Third officer is a lesser used

civil aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...

rank. It was primarily used by

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

, particularly on its

Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...

flying boats during the infancy of extended range airline routes. The third officer would serve as a

relief pilot In-flight crew relief (commonly referred in noun form as the relief aircrew, relief flight crew, or just relief crew), is a term used in commercial aviation when referring to the members of an aircrew intended to temporarily relieve active crew me ...

and

aircrew Aircrew, also called flight crew, are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flight's crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the flight's duration and purpose. Commercial aviation Flight deck positions ...

member, and could move between pilot,

co-pilot In aviation, the first officer (FO), also called co-pilot, is the pilot who is second-in-command of the aircraft to the captain, who is the legal commander. In the event of incapacitation of the captain, the first officer will assume command o ...

, radio officer, and

flight engineer A flight engineer (FE), also sometimes called an air engineer, is the member of an aircraft's flight crew who monitors and operates its complex aircraft systems. In the early era of aviation, the position was sometimes referred to as the "air me ...

positions to provide a rest period for the primary crews. Third officers in modern civil aviation are often not formally titled as such. Rather, these relief pilots take on a junior first officer rank or in some cases a second officer rank.

Notable third officers

Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of ''Star Trek: The Original Series'', its sequel spin-off series ''Star Trek: The Animated Series,'' and ''Sta ...

(Pan Am)

References

Citations Bibliography * Harris, Tom
How Airline Crews Work
HowStuffWorks.com website, June 14, 2001. Retrieved September 2, 2014. * Smith, Patrick
Patrick Smith's Ask The Pilot: When a Pilot Dies in Flight
AskThePilot.com website, 2013, which in turn cites: *Smith, Patrick
Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections
Sourcebooks, 2013, , .
''Flying the World in Clipper Ships''
at flightjournal.com, 2007. {{commercial air travel, state=collapsed Occupations in aviation

Notable third officers

See also

References