saaf wings post wwii
 

Hi there guys

I am getting really confused with the different eras of South African Air Force wings since WWII.

My observations, starting from the recent wings:

- since 2003 there has been the new coat of arms for the pilot and navigator but the other air crew position look similar to the previous era, except they don't have bi-lingual letters in the middle
- 1993-2003 the pilot and navigator had the normal SA shield but with a red lion on top of the shield. Other aircrew had bi-lingual letters in the middle of the wing
- before 1993, and I am not sure how many years before (maybe from 1960s) the pilot and navigator have the same shield as above but no red lion or crown. The aircrew I have no idea what categories there were or what they looked like.

Was there another era of wings before these that had the Queen's crown above the shield?

Regards

Doug

Hi Doug
There was never a Queen's Crown used on the wings, use of a QC on SA badges was very rare. In 1961, the KC was cut off the wings until the new type with the oval shaped quadrants of the coat of arms came into use.
Cheers,
Alex

Examples of the evolution of the wings shown

As per another request, here are some examples of army wings. I stand to be corrected but I believe the army only flew spotter planes and that was all.
Cheers,
Alex

The meaning of the bullion pilot wings also changed over time.

Originally the bullion with crown on top was worn on Full Dress and Blue Undress, padded silk was worn on Service Dress (drab or light fawn jackets), un-padded silk on various types of working dress and metal on Mess Dress.

When the Second World War started, Full Dress died. Undress and Mess Dress were casualties too, though Mess Dress was revived post war. Undress was only revived by some army units (mainly the traditional part-time regiments) and technically, I suppose by the Navy, although their undress looked completely different.

During the Republican era it seems there were only silk and metal wings at first for Service Dress and Mess Dress respectively. Later plastic and cotton versions appeared
for flying gear and shirt sleeves.

Then in the early 1990s, the types with the lion on top appeared. These resembled the WW2 wings more closely but with "the South African Lion" on top instead of the crown. This lion passant gardant holding a fasces of four rods bound together, was the crest of the South African coat-of-arms at the time. At that stage there were standard wings, silver wings and gold wings. The silver and gold were awarded after various flying hour milestones. IIRC, plain white at graduation from flying school, 2500 hrs for silver and 5000 for gold.

For comparison - the post WW2 wings in the collection.