If you ever see a member of the Royal Air Force or Air Training Corps, you may like to know what rank they hold. Here are a few of those you are more likely to see!

	Wing Commander A Wing Commander in the RAF usually commands a Wing such as Engineering, Flying, Administration etc. In the ATC, he/she will command a Wing such as Devon & Somerset, and all the Squadron (such as 1146) that the Wing contains.		Squadron Leader A Squadron Leader usually commands a Squadron in the RAF, and is second-in-line to the Wing Commander. In the ATC, he/she will invariably have administrative duties within Wing HQ.
	Flight Lieutenant An RAF Flight Lieutenant is one of the most common ranks amongst commissioned officers. They can be found performing a number of functions within a station organisation. An ATC officer of this rank may have a more specialist position and has completed additional training courses.		Flying Officer An RAF Flying Officer is comparatively new to the service, and is awaiting promotion to Flight Lieutenant. An ATC officer of this rank is more common, and is often the rank of a Flight Commander.
	Pilot Officer Pilot Oficers are very new to the service and this is the rank that they usually attain upon completion of training. This is the most junior of both the RAF and ATC commissioned officers.		Adult Warrant Officer A Warrant Officer in the both the RAF and the ATC is the most senior Non-Commissioned Officer. In the ATC, this is the rank held by adult staff who are not commissioned. Many AWO staff are ex-military.

As with the Royal Air Force, the ATC cadets may be promoted (after selection and passing examinations) to the ranks below, starting at Corporal. The highest rank they can attain as a Cadet is Cadet Warrant Officer (CWO).

As they attain a higher rank, so they take on more responsibility within the Flight or Squadron, including taking lectures, drill, projects etc.

Cadet Warrant Officer	Flight Sergeant	Sergeant	Corporal

In addition to the rank insignia, the Air Training Corps has additional emblems to denote they are members of the RAF Voluntary Reserve (Training) Branch. A commissioned officer will have the symbol 'VRT' on his/her rank insignia, whilst a Warrant Officer will have the emblem 'ATC' slightly below the Royal Crown.

Commissioned Officer's 'VRT' emblem	Adult Warrant Officer 'ATC' emblem

The ATC, like the RAF (and all the military for that matter) likes to abbreviate everything that can be abbreviated! This includes the rank structure. Here is a quick guideline to the rank structure above and the accepted abbreviations.

Wing Commander	Wg Cdr	Squadron Leader	Sqn Ldr
Flight Lieutenant	Flt Lt	Flying Officer	Fg Off
Pilot Officer	Plt Off	Adult Warrant Officer	AWO
Cadet Warrant Officer	CWO	Flight Sergeant	FS
Sergeant	Sgt	Corporal	Cpl

If you receive a letter from the ATC you may have noticed that commissioned officers have the letters RAFVR(T) after their rank and name. This means Royal Air Force Voluntary Reserve (Training).

Think you know them all? Test yourself!
	RAF Ranks & Insignia

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