IDENTIFIED on 12/27/2020 by Tod Ratbhone - The winged gear is a French Air Force (armée de l'air) branch of service device denoting mechanic personnel. Worn on right breast above pocket. This insignia was instituted in the 1930s and still in use today. Flying personnel have the same device but with a star. The buttons are standard French Air Force buttons.

IDENTIFIED on 5/6/2020 by Steve Conway - the badge is a WW1 Australian Army Wireless Operators trade badge according to this website: http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-badges/trade.htm

IDENTIFIED on 03/03/2024 by Jerry Vernon via Jason Vanderhill- This MBA pin would most likely would be from MacDonald Bros. Aircraft, widely known as "MBA", who were a major operation at the Winnipeg Airport for decades, until sold to Bristol in 1954. Still operates at Winnipeg as part of Magellan Aerospace.

RCAF Aircraft Record Cards show "MBA" for work done at MacDonald Bros. Aircraft and later show "BAW" for Bristol Aircraft(Western).

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Aerospace

They started out in the aircraft industry in 1930 building aircraft floats, doing overhauls, etc.

Note that MBA had 4,500 employees by the end of the war. Among other things, they built wings for Avro Ansons and assembled 319 Anson MK. IIs and 748 Anson Mk. Vs themselves from fuselages, etc. built by other companies in the Anson production group known as Federal Aircraft Ltd.

Postwar, MBA/Bristol/Magellan were the major overhaul contractors for RCAF Mustangs, Mitchells, Voodoos, CF-5s, CF-18s, etc. They are still a major subcontractor building everything from components for Boeing airliners to parts for F-35s.

At the back of the book "50 Years of Technology 1930 - 1980 - Volume One, The First Quarter Century", published in 1980 by Bristol Aerospace Ltd. there is a list of known employees in the first 50 years of the company, and it mentions pins and shows some very small black and white images. They issued 10, 15 and 20-year service pins, then a watch after 25 years. They show small images of 5 different types of pins. Some have "MBA" on them and others have the full company name. Three of the pins have a set of wings as a background, but a different style of wings. Some have the number "10", "15" or "20" in the centre. The closest pin has a square in the middle with "MBA" vertically. I would guess that this pin you have is just an ordinary company pin, not a special anniversary pin.

IDENTIFIED on 12/28/2012 by Matt Cybulski - The pin is for The Noble Order of British Spitfires (NOBS). It was a charitable organization formed in Shanghai China at the outbreak of WW2. They had a war drive effort to raise money to buy a Spitfire.

IDENTIFIED on 12/30/2012 by Radek Palicka - It is pilot badge for civil motor pilots who were trained and flew at AVS Praha which is abbreviation for Aeroklub Vysokoškolského Sportu Praha (Aeroclub of academic sport ). This aeroclub existed from late 1920s till 1939 and again from 1945 till 1950. This aeroclub trained pilots mostly from Prague Technical College. This badge was issued and worn from mid 1930s till 1939. It was also awarded and worn during post war period of the aeroclub's existence but most probably the only pre war supplies of this badge were used. The firm making them was KK (Karnet-Kyseley) and from .900 silver It is very nice and rare badge even here in Czech!...

Identified on 5/31/2004 by Steve Haswell - Pilot wing for Imperial Airways

Identified on 3/6/2019 by Glenn Murray - This badge is from the Robin Line steamship company. http://ianewatts.org/robin-line/

Identified on 12/11/2011 by Jesse Ruiz Moreno - This is one of two shoulder epaulete set for gala uniform ( black color open jacket ) since 1963 till now in the rank for junior officers, SLt, Lt and Capt grades.

The winged props on olive green looked to be machine made and were assumed to be used in movies for Italian WW1 air force or even possibly for use with French uniforms but doubtful as the background would not match any French uniform. These have been around for sale and are usually if not always uncut and never used on uniforms

Identified on 2/28/2004 by Chris Langley - Iranian Air Force Navigator wing from the Shah Rezah Pahlavi era - 1950's to 1970's

Identified on 2/9/2004 - South Viet Nam pilot at the time of the French Occupation. Probably Bertrand made. - Warren Carroll

Airman Stephanos Piperoglou of the Hellenic Tactical Air Force wrote in with the following thoughts: "I ran into your WW2 wings site recently during the course of my work and spotted an unidentified "Loizou" badge. There is indeed no country named thus, but Loizou is a very common Greek-Cypriot surname. I would hazard a guess that the badge belongs to a member of the RAF of Cypriot origin named Loizou - Cyprus was a crown colony up until 1960, and indeed the current President of the island, Mr. Clerides, served in the RAF himself."

Its Cambodian, a pilot from the traditionalist Khmer / FANK Regime of the 60's /70's.. Identified via NZ from a rather obscure book on Cambodian forces badges.

More information on this badge on 8/9/2004 - This emblem is the emblem of the pilots of the Khmers (Royal Cambodian Air Forces). This model is the one that was given to the young Khmer pilots for the sixth promotion, it was used in Cambodia after 1965. The bird in the center of the emblem is the Hansa or Han, the sacred goose mounting of Vishnou, one of the symbols of the Khmer monarchy. The markings on the back of the badge are alphanumeric which probably means this is a fake as the real badges carried only series of figures. Lt Colonel S.Sisowath - former pilot of the Khmer Royal aviation.

It’s not a pilot wing but a course insignia. Those letters mean like warrant-officer-pilot-course XI. Private-service-courses had their own items/insignias. These wings are miniature size and not used on any uniform but on civilian wear.

Identified on 4/5/2009 - The St Stephan's Crown with wings n fire dragons, is probably an air gunners badge. In ww1, the Austro-hungarian army used the Crown over-fire-dragons as a machine-gun corps insignia. Hungarian and Austrian tropps had their own versions. - Justin Wheeler

Another site visitor writes: This falcon (not an eagle) is probably a replica since the orginal is in gold ,not with red enamel but with red paint. This type of falcon was worn by the Rikshirden,Quislings boys. Norwegians that collaborated with the Germans in WW2. 2000 of these Hirdmen joined the Waffen-SS for a year or more. They served in German SS uniforms, not Hirduniform.

Identified on 8/21/2010 by Joe Weingarten - The wing would be the same as our Civil Air Patrol.

ALTERNATE IDENTIFICATION ON 5/14/2011 by Derek Hughey
I believe this is a radio operator wing from American Overseas Airlines. American Overseas began as American Export Airlines in 1937. In 1945 American Airlines acquired them and changed the name ot American Overseas Airlines. In 1950, PAA acquired it from American. You can look at the airlines wings at www.stanwing.com to see that Northwest never had a wing that looked like this. American did, but then it is hard to know for sure whether these radio operator wings would have been worn by regular American Airlines or American Export, as their uniforms were very similar. Actually, the pilot wings were made by the same manufacturer. Since American Airlines acquired American Export in order to get into the European overseas markets, American Airlines probably had no radio operators on their aircraft at that time, because at that time, they didn't fly overseas, only the American Export Airlines portion did that flying.

Rob & Joe