'We are all aviators': Australian air force replaces term 'airmen'

Reuters

Published Apr 08, 2021 05:01AM ET

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian air force personnel will now be known as aviators rather than airmen, the force said on Thursday, in an apparent acknowledgement of the increasing diversity of its members.

"We are all aviators," Australia's Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld said. "In everything that we do, we are aviators first and foremost."

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) statement did not explicitly credit the change in language to the increasing number of women in its ranks. Rather it said the service wanted to instil a stronger sense of identity.