French ranks

Can anyone tell me what the French enlisted ranks were for the air service? I can't tell from the chart as marchel-des-logis and sergent are both in the same box. Also brigadier and caporal are in the same box. Did the air service use cavalry ranks or not? And some bios of French aces mention that the man was a marchel-des-logis, while others use the term sergent. Are they two different ranks, or is it an oversight?

My list is buried somewhere, but you're on to the gist of it. Most French (and other) airmen came to aviation from other branches of the armed forces: Rittmeister versus Hauptmann, etc. I think that marechal des logis was a cavalry corporal, and so on. However, it seems to imply a supply corps function (logis being logistics.)

When you would go back into the days of the army's of Louis XIV ect you would find that the term marechal des logis actually applied to what we would now call a regimental sargent major. Who, in those days, also had the additional responsibillity of regimental quartermaster. Hence the term logis. But, by the time of ww1 I belive the title just meant sargent major

So then the rank structure (if someone enlisted straight into the air service) would be caporal -> sergent -> marchel-des-logis?

As in most of the European countries, France have traditions coming from centuries and its armed services make no exception.

In the French services the hierachy comes into 3 classes :
1 - Officers (officers)
2 - Sous-officiers (under officers or NCOs starting with the rank of Sergent)
3 - Troupe (enlisted men which include the rank of caporal-corporal).

During WWI, the French Air Service (Aéronautique militaire), was ENTIRELY manned by officers, NCOs, corporals and soldiers, posted from other corps. This explain the variation of appellation and uniforms. It is characteristic of this era to see a picture of officers of the Air service, they all wear a different uniform... This lasted until 1917, when the "Bleu horizon" uniform became compulsory for everybody, except the colonial troops which where dressed in khaki. With of course the odd exceptions, for instance Charles Nungesser who was always wearing the light blue jacket of his corps of origin, the Hussars, in which he started the war as a "Brigadier", then a "Maréchal des Logis"...

Now back to the ranks. Because of the above mentionned traditions, the "mounted arms" of the French Army (Cavalry, Artillery, Transportation corps, etc...) had different appellations for some NCOs and troops.
- A caporal is called a "brigadier",
- A sergent is called a "maréchal des logis".
but they are exactely the same ranks.When transferred in the Air corps, the men holding those ranks kept them as well as their uniform.

It has been like that for centuries and it is still the same to day. Even the "1er Régiment étranger de cavalerie" (1st Foreign Legion Cavalry Regiment) uses those Maréchal des logis (MdL) and Bigadier (Brig) ranks.

I noted the different uniforms and simply thought that they were just for different uses (summer, winter, dress, fatigue, etc.). Can you elaborate a little bit about which uniforms were for which services? And what about the rank insignia? I notice that on the blue jackets, officer rank is depicted on the cap and on the cuff, while enlisted rank is on the collar, correct? But sometimes I've noted officer rank can be shown on the collar which appears almost the same as the enlisted. And what about the double breasted jacket, where is rank located on that one? Can you give me a brief run down on colors and uniform styles including rank for the different services?

Whow... too diificult to explain that on the forum. If you have WORDS and WORKS on your system I can Email you some kind of "résumé"

For those interested, I did prepare under WORD, a small summary of what was used during WW1. It is too big to put it on the forum, but I can email it directely, should you give me your UML.