Editing Group captain (section)

===History===
On 1 April 1918, the newly created RAF adopted its officer rank titles from the [[British Army]], with [[Royal Naval Air Service]] captains and [[Royal Flying Corps]] colonels becoming colonels in the RAF. In response to the proposal that the RAF should use its own rank titles, it was suggested that the RAF might use the [[Royal Navy]]'s officer ranks, with the word "air" inserted before the naval rank title. For example, the rank that later became group captain would have been "air captain". Although the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] objected to this simple modification of their rank titles, it was agreed that the RAF might base many of its officer rank titles on naval officer ranks with differing pre-modifying terms. It was also suggested that RAF colonels might be entitled "bannerets" or "leaders". However, the rank title based on the Navy rank was preferred and as RAF colonels typically commanded [[Group (air force unit)|groups]] the rank title group captain was chosen. The rank of group captain was introduced in August 1919<ref>{{cite book |last=Hobart |first=Malcolm C |date=2000 |title=Badges and Uniforms of the Royal Air Force |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ATMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT29 |publisher=Leo Cooper |page=26 |isbn=0-85052-739-2}}</ref> and has been used continuously since then.

Although in the early years of the RAF [[group (air force unit)|groups]] were normally commanded by group captains, by the mid-1920s they were usually commanded by an [[air officer]].

In the post-World War II period the commander of an RAF flying [[RAF station|station]] or a major ground training station has typically been a group captain. More recently, [[Expeditionary Air Wing|expeditionary air wings]] have also been commanded by group captains.