Originally Posted by
Pontius Navigator
Now Easy Street says an XO has 6 or 8 aircrew under him. In the 60s a V-force flight commander had 53. This increase may be directly attributed to the Hodgekinson which recommended up to 300 overborne sqn ldrs in the GD branch. This saw V bomber sqns go from one sqn ldr for 11 crews/53 aircrew to 5 sqn ldrs for 10 crews/44 aircrew - the same as your present FJ figure.
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Important to note at this point that personnel numbers in a FJ squadron are really irrelevant to the question. What the question interminable question should read is 'how many people is a sqn ldr flt CDR in charge of on a FJ/RW/ME/Rpas sqn. On RW domestically it is somewhere between 24 and 32 people and double that when deployed in charge of engineers (a single SENGO carries that in the UK, which has been the case for as long as I can remember on all types). Given that rotary aircraft have crew numbers more similar to a vulcan than FJ that would seem to be a better comparison.
If we take the above as sensible, then you'd be hard pushed to not make a FJ flt CDR a sqn ldr simply for career parity.
Aside from that, if everyone really was bothered I'm sure we could "re-brand" and change the name at every rank down one level so that we fit the WW1 model of a flying squadron. That doesn't feel like progress though....
<Edit> FWIW I agree with the post above about 24hr capability of a sqn in the 21st century Vs a historic flying "wing". There are many blunter types who command "squadrons" with wing commanders in charge of "BS wing" etc. It feels sensible on the units I've worked on that the sqn bosses are at rank parity with those types.