RAF officer ranks

Shoulder boards (as shown) are worn by officers of general rank equivalent (air commodore and above).

[4] Marshals of the Royal Air Force have a distinctive set of shoulder boards with greater decoration.

This resulted in a second proposed system, which made frequent use of the neologism ardian, which was derived from the Gaelic ard "chief" and eun "bird".

On 1 August 1919, Air Ministry Weekly Order 973 introduced the official rank titles for RAF officers.

However, a few days after this was promulgated, it was changed to marshal of the Royal Air Force; the original name was rejected by King George V, who believed it was as useless as "Admiral of the Atlantic"[6] These were often modified versions of Royal Navy terms and in many cases represented a continuation of particular RNAS appointment titles, i.e. a role/command specific to a particular rank.

RAF officers typically wear composite braid rank slides with their working and operational uniforms.

Composite braid consists of a single piece of fabric, where the "background" between the rank rings is made from blue-grey or olive green material.

They are no longer Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (Training Branch) (RAFVR(T)) commissioned officers.

After the Death of Queen Elizabeth II, new rank insignia with King Charles III's Royal Cypher is expected to be created.