Uniforms of the Royal Air Force

Air Commodore Scarlett wearing 1920s service dress

A ight sergeant in RAF service dress

mal uniform in use at present. It remains essentially unchanged from the service dress uniform adopted in the
The Royal Air Force uniform is the standardised
early 1920s. It consists of a blue-grey jacket and trousers
military dress worn by members of the Royal Air Force.
(or skirt for female personnel). A great coat may be worn
The predominant colours of Royal Air Force uniforms are
at ceremonial events when the weather is cold.
blue-grey and Wedgwood blue. Many Commonwealth air
forces uniforms are also based on the RAF pattern, but In 1947, the temperate ocers services dress jacket was
with nationality shoulder ashes. Cadets of the British altered. The lower side pockets were removed and the
single slit was replaced by two hacking jacket style slits.
ATC and CCF (RAF) Sections wear similar uniforms.
The lower button was moved up to a position behind the
belt and silk embroidery ying badges were replaced with
ones in bullion embroidery. These changes were unpop1 Current uniforms
ular and in 1951, with the exception of the lower button
move, the former uniform style was re-adopted.[1]

1.1

Ocial numbering

Service dress takes the following forms:

The RAF currently numbers the various uniforms which

may be worn. The following table summarizes the numbering:

1.2

No. 1 Service Dress, for temperate regions. Bluegrey colour.

No. 1A Service Dress (Ceremonial Day Dress), for
temperate regions and for air ocers only. As per
No. 1 Service Dress. Air vice-marshals and above
wear a ceremonial sash and shoulder boards. Entitled air commodores only add the ceremonial sash.

Service dress

The RAFs service dress is worn on formal and ceremonial occasions. In temperate regions, it is the most for1

1
No. 6 Service Dress, for tropical regions. Stone
colour.

1.3

Service working dress

CURRENT UNIFORMS

No 2b: Short sleeve shirt without tie, jumper not

worn
No 2c: Long sleeve dark blue shirt without tie,
jumper optional (engineering trades only)
The RAF stable belt may be worn with all forms of service working dress.
In warm weather regions a stone coloured variant of Service working dress is worn.

1.4 Operational clothing

1.4.1 Flying duties
Aircrew-specic uniforms are ocially designated as
Number 14 Dress by the RAF. Aircrew on ying duties
wear an olive drab ying suit in temperate regions or a
khaki ying suit in desert regions. A leather ying jacket,
purchased at individual expense, may be worn with the
ying suit but only while the wearer is on the ground.
1.4.2 Ground duties

Air Marshal Sir Barry Thornton in service working dress (short

sleeve order) He also wears an RAF stable belt, held in place by
non-standard belt loops

Service working dress, ocially designated Number 2

Dress, is the routine uniform worn by most RAF personnel not on operations. It is analogous to the Armys
barrack dress. RAF service working dress comes in a
number of variations:
Desert Combat Dress, as worn by Air Commodore Bryan Collins

No 2: Long sleeve shirt with jumper and tie

No 2a: Long sleeve shirt with tie, jumper not worn

RAF personnel on operations, exercise or in certain tactical formed units wear Multi Terrain Camouage (MTP)

1.6

Full dress

Personal Clothing System Combat Uniform (PCS CU)

which is the same as the British Army's operational uniform. This consists of PCS CU Trousers and Shirt (which
is usually worn tucked in, but can be left untucked in
warm climates), PCS CU smock and brown boots. A
beret or 'Boonie' hat is worn as head dress.
In 2006 a 45mm squared tactical recognition ash was
introduced for all personnel to wear on the right shoulder
of operation clothing. A small rectangular identication
patch such as Expeditionary Air Wing (EAW), Expeditionary Air Group (EAG) or Sqn insignia may be worn
under the TRF. A Union Flag is worn on the left shoulder.

3
consists of a high waisted blue-grey single-breasted jacket
fastened at the front by a single link of two RAF buttons
connected by a link clip, white marcella shirt, bow tie,
waistcoat or cummerbund and blue-grey trousers. Rank,
for ocers, is indicated in gold braid on the lower sleeve.
The rst RAF mess dress was introduced in 1920 and it
featured a high waisted single-breasted blue-grey jacket
which tapered to a point at the front below the waist. A
blue-grey waistcoat, trousers and black shoes were also
worn. Rank was indicated on shoulder boards in gold
lace. This uniform was modied in 1928 when the shoes
were replaced by boots and overalls with gold lace and
bright blue stripes were introduced. This modied form
of the uniform lasted until 1934 when it was replaced by
a version similar to the current mens mess dress. The
wearing of mess dress was suspended during World War
II.

Following the introduction of the new Royal Navy working uniform in 2015, it is expected that the RAF will
follow suit to replace No.2 dress with a similar uniform
based upon PCS. A trial of RAF PCS took place in 2013
at RAF Leeming.
For women, mess dress currently consists of the same
style high waisted blue-grey single-breasted jacket and
white marcella shirt as men, a small bow tie and cum The operational clothing identity patch
merbund and a straight ankle length blue-gray skirt, worn
The tactical recognition ash
with patent-leather court shoes and barely-black tights or
stockings. From the 1970s and prior to the introduction
of current womens mess dress in 1996, female ocers
1.5 Mess dress
wore a royal blue "Empire line" dress made of crimplene
material with a loose mandarin neck, long sleeves and an
ankle length hem. Rank was indicated on a small enamelled brooch worn near the neck.
Ocers serving on Royal Auxiliary Air Force squadrons
in Scotland may wear the Douglas Grey tartan with their
mess dress. The RAF tartan was designed in 1988 and
it was ocially recognised by the Ministry of Defence in
2001. The tartan is worn by the RAFs voluntary pipes
bands, although not as part of an ocial RAF uniform.[2]

RAF personnel without No 5 dress, such as airmen, junior ocer cadets and some non-regular ocers, wear
No 1 dress with the blue shirt and tie replaced with a
white marcella shirt and black bow tie should the need
to wear mess dress arise. This dress pattern is ocially
designated Number 4 Dress and was previously known as
(Interim) Mess Dress.

1.6 Full dress

In April 1920 Air Ministry Weekly Order 332 detailed a
full dress uniform. It consisted of a single-breasted jacket
in blue-grey with a stand-up collar. Rank was indicated
in gold braid on the lower sleeve and white gloves were
Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy wearing No. 5B Mess Dress. worn.
Initially the full dress uniform was worn with the service
In the RAF mess dress, ocially designated Number 5 dress cap. However, in 1921 a new form of head-dress
dress, is worn at formal evening functions. All regular was introduced. It was designed to resemble the origiocers possess mess dress whereas warrant ocers and nal ying helmet and it consisted of a leather skull cap
senior non-commissioned ocers wear mess dress if they trimmed with black rabbit fur. The helmet also featured
choose to purchase it. The current mess dress for men an ostrich feather plume which was connected at an RAF

2 HISTORIC UNIFORMS

2.1 Initial uniform

With the establishment of the Royal Air Force as an independent service on 1 April 1918, orders were issued
detailing new uniform patterns. Major General Mark
Kerr designed the rst ocer uniform which was largely
pale blue with gold braid trimmings.[4][5] Additionally,
the Royal Flying Corps' use of khaki was continued. It
has been suggested that the pale blue colour was adopted
as the cloth had been intended for use by the Imperial
Russian Cavalry and, following their disbandment after
the Bolshevik Revolution it became available at low cost.
As it was the responsibility of ocers to buy their own
uniforms, a wearing-out period for old uniforms was allowed and the change-over to the air force uniform was
slow.
The 'wearing out' period also applied to other ranks. Former members of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal
Naval Air Service continued to wear their old uniforms.
New recruits into the newly formed Royal Air Force were
often issued with the khaki Army Pattern General Service
Tunic. Later in 1918 a belted khaki uniform was adopted
for other ranks, and it was these tunics that rst carried
the RAF eagle badges on each shoulder.
Air Vice-Marshal Lambe wearing full dress

badge. This helmet was never popular and junior ocers

were eventually permitted to wear the service dress hat
on full dress occasions.
Group Captain HRH the Duke of York (later King
George VI) wore RAF full dress at his wedding to Lady
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923. The Duke wore or carried the full dress headgear rather than the service dress
cap.
The wearing of the full dress uniform was suspended just
prior to the outbreak of World War II. Although the uniform was occasionally worn by air ocers as late as the
1950s, its use was never ocially re-instated. Today the
blue-grey full dress uniform is no longer worn, except in
a modied form by RAF bandsmen.[3]

The pale blue colour for ocers uniforms was unpopular and impractical[4] and John Slessor who was later promoted to Marshal of the RAF described it as a nasty pale
blue with a lot of gold over it, which brought irresistibly
to mind a vision of the gentlemen who stands outside the
cinema.[6] A little over a year after its introduction, the
pale blue colour was discontinued. On the 15 September
1919, Air Ministry Order 1049 replaced it with the bluegrey colour which has remained in use to this day. The
khaki uniform continued to be worn until 1924 when it
too was replaced by a blue-grey colour.

2.2 War service dress

War service dress, also known as battle dress, was introduced in 1940 as a blue/grey version of the British Armys
battle dress. Initially, war service dress was only worn by
air crew. However, in 1943, its use was authorised for all
There is also a full dress uniform for use by ocers in the
ranks and trades. War service dress continued to be worn
tropics, ocially designated as No.6A Full Ceremonial
after the end of World War II. It was signicantly altered
Dress (Warm Weather Areas). It consists of a white tuin 1948 and not phased out until 1973.
nic with stand collar, matching trousers, blue-grey peaked
cap and black leather shoes. It is only issued to specic
appointment holders (e.g. aide-de-camp and air attach), 2.3 1972 pattern service working dress
and even then these are hardly ever worn. Other ocers
may purchase the uniform at their own expense but few During 1973 the wartime Hairy Mary working dress
choose to do so.
uniforms were replaced for all ranks with the 1972 pat-

Historic uniforms

tern No 2 uniforms. Made of a smooth woollen and manmade bre mix material the jacket was a loose blouson
design with a front zip fastener and epaulettes. In the
mid 1980s RAF blue crew-necked woollen pullovers were
replaced with a new V-neck design featuring blue-grey
cloth elbow and shoulder patches plus a pen holder patch

5
that of the RAF. In 1986 Distinctive Environmental Uniforms (DEU) were introduced to the Canadian Forces and
the Air Command (now once again known as the Royal
Canadian Air Force) variant maintains some similarity
with the RAFs uniform. Until 2014, the RCAF DEU retained the gold sleeve rings (for ocers), chevrons (for
non-commissioned personnel) and crowns/Royal Arms
Of Canada (for warrant ocers). On 24 September
2014, the RCAF announced it would return in part to preunication RAF-styled insignia; however, with the exception of Private being retitled Aviator (Aviateur in French),
rank titles would remain unchanged.[7]
Cadets of the ATC and CCF (RAF) Sections wear the
uniforms of the Royal Air Force.

5 See also
Aircrew brevet
Air Chief Marshal Tedder wearing war service dress

on the left sleeve.

In the 1990s an RAF blue nylon foul weather jacket and
overtrousers were issued. Although not initially intended
it quickly became standard practice for ocers and other
ranks to attach rank badges to the lapels and wear the
nylon jacket in place of the uniform raincoat, as a more
practical modern wear.

Ranks and insignia

The Royal Air Force ranks and insignia form part of the
uniform of a the Royal Air Force. Royal Air Force rank
insignia were based on combination of those of the Royal
Navy ocer rank insignia and British Army.
For ocers (see also RAF ocer ranks):
For enlisted rates (see RAF other ranks):
The Royal Air Force has the following (rather famous)
pilot qualication badge, and a number of other specialist
qualication badges based on it:

Inuence on other air forces

6 References
6.1 Citations
[1] Routledge, H. (2009). RAF 1947 Uniform. Uniforms
and Insignia of the British Air Force. Retrieved 18 April
2016.
[2] Archived copy. Archived from the original on February
3, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2009.
[3] Routledge, H. (2009). RAF Director of Music Uniform. Uniforms and Insignia of the British Air Force.
Retrieved 18 April 2016.
[4] Barrass, M. B. (2015). Major-General M. E. F. Kerr.
Air of Authority A History of RAF Organisation. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
[5] Routledge, H. (2009). RAF 1918 Light Blue Uniform.
Uniforms and Insignia of the British Air Force. Retrieved
18 April 2016.
[6] The Inter-War Years 1919-39 (PDF). Royal Air Force.
2016. p. 51. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
[7] New insignia for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Royal
Canadian Air Force. 24 September 2014. Retrieved 18
April 2016.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force uniform is also of the 6.2 Bibliography
RAF pattern, but with nationality shoulder ashes. The
Indian Air Force uniform is also of a similar pattern to
Hobart, Malcolm (2000). Badges and Uniforms of
the RAF uniform. The Royal Australian Air Force unithe Royal Air Force. London, UK: Leo Cooper.
form is in midnight blue, instead of grey-blue. Prior to
ISBN 9780850527391.
the 1968 unication of the Canadian Forces, the Royal
Canadian Air Force service dress was nearly identical to
Royal Air Force - uniforms

External links
AP1358 - Uniform Dress & Appearance Regulations for the Royal Air Force
Chapter 2 - Orders of Dress (with photos)

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Uniforms of the Royal Air Force Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniforms_of_the_Royal_Air_Force?oldid=723006472 Contributors: Opera hat, Necrothesp, Milesli, Woohookitty, Before My Ken, BD2412, Rjwilmsi, Erp, M0RHI, Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry,
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Dyscard, Bouthaley-II and Anonymous: 27

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