The badge was approved through a General Order of 1936. It should be worn on the Air Force uniform by all personnel who had been approved and certified after the Primary Flight Training, PFT (“Grundläggande flygutbildning”, GFU). This has been the case since 1937.
The first uniform of the Swedish Air Force was issued in 1930 (called the m/30), and Royal silversmith Erik Fleming was assigned to design an aviator badge. The pilot badge of the model m/36 was approved in 1936, and it consists of a pair of straight wings in frosted gold with a pair of crossed swords in polished gold in the middle, surmounted by the three Royal Crowns (with polished highlights). The first badge was however not issued until in April of 1937.
The motto of the qualification badge is In Battle on Wings for Sweden (“I Striden på Vingar för Sverige”). The badge was ordered from Sporrong & Co. in Stockholm, and it is numbered in consecutive serial numbers. The badge is slightly vaulted, it has a single centre-positioned screw and nut for attachment to the tunic, and all official badges are marked with the maker’s name (“C.C. Sporrong & Co., Stockholm” or just “Sporrong”).
Aviation related badges of earlier vintage were not allowed to be worn on the new Air Force uniform, and the new air crew badges, starting with the m/36 pilot badge, were to be worn on Air Force uniforms only. However, older pilots and observers of the Navy and Army continued wearing their older qualification badges, and, when serving with the Air Force, the Air Force Service badge m/26.
Each pilot was issued two badges, and had the opportunity of acquiring two additional badges, all numbered – but not necessarily in consecutive serial number order. In 1959, the last registered number was 6,464; that is, indicating the total number of issued wings (in gold) up until that year. In June 2002, the total number of issued and registered golden wings had reached 10,828. There is also a lightweight (6 g.) version of the m/36 badge, hollow-backed with two prongs for a clutch-back fastening system. This badge is unnumbered and unmarked, and it was approved in 1996, and it is subsequently called the m/96.
| #1 Air Force Pilot m/36 Gold | ||
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Mikael Gidhagen Screw Sporrong & Co Stockholm numbered 639 70mm 20mm 15g Gilt metal wing, vaulted with polished highlights. Design: Erik Fleming, manufacturing: Sporrong & Co. See Notes on exclusivity. |
The 1936 defence plan entailed a major expansion of the Air Force, and the outbreak of the war in 1939 accelerated this process. The increased need for pilots made it necessary to introduce a new category of pilots: conscript, or reserve, pilots (“category D”; commissioned pilot officers were of category A, NCO pilots were of category B, and reserve officers were of category C). Initially, conscripts who held a civilian pilot certificate were drafted for military flight training, at flight training units organised by F5. Later, the recruitment base was extended to encompass other conscripts as well. The Primary Flying Training was exactly the same for this category of pilots as for all of the other categories. After the specific aircraft training and the qualification for an operational role, the conscript pilots (“vpl ff”) were to serve as unit aviators, although not in any commanding position. Consequently, these pilots were entitled to wear the pilot badge m/36 after completion of the PFT. However, Air Command decided that the badge should be of a lesser grade – silver – partly reflecting the constrained operational role of these units, and partly – as well as also likely – stressing the character of “reserve units” of this category.
The silver badges were numbered, put under orders, and registered according to the same rules as those applied to the gold badge. The numbers were preceded by an “R” for “Reserv”, and the number series used and issued were 1-699, although there exist produced but unissued wings in the 700- and 800-series.
The recruitment of enlisted pilots ceased in 1944, when a new category was introduced: cadre pilots, “category E”. These short-time employed aviators were later called field pilots (“fältflygare”), and they were awarded the pilot badge in gold after completed PFT. The silver wings were however still worn on uniform as late as in the 1960s. (As a side note, on three known occasions, the (silver) badge has been awarded to drafted conscripts with a civilian airline pilots license, as they served flying e.g. the C-47 (Tp79) at the Paratrooper Training School.)
| #2 Air Force Pilot m/36 Silver | ||
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Mikael Gidhagen Screw Sporrong & Co Stockholm, numbered 70mm 20mm 15g Silver frosted metal wing, vaulted with polished highlights. Design: Erik Fleming, manufacturing: Sporrong & Co. |
There is some controversy over the existance of some Royal Swedish Air Force pilot wings which do not appear to properly conform to the standards of the issued Sporrong manufactured and marked wings.It is popular legend that Sporrong are the only maker of Swedish military wings. I have evidence to counter this claim in other Swedish wings (specificaly in m/60 Naval pilot wings marked LF AB).
These controversial wings have until recently been assumed to be "fake" or reproduction wings made for the collector market. They are typically flat (not vaulted), unmarked with any maker name, the screw attached to the back is more slender than the older Sporrong issued wings, and the nut is quite different to the typical Sporrong nut of the era with its domed back and twin extrusions to facilitate turning. The nut on the rear of these wings in question is smaller, flat with milled edges and fitted with rotating gripper teeth. The wing front is also marginally less well or less completely finished than the issued Sporrong pilot wing, and the numbers are "sans serif", where the Sporrong wings are "serifed".
These wings have until recently only been seen marked in the low 2000 series of numbers, which it is believed would normally place them in the middle / end of the WW2 period. Recently however, when openly seeking new information on these wings, I have been informed of one such wing numbered in the low 3000 series and several in the wider range of the 2000 series.
My curiosity has been aroused by two pieces of information sent to me quite independently from widely separated sources, which appear to corroborate one another, concerning the origins of these wings, which to date no-one has been able to positively confirm that these are recent fakes of known origin.
The first piece of information came to me from a man of my own age in central British Columbia, Canada, whose father was a pilot in the Royal Swedish Air Force during the war years and for a while after the war. Growing up in Canada he had noted that the two wings his Father had were somewhat different and asked why. Their numbers were in fairly close proximity, but one was a Sporrong wing and the other of the "questionable" nature. This identification of difference was originally made perhaps in the late 1950's or early 1960's.
The answer given by the Father was that it was considered quite shameful for a pilot to lose his wings, as the issued number was recorded. A group of pilots in one unit, many of whom had graduated around the same period of time had somehow lost one of their wings. One of their number made a contact with a badge maker at Sporrong in an attempt to obtain another badge without reporting their loss. The news of this "solution" spread and over a period of time, the Sporrong employee obtained incompletely finished blanks of the pilot wings and brought them to a certain level, finishing them himself and applying the number of the missing badge to the "new" blank using a different set of number dies to the ones used in the factory. He also used different screw post and nuts, which ironically are identical the ones now used by Sporrong to finish thier more modern badges.
This story had some plausibility to it, I felt, but it was no more than one story. However, a short while ago (early 2004) I had a contact with another "son of a flyer", living in Sweden, who told me that his own Father had one each of the Sporrong wing and the "questionable" wing, also numbered in close proximity but that his Father's wing was numbered in the very low 3000 series, the first I had heard of outside the 2000 series. His Father had offered the same explanation, that to lose a wing was shameful and that having lost one of his, he was informed by his colleagues, when changing unit, that it was possible to obtain a replacement through a Sporrong employee. Shortly after obtaining his own replacement wing, he had heard that the employee had been caught and terminated by Sporrong and the deal stopped, which may explain why there are such a cluster of numbers on these "questionable" wings. Alos, while clearly I have not seen every Swedish Air Force Pilot wing, I have yet to see a Sporrong wing with the same number as any of the "questionable" wings I have recorded numbers for.
I have had a colleague in Sweden attempting to discover from Sporrong their reaction to this information and it is met with strong denial and an insistence that Sporrong are, and always have been, the only supplier of aviation wings to the Swedish State. However, I know this to be untrue as I have other Swedish military wings marked by other manufacturers than Sporrong.
The purpose of this set of notes is to provoke discussion and to seek out more concrete evidence on this matter. In the absence of any evidence whatsoever other than heresay and a manufacturer's protestations concerning the wings being "faked for the recent collector market", the two corroborating testimonials seem to indicate to me that while these wings are not original issue wings, that they do have some apparent credibility as "flown wings" worn by RSAF pilots on uniform over an extended period of time dating to not long after their apparent numerical issue date. If anyone can bring forth any conclusive evidence one way or another, for or against this statement, it would be appreciated.