircraft and took the name of the carrier or air station where it was originally formed.

Just as the aircraft and flight crew on board a Japanese carrier or a seaplane tender were made an integral part of a ships complement, when land-based or shore based (seaplane) air units were formed, the bases at which they were stationed were seen as equivalent to the ship of assignment for the carrier-based hikōtai.

While regulations establishing land-based air groups were set forth in 1916 and 1919, it was not until the early 1930s that a series of regulations and instructions, set forth the specific internal organizations of air groups, their locations, functions, and their training, though these changed from time to time right up to the end of the Pacific War.

Standing combined air groups (jōsetsu rengō kōkutai) intended to be more permanent, were established in December 1938.

[3] As the war in the Pacific progressed, this structure lacked flexibility and hampered front-line operations, consequently, in March 1944 the IJN's land-based air forces were restructured, and certain hikōtai were given independent numerical designations and an identity of their own outside the parent Kōkūtai.