Airmen or Aviators?

I mean, we’ve still got a wing man, what’s that going to be called? A wing aviator? So, I think it’s fine, but I think they probably could have come up with something a little bit more respectful of the tradition of the word of an aviator. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was an aviator, and he was a pilot that set new records, pushed the envelope of aviation beyond any limit that had ever been there before. So, there’s a historical attachment to the word. If you look at the way that words are evolving today, we probably could have come up with something really cool there, rather than take a word that’s already being used by someone else to describe something else. 

I don’t think airmen is an offensive term. I don’t think girls would necessarily find that offensive because I think it’s already an inclusive term. Take out the ‘e’ and put in an ‘I’ – airmin! There’s a lot of pride and history in these words and while I’m not a traditionalist by any stretch of the imagination, I just know there’s a lot of controversy around it, both among pilots and just generally. Why change it? Is it that uninclusive to use that word?

Hannah Dowling, World of Aviation reporter 

I believe that changing the term ‘airmen’ to ‘aviators’ completes a number of important goals for the RAAF. Firstly, the term is gender neutral. Previously, the term ‘airman’ or ‘airwoman’ was used to differentiate gender in the RAAF. The same goal could have been accomplished by abolishing the term ‘airwoman’, which is one of the reasons I think the RAAF has also used the opportunity to unify the individuals across ranks of the RAAF and acknowledge the inextricable link between the RAAF and aviation. 

Realistically, a very, very small number of individuals who enter the RAAF make it to active pilot duty roles. We have 14,313 people enlisted in the RAAF, around 4 per cent are pilots, or 700 people, of which 38 are female. The statistics for fighter pilots are even more slim. But those who choose to enlist in Air Force over Navy or Army clearly have an affiliation, often a passion, for aviation, with many who join the ranks hoping to fly. 

While the term ‘pilot’ obviously entails the physical and cognitive ability to fly an aircraft, the term ‘aviator’ has a more romantic connotation. It is most often attributed to early pioneering pilots, which I think ultimately means that the idea of passion, drive and spirit is hard to avoid when you think of ‘aviator’. It also recognises that there are so many crucial roles in the RAAF that should be equally respected, and their passion acknowledged. 

Further, if we are truly interested in acknowledging the history of Defence, then we can’t ignore the fact that historically, women have been categorically denied their equal place in the institution. Welcoming the term to ‘aviator’ – rather than abolishing the term ‘airwoman’ or distinguishing women as ‘aviatrixes’ – does just this. It’s a term that does not change, imply, or shift, based on gender. The change could then be seen as a nod to the pioneering women, such as Mary Bell in the 1930s or Robyn Clay-Williams five decades after her, who pushed the institution to recognise them as equally capable and equally valuable.