A squadron code is a marking used on a

military aircraft A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat: * Combat aircraft are designed to destroy enemy equi ...

to visually identify the squadron that it is assigned to. Squadron codes of the World War II era, notably for

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

(RAF) and

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

(USAAF) aircraft operating in Europe, typically consisted of two characters (commonly two letters; sometimes a letter and a number) to denote the squadron, plus a third character to identify a specific aircraft and serve as its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assig ...

. In general, when an aircraft was lost or withdrawn from use, its call sign was applied to its replacement or another aircraft.

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References

{{reflist Aircraft markings

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See also

References