Air Force Pilot Wings Name Patch Silver And Black

There is no star above the shield on these wings, which makes them basic pilot wings, the first set an Air Force pilot wears. Air Force pilot ratings come in three levels, basic, senior and command. A star above the shield marks the senior pilot, and a star inside a wreath marks the command pilot. This patch keeps it to the plain wings in silver thread on black, a quiet look that sits well on a flight suit or a flight jacket. The lower half of the tag is left blank.

For a pilot, the wings and the name travel together. On a flight suit name tag the wings sit above the name, and it is one of the first things a squadron mate, an instructor or a crew chief sees on the ramp. Basic wings belong to the new lieutenant fresh out of pilot training, before the star of Senior Pilot wings is added. Whether the airplane was a T-38 Talon in training, a C-130 Hercules, a KC-135 Stratotanker, an F-16 Fighting Falcon or an A-10 Thunderbolt II, the wings at the top of the tag looked the same. That shared mark runs across every kind of flying the Air Force does.

The patch is a 4 by 2 inch rectangle with a silver-gray merrowed edge and an iron-on backing. The field is black, with the pilot wings worked in silver-gray thread across the upper half. A shield sits at the center, and the feathered wings spread out to either side with each layer of feathers picked out in stitching. Below the wings the black field stays open. Silver on black keeps the tag low-contrast, which suits a flight suit, a jacket or a frame.

Pilot wings are the mark a flyer carries for the rest of a career, in metal on the service uniform and in thread on the flight suit. The rating levels above the shield change with years in the cockpit, but the wings underneath never do. Retired pilots still notice them on each other at air shows, reunions and hangar talks. The blank field on this tag leaves room for that story, whatever airplane it involved.

Frame it in a shadow box with a set of metal wings, a retirement flag and the Command Pilot wings that top the rating, or iron it onto a flight jacket you still wear. It also makes a good gift for a new pilot finishing training or for a retired aviator who misses the squadron. A flight bag works too. It is a small patch that says a lot to people who know what the wings mean.