the.com/squadron leader
Rank where you're senior enough to be blamed, junior enough to still fly the mission.
means A commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force (and similar air forces), above flight lieutenant and below wing commander, roughly equivalent to a major, typically given command of a squadron or a flight within one.
from Built straight from 'squadron' — via French escadron and Italian squadrone, from squadra, 'square,' the formation soldiers once drilled into — plus 'leader,' plain Old English for one who leads. When Britain formed the RAF in 1918 by merging army and navy air arms, it needed fresh rank names free of either service's baggage, so it coined terms like squadron leader, flight lieutenant, and wing commander by fitting old military vocabulary to the new element of air.
- rank level
- RAF rank between flight lieutenant and wing commander
- nato code
- equivalent to major in most armies
- fiction fame
- Biggles held this rank in classic adventure novels
- command size
- typically leads 70 to 150 personnel