Canada, Air Force Ensign

Last modified: 2000-05-24 by phil nelson
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Air Force Ensign

by Graham Bartram

I made a GIF of the Canadian Air Command Ensign some time ago, basing it on an image from the Air Command website. It wasn't a very good picture--kind of a logo, really--but it appeared that the roundel was smaller and placed in the lower fly of the ensign. Has the ensign been modified recently?
Tom Gregg - 16 August 1999

I took the dimensions for my GIF from an actual Canadian Air Command flag I saw flying at Canada's Pacific base "Esquimalt". Canada's military symbols are going through a semi-reversion to pre-unification symbols. I believe the Air Force flag is an example of this.
Graham Bartram - 16 August 1999

by Tom Gregg

The Canadian Air Force (officially titled Air Command, Canadian Armed Forces, by the way) has a distinctive ensign based on that of the British Royal Air Force, i.e. light blue with the Canadian flag as a canton and the air-force roundel in the fly.

I based my GIF on a couple of images found on the Air Command web site. It wasn't possible to determine proportions from these logo-type pics, but surely they are 1:2 as for the national flag and the armed forces ensign. Another point of which I couldn't make quite sure was the position of the roundel. However, it looked as though it is horizontally centered between the canton and the fly end and vertically offset toward the bottom, so that's the way I made it.
Tom Gregg - 27 March 1997

One of our members recently perused your homepage and asked me to bring to your attention that the RCAF Ensign no longer exists. In 1972, the RCAF Association petitioned Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, through Government House, to decree that the Ensign, (declared "obsolete" by DND's Director of Ceremonial) should become a "living symbol" for the Association. In September, 1973 our Association was formally advised that by Royal decree, the Ensign was ours, and would henceforth be known as the "Association Ensign." It was "suggested" by DND at the time that the Association alter the Maple Leaf to match the one in the 1965 Maple Leaf flag.

As you may know, our Association changed its name to Air Force Association of Canada in 1994, and on January 1, 1997 the Ensign was officially trade-marked under Section 9 of the Canada Trade Marks Act, to be known as the Air Force Association Ensign. This information is detailed on our Association's homepage at www.airforce.ca. No doubt you know that in 1984, an Air Command "flag" was authorized by DND. Basically, it looks like the Ensign with the Canadian flag replacing the Union Jack. I'm not sure if that "flag" still exists, as Air Command no longer exists.
Bob Tracy, 05 March 2000
Executive Director, Air Force Association of Canada

Canadian Air Command flag

See:
http://www.achq.dnd.ca/atrium/acolrs.htm

by Pierre Gay