Pilot officer (Plt Off officially in the RAF; PLTOFF in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly P/O in all services, and still often used in the RAF) is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countries. It ranks immediately below flying officer. It normally denotes an officer who has elected to join as a non-graduate direct entrant officer, as those with degrees usually serve only a week at the rank after graduation from the RAF College Cranwell. Some newly commissioned officers hold the lower grade of acting pilot officer.
It has a NATO ranking code of OF-1 and is equivalent to a second lieutenant in the British Army or the Royal Marines. The Royal Navy has no exactly equivalent rank, and a pilot officer is senior to a Royal Navy midshipman and junior to a Royal Navy sub-lieutenant. In the Australian Armed Forces, the rank of pilot officer is equivalent to acting sub lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy.
The equivalent rank in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was assistant section officer.
Read more about Pilot Officer: Origins, Usage, Insignia, Other Air Forces
Famous quotes containing the words pilot and/or officer:
“Whenever the weather licks the pilot instead of him lickin’ the weather, he’s finished. The first time makes the second time easier. And the first thing he knows, he’s in trouble when the weather is perfect.”
—Frank W. Wead (1895?–1947)
“I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?”
—Derek Walcott (b. 1930)