B Word
I believe that there might be a few more Wg Cdrs in the Flying Branch than 150 - here's why:
Here are a list of Sqns from 2009 with Wg Cdr Bosses:
1 Sqn
II (AC) Sqn
3 Sqn
4 Sqn
5 (AC) Sqn
8 Sqn
9 Sqn
11 Sqn
12 Sqn
13 Sqn
14 Sqn
18 Sqn
22 Sqn
24 Sqn
27 Sqn
28 Sqn
30 Sqn
31 Sqn
32 (The Royal) Sqn
33 Sqn
39 Sqn
43 Sqn
47 Sqn
51 Sqn
70 Sqn
78 Sqn
99 Sqn
100 Sqn
101 Sqn
111 Sqn
120 Sqn
201 Sqn
202 Sqn
216 Sqn
230 Sqn
617 Sqn
That's 36 Wg Cdrs without counting OC Ops Wg and the 22Gp CFIs and Sqn Cdrs. Therefore, let's call it 56 with at least 15 per yr in staff college. On top of that, there are HQ posts and also MoD. I would expect it to be closer to 300.
On the Gp Capt front, there are about 25 stations with Gp Capts. So again the number of aircrew Gp Capts is probably closer to 100. I seem to remember that there was about a 1 in 3 chance of making Gp Capt from Wg Cdr (in very rough maths!).
So I would expect that the total aircrew are closer to 4,000(max) than 3,500. That would then be about 10%, which again I believe is correct and about right.
In my opinion, we have too many penguin senior officers that stemmed from their bleating that all the top jobs went to aircrew - well the RAF is all about flying, so go figure!
LJ
PS. And before you say "But O'leary isn't a pilot" (RyanAir), well he also doesn't run a Service, he runs a
business, and that's a BIG difference! By the way, Willie Walsh is a pilot, as is Jim French of FlyBE (who is doing VERY well at present).