Air Efficiency Award

Air Efficiency Award
First King George VI version
Awarded by the Monarch of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India
Country	United Kingdom
Type	Military long service medal
Eligibility	Part-time Air Force officers, airmen and airwomen
Awarded for	Ten years service
Status	Still current in New Zealand
Clasps	Ten years additional service
Post-nominals	AE (officers only)
Statistics
Established	1942
First awarded	1942
Order of wear
Next (higher)	Royal Naval Auxiliary Service Medal
Next (lower)	Volunteer Reserves Service Medal
Ribbon bar

The Air Efficiency Award, post-nominal letters AE for officers, was instituted in 1942. It could be awarded after ten years of meritorious service to part-time officers, airmen and airwomen in the Auxiliary and Volunteer Air Forces of the United Kingdom and the Territorial Air Forces and Air Force Reserves of the Dominions, the Indian Empire, Burma, the Colonies and Protectorates.

The award of the decoration was discontinued in the United Kingdom on 1 April 1999, when it was superseded by the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal. The decoration is still being awarded in New Zealand, but between 1951 and 1975 it was superseded by local awards in other Dominions.

The Air Efficiency Award was instituted by Royal Warrant on 17 August 1942 as a long service award for part-time Auxiliary and Volunteer Air Force officers, airmen and airwomen in the United Kingdom, the Indian Empire, Burma, the British Colonies and Protectorates and those British Dominions whose governments desired to make use of the award. A clasp to the Award was subsequently instituted.

Since, at the time, the Air Efficiency Award was unique, being a decoration which could be conferred on officers and other ranks alike in recognition of the unique relationship between the officers and men of an aircraft crew, recipients were initially not granted the right to use post-nominal letters. The use of the post-nominal letters "AE" was only approved at some date between 27 October 1964 and 28 October 1982, and only in respect of officer recipients.

Several Dominions adopted the Air Efficiency Award.

The first conferments of the Air Efficiency Award were announced in the press on 25 December 1942.

The period of reckoned service required to qualify for the award was ten years, of which at least five years of actual service had to have been in an Auxiliary or Volunteer Air Force of the United Kingdom or the Dominions, Colonies, Protectorates, India or Burma. The award could also be made to any Princes or Princesses of the Blood Royal.

The period of reckoned service required to qualify for the award of the clasp was a further ten years, subject to the same conditions as for the award of the medal. Further clasps could be awarded upon completion of each additional ten years of qualifying service.

For those airmen and airwomen whose service commenced before 3 September 1939, the time served was reckoned as time-and-a-half. Service on flying duties with the Royal Air Force or any other Commonwealth Air Force during the Second World War between 3 September 1939 and 2 September 1945 was reckoned as treble time. Service on other than flying duties was normally reckoned as single time, but while embodied within the Royal Air Force or any Commonwealth Air Force during the Second World War, such service was reckoned as double time.