Are all Air Chief Marshals and Air Force Marshals Pilots?

Question

I'm ATC and seen all of the very high ranking officers in the RAF wearing wings, obviously awarded to a pilot, or a navigators brevet. So, the question arose in my mind as to whether all Air Chief Marshals and Marshal Of the RAF are aircrew and whether you have to be aircrew to become them. Much appreciated if anybody knows.

Answer 1

Seeing you have to of been in the Air Force a very long time to achieve such rank as you are talking about the very top ranks in the Air Force you will find at some point they have been pilots

Take Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton who is chief of the Air Staff.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton was born and primarily educated in Leicester; he joined the RAF in 1976 after graduating with an honours degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Bath University. During the height of the Cold War, he flew the Jaguar on 3 tours, both in Germany and the UK, in the tactical reconnaissance and ground attack roles. After completing the Advanced Staff Course, he trained to fly the Tornado GR1A and went on to commanded No 13 Squadron. During this tour he deployed to the Middle East on Operation JURAL where he flew armed reconnaissance missions over Iraq in support of the United Nations sanctions. For part of this period he was also the Commander British Forces JURAL, the UK’s contribution to the coalition operation SOUTHERN WATCH.



Air Chief Marshal Dalton commanded Royal Air Force Coltishall and the RAF’s Jaguar Force for 2 years from September 1997. On promotion to Air Commodore he was appointed as Director of the Eurofighter (Typhoon) Programme Assurance Group in the Ministry of Defence with responsibility for ensuring that all elements of this key defence programme resulted in an effective and safe introduction of service of Typhoon. After attending the Higher Command Staff Course in 2002, he was appointed the Director of Air Operations in Ministry of Defence, a period which was dominated by the preparation for and conduct of Operation TELIC - the UK contribution to the multi-national operations in Iraq in 2003.



On promotion to Air Vice-Marshal he took over the post of Capability Manager for Information Superiority, with defence-wide responsibility for reconnaissance and communications capability requirements. In April 2004 he was appointed Controller Aircraft, a post which carried with it a place on the Air Force Board and which he carried with him into his next position when, in May 2006, he took up the appointment of Director General Typhoon in the Ministry of Defence.



In May 2007, Air Chief Marshal Dalton became Deputy Commander in Chief Personnel and Air Member for Personnel, based at HQ Air Command, RAF High Wycombe. He was promoted to Air Chief Marshal in April 2009 and was appointed Chief of the Air Staff on 31 July 2009. He was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.



Married with two grown-up children, his interests include most sports - predominantly watching these days, although he still enjoys skiing, playing tennis and squash and attempting to gain a golf handicap! He is also a keen theatre goer and enjoys reading historical anthologies

So clearly it is a preference as they only want the very best for theses jobs.

Answer 2

Air stress pilots do no longer must be shown a thank you to get to the runway. There are persons interior the army on plane companies that do this besides the indisputable fact that it quite is for secure practices purposes. whilst pilots pass to park on the parking ramp this is regularly the plane team chief that indicators the pilot the place to taxi to and stop. The Air stress if great. we are the smallest branch of the protection stress yet we are interior the combat in procedures maximum persons do no longer even comprehend approximately. there's a reason we don't ought to coach our squaddies to seem up for the enemy and that reason is we've air superiority. Many Airmen interior the Civil Engineer occupation fields, transportation, scientific, secure practices forces and facilities are incredible there on the front traces with the army and Marines.

Answer 3

Most are aircrew but not all