Talk:Uniforms of the Royal Air Force

Military history: Culture / British / European

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles

This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

Associated task forces:
/
	Military culture, traditions, and heraldry task force
	British military history task force
	European military history task force

Article structure

Whilst the addition of new material to the article is welcome, the current structure (arranged by offical numbering) reads more like the RAF uniform manual than an encyclopedic article. I can however see some merit in putting the current arrangements ahead of the historical ones. Greenshed (talk) 17:43, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No 5 Mess Dress link buttons

During my time in uniform during the 70s and 80s it was an unofficial custom for officers to wear one non-RAF button in the link pair. Buttons were swopped with army regiments, navy units and even ROC officers at joint service dining-in nights or summer balls. Kudos to the officer with the most unusual or rare button on his link. Has this tradition died out or is it still extant? 21stCenturyGreenstuff (talk) 22:57, 30 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I know of a few officers who have swapped the button on their mess dress jacket with another service. It seems that the tradition hasn't fully died out, but is not as popular today. --KizzyB (talk) 12:28, 1 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Shoulder boards

The article on RAF officer ranks could do with details of the insignia worn on the shoulder boards in No. 1A dress. Opera hat (talk) 00:34, 26 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nationality Assumption

The article assumes the British Royal Air Force before stating it explicitly. Several countries have a 'royal' air force, including those mentioned in the section Influence on other air forces, but also the Dutch Koninglijke Luchtmacht. I don't think there is an argument for assumption even though the RAF's history as an independant air force has a claim to being the oldest. The British police may also be the world's oldest fully professional police force, but a page titled Police Uniform couldn't seriously only discuss the British and Commonwealth police uniforms. Marcvanderloo (talk) 01:03, 13 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The British policy as not known as the Royal Police (there is no single UK police organization anyway) and so there is no comparison in usage between the police and the Royal Air Force (and for that matter the Royal Navy and Royal Marines).

The policy on the English Wikipedia is to use common names (WP:COMMONNAME). In English the common name of the British air force is the "Royal Air Force" and the common way of referring to its uniform is the Royal Air Force uniform or the Uniform of the Royal Air Force. On the Dutch Wikipedia I would guess that were an article to be created on their air force's uniform, it would be something like Koninglijke Luchtmacht uniform (my Dutch is not good enough to be sure of getting this correct but I hope you get my point). Greenshed (talk) 20:08, 13 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Missing outer wear items

There is no mention of outer wear currently. Missing items include the Jacket General Service, Raincoat, Greatcoat and British Warm coat. Can somebody research and include these items? 21st CENTURY GREENSTUFF 01:13, 2 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I would suggest integrating such information into the relevant section. Greenshed (talk) 17:38, 8 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

RAF TRF

Can someone please PLEASE sort out the incorrect RAF Tactical Recog flash?!

I don't know enough about wikipedia to do it, but the certal band, currently showing as white IS NOT CORRECT!

The central band is a pale blue... same as the stable belt.

Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.153.121.240 (talk) 19:17, 12 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Kilts

The current RAF Policy on the wearing of kilts in uniform is as follows:

"Only members of the Scottish-based RAuxAF Sqns, whilst serving on those Sqns, may, at the discretion of the Station Commander, wear kilts of grey Douglas tartan with No 5B SD. No other tartan is permitted. Kilts are not to be worn outside the confines of the Squadron/Station/Unit function and no other member of the RAF or RAuxAF may wear this or any other kilt with No 5B SD uniform at any occasion." 82.110.109.213 (talk) 14:06, 1 December 2014 (UTC)^[1][reply]

References

^ Source is Air Publication (AP) 1358

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Uniforms of the Royal Air Force. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20090203212300/http://kamrafa.co.uk:80/ to http://www.kamrafa.co.uk/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 08:58, 26 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Capbadges

Would it perhaps be prudent to add some explanation of the difference between the capbadges of officers, WOs and NCOs/other ranks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grej12 (talk • contribs) 20:57, 20 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That would be informative. There does not seem to be space for that in this article. Another possibility would be to add a section titled Royal Air Force to the British armed forces section of the Cap badge article here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_badge What do you think? --Dreddmoto (talk) 21:55, 29 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

1.4 Operational clothing section

That section currently has a photograph https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_Commodore_Bryan_Collins.jpg of an obsolete uniform, Desert DPM. It should be replaced with an image of the current uniform, Multi-Terrain Pattern (MTP) in RAF use.

The Desert DPM photograph could be moved to the Historic uniforms section. User:Dreddmoto 15:40, 27 July 2020

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

A Young RAF Recruit Smiles on Parade at RAF Halton MOD 45153232.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 22:38, 21 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Source is Air Publication (AP) 1358

[1]