UK Space Command - 1 April 2021
 

UK Space "Wings" - or "Non-Flying Badge" given the pages devoted on PPRuNe to this type of thing !

Why is it a wing at all, it’s not a flying trade? What happens if you’re aircrew joining the new command, do you start stacking the badges on your uniform?


..

Oh dear https://twitter.com/UkSpaceCommand has been suspended :cool:

I strongly suspect "this is the thread of the Mysterons".

One wonders which rule(s) it broke, perhaps something to do with beards?

Banter from one wag already !
I suspect it was a pardody account - note the incorrect capitalization "Uk".
The verified account is the one I posted.

At least the uniforms will be cheap - the RAF No 2 Home Dress 1972 Pattern - AKA "Thunderbirds" jacket - to which "'wings" may be attached - available New on eBay for GBP 19.99 !

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RAF-Uniform...wAAOSwi7RZEzLr

Cringe.........

It replaces this, which is the USAF badge as the RAF didn’t have one. They’ve been wearing these for many a year at RAF Fylingdales, Vandenberg AFB and the Space Ops Centre (SpOC) at RAF High Wycombe.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....4598f6ad4.jpeg
Here is a Corporal receiving one having completed the Space Operators Course in the USA.
https://www.raf.mod.uk/news/articles...space-command/
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5fab2fbd3.jpeg


So really this is fine. The normal rules in QRs applies, in that you wear the badge for which you are qualified for, if you’re in staff then you take your pick which one you want to wear if you qualified for it. It’s not a flying badge either, so if you are flying then it will subservient to any flying badge. Times move on and it was about time we stopped wearing USAF badges.

I believe it’s getting it’s own cadet force .... the space cadets.

I trust that the new OC Space Command will be leading from the front by replacing his (so last century) pilot’s wings with one of those.

That was tongue in cheek but this is a genuine question: Why do Space Operators qualify for a badge that does look a lot like a flying badge but Air Battlespace Managers ( is that the correct term?) or indeed Air Traffic Controllers do not?

They did on the Shackleton, they do on the E3D Sentry and they will on the E7 Wedgetail :ok:

We know you can hear us,

I am Wing Commander Black.

Yes, but they were / are doing their job whilst airborne. Their ground based colleagues didn’t get the badge. That’s my point.

Well the motto does end with `...Ad Astra' doesn't it!

Cultural appropriation?
 

A badge that very much looks like an aircrew badge but isn’t.

A move to rebrand Airmen as Aviators.

From the BBC - “Cultural appropriation is when a tradition, such as clothing or a hairstyle, is taken from a culture and used in a different way.

It can offend people when people do this without making it clear where the traditions come from, or when they don't acknowledge how important they are to certain cultures.

This can make some people feel as if their culture is not being respected.”

Am I allowed to be offended or are aircrew not allowed to take offence?

Any statement that has April 1st should be taken "with a pinch of salt".

Follow Project Astra; Every day is April Fools Day.

I suppose that if everyone is an aviator, it follows that everyone gets a flying badge !

The February 1954 edition of Royal Air Force Flying Review (price 1/-) includes an article 'In the Year 2004' all about 'RAF space bomber No.17' launching from Launch Site No. 61 in Cornwall, then landing at Port Albany in Canada after an exercise hunting a 'submersible carrier' of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Total bolleaux, but interesting to know what the writer thought the RAF of the future would be like.

Readers were invited to submit a letter about the RAF of 50 years ahead - and half a guinea was promised for each letter published!

Is what many in the British Army and Royal Navy were saying in 1918, no doubt.

I wish them well, in fact, I hope they all Live long and Prosper